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?
Some of the responses from the class were:
Listening to music
Words and images that have meaning
Interactions with surroundings
Letting your mind wander
Reading or watching something (media)
Doing something that you love
Other people’s work
Emotions from memories
We become inspired by finding something that we like and where we want to emulate that certain look or feeling. It originates from others’ work or simply how they act, look, or perceive the world. People can also get inspiration from nature or buildings, or even ideas/philosophies. If someone gets an idea from their surroundings, they get inspired.
The Nine Muses
Nine daughters of Zeus who served as inspiration, each for a different style of writing. These goddesses represented different categories of art, literature and science.
Calliope → epic poetry
Clio → history
Erato → love poetry
Euterpe → music
Melpomene → tragedy
Polyhymnia → sacred poetry
Terpsichore → dance
Thalia → comedy
Urania → astronomy
A modern interpretation of the Nine Muses
The traditional Nine Muses
What is an Invocation?
At the beginning of The Odyssey, Homer paid homage to the Nine Muses and Greek culture in general through an invocation. He did this in order to express the purpose of this narrative and to incorporate tradition that his specific audience would be familiar with.
Invoke - cite or appeal to (someone or something) as an authority for an action or in support of an argument.
This definition is the first thing that comes up when you search “invoke definition” online. It is correct, but the next definition more closely resembles what we are looking for.
Invoke - call on (a deity or spirit) in prayer, as a witness, or for inspiration
This is the second definition in the list, giving much more of a religious tone. This is more related to the topic, seeing that we are dealing with gods, goddesses and inspiration.
Homer’s Invocation: (Translated)
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after he plundered the stronghold
on the proud height of Troy.
From the invocation, we can tell that Odysseus is a skilled and cunning Greek hero that set out on a journey at sea. He tried to stop his shipmates from dying, but failed as they went against a god out of their own will.
He saw the townlands
and learned the minds of many distant men,
and weathered many bitter nights and days
in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only
to save his life, to bring his shipmates home.
But not by their will nor valor could he save them all–
children and fools, they killed and feasted on
the cattle of Lord Helios, the Sun,
and he who moves all day through heaven
took from their eyes the dawn of their return.
Of these adventurers, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
tell us in our time, lift the great song again.**
**Homer’s Invocation calls on the muse of epic poetry, Calliope, and asks her for help in telling the tale of Odysseus.
After reading Homer’s Invocation, we were split up into groups to discuss and then had a class discussion. Here are summaries of most of the ideas presented during the class discussion:
What is your opinion of Odysseus so far after hearing Homer's invocation to the muses and learning about the Trojan War?
We know that Odysseus was a strategic and cunning man based on what we learned about the Trojan war. He basically led the Greeks to victory by coming up with the plan of the Trojan horse. We also know that he’s the hero of this story, showing that he has all the characteristics of a Greek hero (ie. physically beautiful, prophecies, etc.)
How does Homer maintain the audience’s interest in the story, knowing that the audience is aware of the outcome from the very beginning?
Homer keeps the audience engaged by keeping them in suspense with his word choices in his invocation. He gets the audience to think about how they get to that point, when they will reach that point, how the story will go on after that, and other plot points. We can also anticipate plot twists if there are any, and the entire story may even change at the end if it goes past what we are told.
What does the invocation of the Muse in the opening lines clarify about Odysseus’ culpability (responsibility for a fault or wrong; blame) during his voyage home?
The invocation of the Muse in the opening lines clarifies that Odysseus had nothing to do with his crew’s death and they brought it upon themselves. He even tried to save them, but he couldn’t stop them from stealing and eating Helios’ cattle out of their own will. However, he may harbor some responsibility as the leader of that particular crew.
Reflection
What did I learn? Why did I learn it? How will I use what I learned?
I learned that the Nine Muses in Greek mythology were daughters of Zeus that served as inspiration for different categories of writing and literature. Based on knowledge from various Rick Riordan series and other books/media, I already knew some basic knowledge about these muses, but I was able to learn more about them in more detail. From the information from this lesson, I was able to see how Greek traditions were implemented into writing and how much emphasis was actually placed on gods and deities at the time which can help with understanding human history and how society has evolved since then. I can use what I learned in the future by keeping the main goals, jobs, and roles of heroes and gods in mind to be able to interpret future texts (such as the Odyssey) with better understanding of the intention of the style of writing.
Supplemental Materials
Muses: The 9 Inspirational Goddesses of Greek Mythology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKCWfbrY8k&ab_channel=SeeUinHistory%2FMythology
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