DUDE, that’s epic.

1. …literally. DUDE, that’s epic.

2. STEP ONE: STEP TWO:IN YOUR OWN WORDS…[a long, narrative poem that tells of the adventures of heroes who, in some way, embody the values of their civilizations] STEP THREE: create a picture or symbol that represents the term EPIC!

3. STEP ONE: (*Also called a Homeric Simile) • STEP TWO:IN YOUR OWN WORDS…[a comparison of opposites involving a “god-like” event using like or as; very long.] • STEP THREE: create a picture or symbol that represents the term EPIC! Simile

4. STEP ONE: • STEP TWO: IN YOUR OWN WORDS…[An imaginative comparison between two seemingly unlike things • Simile • Metaphor • Hyperbole] • STEP THREE: create a picture or symbol that represents the term FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

5. STEP ONE: • STEP TWO:IN YOUR OWN WORDS…[an object that represents something else] • STEP THREE: create a picture or symbol that represents the term Symbolism

6. STEP ONE: • STEP TWO: IN YOUR OWN WORDS… • [when the outcome of an event is predicted or anticipated by the audience, but the characters are unaware until the final minute] • STEP THREE: create a picture or symbol that represents the term Dramatic Irony

7. STEP ONE: In Medias Res STEP TWO: IN YOUR OWN WORDS… The narrative (story-telling) technique where a story begins either at the mid-point or at the conclusion, rather than at the beginning, establishing setting, character, and conflict via flashback and conversations that explain the past. STEP THREE: create a picture or symbol that represents the term

8. STEP ONE: STEP TWO:IN YOUR OWN WORDS…[Reference to a statement, a person, a place, or an event from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science, or pop culture.] STEP THREE: create a picture or symbol that represents the term Allusion

9. Characteristics of an epic

10. Begins in the “middle of things” (in medias res) Begins with an invocation (prayer) to the Muse or other deity Many references to the supernatural Calliope, the Greek Muse of epic poetry, holds a copy of Homer’s Odyssey. (Simon Vouet, Les Muses Uranieet Calliope, c. 1634) Characteristics

11. 4. Lengthy epic similesand hyperboles 5. Lengthy speeches--formally introduced 6. Long sentences, complex words More characteristics

12. 7. Epithets (adjective or descriptive phrase that is regularly used to characterize a person, place, or thing) "Aeneas the true"; "rosy-fingered Dawn"; "tall-masted ship" 8. Repeats phrases, speeches, incidents and flashbacks Even more characteristics

13. 9. Can be folk (oral tradition) or literary (written) 10. Beginning states the theme-what will happen 11. Use of patronymics (calling son by father's name): "Anchises' son" Are you surprised?

14. 12. Catalogs (of participants on each side, ships, sacrifices) 13. Histories and descriptions of significant items (who made a sword or shield, how it was decorated, who owned it from generation to generation) You guessed it—more characteristics

15. 14. Journey to the underworld 15. Use of the number three (attempts are made three times, etc.) 16. Previous episodes in the story are later recounted And finally, no more characteristics!

16. Historical context of the odyssey

17. Homer • A Greek Poet • Lived between 850-800 B.C. • According to Legend, Homer was blind.

18. Poetry escalated during fertile creative times and in open societies like Ancient Greece. (Charles Nicholas Rafael Lafond, Sappho Sings for Homer, 1824)

19. Homer got his information from stories that were passed down “orally” or by word of mouth. People of these cultures were able to remember these tales because the tales were composed of poetic lines and were accompanied with stringed instruments. Homer and oral traditions

20. Greek and Roman education was based on studying his works. Homer is famous because he was the first poet to combine isolated tales into one whole epic poem Oral tradition, cont.

21. The background of Homer’s epic was the Trojan War.(1200 B.C.) According to legend, there was a man and a woman: Helen and Paris. Helen was married to Menelaus, King of Sparta. She fell in love with Paris, and they ran away to Troy together. Background for the epic

22. To seek revenge on Paris, Menelaus and other Greek kings banded together under the leadership of Agamemnon. In a thousand ships, they sailed across the Aegean Sea and attacked the walled city of Troy.

23. The Trojan War lasted 10 years, during which time many heroes emerged. Fighting for the Greeks were Achilles, Odysseus, and Ajax For the Trojans were Hector and Aeneas. Both sides showed great courage as well as stupidity; strength as well as weakness. The trojan war

24. It was an experience to never be forgotten. Poets began to sing their heroes’ praise. In time, numerous versions of the story arose. Legends were created that told of how the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus got involved in the battle and even chose sides.

25. Homer’s first epic serves as a prelude to The Odyssey and deals with just 51 days in the 10th and last year of the war when it reaches its climax. Homer concentrated on one main hero for the Greeks, Achilles and one main opposing hero for the Trojans, Hector. The Iliad

26. As the Iliad begins, Achilles is angry with Agamemnon over a slave girl and sulking in his tent, refuses to fight. The Trojans are encouraged with Achilles’ absence from the battle and begin to beat back the Greeks. But when Hector kills Achilles’ best friend, Patroclus, Achilles becomes enraged, and returns to battle, killing Hector. Achilles is also killed by a Trojan arrow in his heel, but the Trojans can never recover from the loss of Hector, and finally, Troy falls.

27. The second of Homer’s epics tells of the return home of the Greek heroes, particularly one hero named Odysseus. Odysseus had received honor for conceiving the bold plan of leaving a huge wooden horse, filled with Greek Warriors outside the gates of Troy. When the Trojans took the horse inside, Greeks crept out and opened the city gates to their own army. And finally! The odyssey…

28. The gods who had sided with Troy, especially Poseidon, were angry and vowed Odysseus would have a long and difficult journey home. In fact, it took him 10 years to get there! Odysseus wanted to return to his wife Penelope and their son Telemachus in his home country Ithaca, but first he had to survive storms, temptations and the strategies of his enemies at home.

29. There are THREE main parts to the Odyssey • The Exile • The Wanderings • The Homecoming

30. Myths are highly imaginative tales that attempt to explain the mysteries of life. Every culture has myths. Homer’s myths illustrate the character of his epic hero. The lotus-eaters myth shows Odysseus’ ability to overcome the temptations of idleness. The myth of the sirens shows us how he uses reason and will power to triumph over pleasure. Mythology

31. The characters in The Odyssey can be split into three main groups: • Myths • Mortals • Monsters The Cast of the Odyssey

32. The two most important gods are Athena and Poseidon Myths…

33. Athena is working to help Odysseus • Goddess of wisdom and the arts of war and peace. • Zeus’s favorite daughter • Poseidon wants to destroy Odysseus • god of sea and earth • Zeus’s brother and the Cyclops Polyphemus’s father

34. Zeus: most powerful god; home on Mount Olympus Hermes: god of thieves, merchants, doctors, and anyone who travels. Also, messenger of the gods. Hades: god of the underworld myths

35. Calypso -  The beautiful nymph who falls in love with Odysseus when he lands on her island-home of Ogygia. • Calypso holds him prisoner there for seven years. • Then Hermes, the messenger god, persuades her to let him go. monsters

36. Circe :The beautiful witch-goddess • transforms Odysseus’s crew into swine when he lands on her island. • With Hermes’ help, Odysseus resists Circe’s powers and then becomes her lover, living in luxury at her side for a year. monsters

37. Polyphemus: One of the Cyclopes (uncivilized one-eyed giants) whose island Odysseus comes to soon after leaving Troy. • Polyphemusimprisons Odysseus and his crew and tries to eat them. • Odysseus blinds him through a clever ruse and manages to escape. • In doing so, however, Odysseus angers Polyphemus’s father, Poseidon. monsters

38. Sirens – sea nymphs whose beautiful and mysterious music lures sailors to steer their ships toward the rocks The Lotus Eaters– They made Odysseus’s men eat from the Lotus plant, so they would forget about Ithaca. Scylla – female monster with six serpent heads, each head having a triple row of fangs Charybdis-- Whirlpool monster monsters

39. Odysseus:The protagonist of the Odyssey. • Odysseus fought among the other Greek heroes at Troy and now struggles to return to his kingdom in Ithaca. • Odysseus is the husband of Queen Penelope and the father of Prince Telemachus. • Though a strong and courageous warrior, he is most renowned for his cunning. • He is a favorite of the goddess Athena, who often sends him divine aid, but a bitter enemy of Poseidon, who frustrates his journey at every turn. Mortals

40. Penelope: Wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus. • Penelope spends her days in the palace pining for the husband who left for Troy twenty years earlier and never returned. • Homer portrays her as sometimes flighty and excitable but also clever and steadfastly true to her husband. Mortals

41. Telemachus: Odysseus’s son. • An infant when Odysseus left for Troy, Telemachus is about twenty at the beginning of the story. • He is a natural obstacle to the suitors desperately courting his mother, but despite his courage and good heart, he initially lacks the poise and confidence to oppose them. Mortals

42. Antinous -  The most arrogant of Penelope’s suitors. Antinous leads the campaign to have Telemachus killed. He is the first to die when Odysseus returns. Eurymachus -  A manipulative, deceitful suitor. Amphinomus -  Among the dozens of suitors, the only decent man seeking Penelope’s hand in marriage. He is still killed like the rest of the suitors in the final fight. The suitors

43. Laertes -  Odysseus’s aging father, who resides on a farm in Ithaca. • In despair and physical decline, Laertes regains his spirit when Odysseus returns • Tiresias -  A Theban prophet who inhabits the underworld. • Tiresiasmeets Odysseus when Odysseus journeys to the underworld. • He shows Odysseus how to get back to Ithaca and allows Odysseus to communicate with the other souls in Hades. Old guys