Blog #17 - Peter Seifen - Period 1 - 3/12/20

Peter Seifen Pd 1 Freshman 2020 Blog #17 Aim: How does Homer’s invocation establish tone for the beginning of the Odyssey? Do now: How do you become inspired? Where does it originate? People responded for the do now on how they became inspired by saying it was something they related to on a personal level and something they looked up to.  The Nine Muses We then learned about the nine muses, which were the “nine goddesses of art, literature, and science that served as muses.” Each muse represented different forms of writing. These muses also served as an inspiration for later artists. This is why there is a traditional and non-traditional version of these nine muses.  The Invocation of the Muse We learned that invoke means “to call on a deity or spirit as a witness or for inspiration. Invocations express the purpose of a writing and includes traditions that will relate to Homer’s audience ”We read Homer’s invocation from  lines 1-17 in “The Adventure of Odysseus.” WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION 1) What is your opinion of Odysseus so far after hearing Homer’s invocation to the muses and learning about the Trojan War? Answers included Homer trying to make Odysseus look good and defend Odysseus for his past actions. Others said that he is trying to make people sympathize with Odysseus instead of looking at him as a villain. 2) How does Homer maintain the audience’s interest in the story knowing that the audience is aware of the outcome from the very beginning? We had some insightful answers in class, including Homer making it obvious that Odysseus is only dangerous in certain situations. This keeps the audience interested because it makes it unpredictable if Odysseus will be dangerous in certain other situations. 3) What does the invocation of the Muse in the opening lines clarify about Odysseus’ culpability (responsibility for a fault of wrong; blame) during his voyage home? In class, we said that he might anger the goddess and this may lead to his downfall later on in the story. Reflection I have never really read Greek mythology, so this is my first time reading and analyzing something by Homer. I learned that he has very in-depth work written very concisely. I learned this because I paid attention to the information in the invocation and annotated it, and because I wanted to become more knowledgeable about something I did not know before. I will use what I learned to read more about Homer and more of what Homer wrote to make myself more knowledgeable about his art in writing. Overall, his writing establishes gods and goddesses and a greater power that makes it more interesting and suspenseful.