Blogger #12 - Jack Li - Period 9 - 4/23/2021- Day C

 Aim: How can a concise understanding of both an epic poem and the Iliad enhance our reading of the Odyssey?

Aim: Why is it important to understand background knowledge of the Odyssey?

Do Now: WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION

For the following quotation:

"The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference."

- Henry Miller

1. Interpret it in your own words

2. Then Agree or disagree with the sentiment being expressed and explain why or why not.

We had a class discussion, with two students participating. Daniel said he agree with the sentiment being expressed with the interpretation and gave an example of how an action of a hero would be helping others and spreading awareness while an ordinary citizen would be like the bystander. Randy then added on to Daniel saying that an ordinary citizen would do pretty much nothing while a hero would take action. 

We later read “Apple of Discord”, while we read, we are directed to consider the following questions.

1. How do the gods and goddesses in the story display human qualities?

2. What is the role of prophecy and fate in “The Golden Apple of Discord” ?

3. How does xenia play a role in King Menelaus’ treatment of Paris? 

1. How is this ironic?

1st question. How do the gods and goddesses in the story display human qualities?

Randy said that the gods and goddesses have arguments when decision making and fight among themselves, displaying human qualities. 

Karis said that the gods showed human traits of being boastful, jealousy, and greed as well when fighting over the apple.

I agree with both Randy and Karis as the gods and goddesses fighting over the apple really displayed human qualities. For example, being greedy to the point that they started to bribe Paris to make sure they would win. 

2nd question.What is the role of prophecy and fate in “The Golden Apple of Discord” ?

Zihan said that the prophecy was that Paris would destroy Troy which made the king send a soldier to kill the baby Paris. Paris fate was decided and he lived and later he would bring destruction to Troy.

We then watched a video “The Trojan War : Part One : The Apple of Discord [6:37]”

Afterwards we had a class discussion about the difference between promise and oath. 

Ayah said that an oath is more serious than a promise, it was more solemn while a promise gives off more of a relaxed tone. 

We had spirit reading about Xenia and watched a video about it as well.

Then after spirit reading and watching the video, we answer the third question.

3rd question. How does xenia play a role in King Menelaus’ treatment of Paris? 

2. How is this ironic?

Randy said that Xenia had made the king treat Paris like a guest and when Paris was brought in, he took away Paris. This is ironic as while the king had treated Paris like a guest nicely but Paris instead took away Helen.

I agree with Randy because Xenia was started because of Zeus possibly hiding among the travelers or guests so people are obliged to treat others like guest when they come. This time instead of the king possibly getting rewarded for treating others like guests, Paris, the guest had instead taken away his queen. Helen. 

After all that, we went down each slide reading and learning more about the characters.

Odysseus is the main character in the Odyssey and one of the heroes in the Trojan war. He was one of Helen’s previous suitors, known for his strength and his cunning which helped him develop the plan for building the Trojan horse which worked in the end and brought victory to the Greeks. Odysseus had a wife named Penelope and a son named Telemachus. 

We later learned that the The Iliad and the Odyssey were used in schools to teach Greek virtues. The Iliad is used as the primary model for epic of war while the odyssey is used as the primary model for epic of the long journey.

We also learned that an epic is a long narrative poem about a national or legendary hero.

The two books were originally recited orally and Both were scared to the greek like the Bible.

Reflection

In today’s lesson I learned a bit about mythology and also about the Iliad and the Odyssey. I learned about many different terms used in greek mythology Xenia, prophecy, fate, and epic. The purpose of this lesson is to start us off with some knowledge about some terms from greek mythology and also the two sacred books from greek mythology.  This would be important later on as many literature we may come across in high school or college would be about greek mythology and learning about some of the things in greek mythology would help us in the future.