Aim: How does “Sailing From Troy” and “The Lotus Eaters” (Book IX) establish Odysseus’ role as a leader?
Do Now: With your designated team, consider the fact that Odysseus has been trying to return to his home in Ithaca for 10 years. Imagine being away from your home for that long.
What would you miss the most and why?
Why do we have sayings like the ones below?
My group thought they would miss their family and friends in addition to a guaranteed safe space for them to always be able to go to.
During the class discussion home cooking, comfort, familiarity of one’s home was also mentioned.
Characterization: Following the due now, the class reviewed characterization. The provided definition was the method by which an author creates the personality and appearance of their character. Furthermore, the term is broken down into two sub categories, direct and indirect characterization, their definitions are as follows.
Direct Characterization : The author makes direct statements about the character (can be revealed through a narrator or through another character in the story). The author TELLS the reader what they want them to know.
Indirect Characterization: indirectly stated from character's actions, choices they make, dialogue/relationships with others, thoughts, feelings. The author SHOWS the reader what they want them to know.
STEAL: Upon reviewing characterization, we were introduced to the acronym STEAL, a method used for indirect characterization.
Each letter of STEAL stands for a question we should ask ourselves when indirectly characterizing-
Speech
What does the character say? How does the character speak?
Thoughts
What is revealed through the character’s private thoughts and feelings?
Effect on others towards the character;
What is revealed through the character’s effect on other people?
How do other characters feel or behave in reaction to the character?
Actions
What does the character do? How does the character behave?
Looks
What does the character look like? How does the character dress?
We followed this with a video summarizing what we learned and giving us examples of characters from the popular movie Frozen. This gave us an additional resource to get a better understanding of direct or indirect characterization. The video can be accessed through the link below-
Questions and Discussion:
Afterwards we moved to spirit reading Sailing from Troy (lines 18-69) as a class. We analysed the text in our groups, answering the question below before regrouping as a class to discuss more thoroughly.
Keep in mind that the Odyssey is the account of Odysseus' ten year journey back home to Ithaca. He misses his family and home; therefore, we will often find connections to this throughout the poem.
Identify lines in which Odysseus talks about his home in Ithaca.
How does he feel about it?
Find lines & specific evidence that describe these feelings.
After discussing our group and the rest of the class thought that lines 28 to 37, Odysseus voices that he misses him home and wishes he could return even though Ithaca is beautiful. He doesn’t believe he will find any place as good as his home and will continue on to journeying home. Even though Calypso entertained him, he still wanted to go home. This relates to what the class discussed in the do now, it can be concluded Odysseys agreed with us when we said that nothing can compare to his home, thus the reason he wants to return so much as to spend 10 years doing so.
Next we moved onto reading Lotus Eaters (lines 18-69) before splitting off to discuss our thoughts and answer further questions.
In your notes, summarize the key events in "The Lotus Eaters."
Odysseus was trying to return home however Zeus was influencing the weather making it impossible to sail safely. This left him and his crew stuck on a coastline, they then meet the lotus eaters, hungry and tired they are surprised when they are presented with lotus flowers for sustenance however despite the fact the lotus eaters didn’t seem dangerous, men who ate the flowers seem changed and refused to leave the island. Odysseus concludes after this happens multiple times men who eat the flowers lose hope of returning home.
What kind of world do you think the Lotus Eaters live in? Describe the type of lifestyle it is?
The lotus eaters seem to be living on an island filled with lotus flowers based on the information given to the readers. The people who live there all seem to be sailors or travelers that got stranded here and lost hope of ever returning home, through eating the lotus flowers. The Lotus Eaters live a peaceful life and are oldly nice by offering even though ultimately they are all being brainwashed into believing they will never return home and are stranded at this island forever.
What do you think Homer is implying about this?
How does The Odyssey characterize the land of the Lotus-eaters as a veritable (real or genuine) paradise? And, why, then, is this land seen by Odysseus and others as negative, and something from which to escape? What do you think is wrong with such a place, if anything?
The Lotus eaters live in a world where there are no goals or ambitions, it can be concluded that Homer specifically formulated this point the story to go this way to show the readers that not all escapes are necessarily good. In this case, this land is a negative factor for Odyseuss and his crew and while not directly dangerous, as the plot goes on, several of Odysseus’ men succumb to the impacts of the lotus flower before Odysseus discovers this.
Consider the kind of leader Odysseus appears to be in "Sailing from Troy."
How do his leadership abilities compare to how he is in "The Lotus Eaters?"
Odyseusss makes sure all his crew gets on the ship and warns them on the dangers of the lotus flowers, thus, he shows that he cares for his crewmate as a leader
Has your opinion of him changed? Why/Why not?
Odyssey shows qualities of a good leader, with perseverance and determination to return home with as much of his crew as possible. My opinion hasn’t exactly changed however I feel more respect for him knowing that he deals with ten years of this before finally getting home.
Why do you think these events are important to understanding Odysseus' character?
By writing about all the challenges he must overcome, the poet builds his character to be more complex. He shows readers Odysseus' struggles and gives information about him slowly to develop his character and show he is a real human with flaws and setbacks along his journey in addition to goals.
The class ends with a prompt for an exit ticket to be done;
Exit Ticket: How does Homer appear to contrast Odysseus to that of his men? Consider how
Homer characterizes based on what you’ve learned!!!
Reflection:
Sailing from Troy and Lotus Eaters both build up Odysseus’ character and displays his leadership when problems arise. We can see that Odysseus had a dynamic character that changes overtime as Homer reveals more about his personality and characteristics as we learned above. Furthermore, we see how ambitious Odysseus is on his journey home, however despite the fact he wants to go back badly, he still cares about his crew. In this lesson we see Odysseus’ character flourish through predicaments and see both direct and indirect characterizations Homer uses throughout the text.
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