AIM: How can a concise understanding of both an epic poem and the Iliad enhance our reading of the Odyssey?
DO NOW: "The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference."
- Henry Miller
For the Do Now, we had to interpret the quote and see if we disagree or agree with it. I interpreted it as that the hero acts on his initiative while the ordinary person is involved in the hero’s act. Mariah thinks that an ordinary person is affected by the world, while the hero acts to change the world. Daniel, Adelia, and Alexander agreed, with Alexander adding that the hero is the leader while the people are led by them.
Mrs Peterson also told us what to do if the links are broken(go to the syllabus) and told us we could check what we need to be reading and be prepared. She told us that it was a must-need skill in sophomore year, as we need to check whenever the homework is due as the teacher won’t tell us.
Next, we did a spirit reading of “Apple of Discord” and “The Trojan War: Part One: The Apple of Discord”. We had to answer the following questions:
How do the gods and goddesses in the story display human qualities?
Aphrodites, Athena, Helena were all fighting and bribing Paris for the apple that said the fairest of all (Alex). Adelina said the goddesses were jealous of each other. The bear took care of Paris as a baby, like a mother, said Gabriel . Paris also eventually picked Aphrodites for love (Sonia). Edwin said that Zeus didn’t want to choose because he didn’t want the backlash of the goddess, so he passed the baton to Paris, which Peterso said he’s cowardly. Eris was mad that she didn’t get invited, so she threw the golden apple(Kelly).
What is the role of prophecy and fate in “The Golden Apple of Discord” ?
Lowell said that the queen of Troy gave birth to her first son, which was prophesied her son would be the downfall of Troy, which is a prophecy. Fate was the reason why everyone took pity on him; the bear, the foster father, etc. and let him live. Fate is something you can’t run away from, even if you tried to get rid of him, like what Peterson said, like how Paris chose love instead of all the others.
After that, we had a discussion about the different denotations and connotations between the words ‘promise’ and ‘oath’. A promise is a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen, while an oath is a solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness, regarding one's future action or behavior. Gabriel said that the oath seems more profound than the promise. Daniel P. said that oath includes a divine witness, which adds up with Gabriel. Peterson also added that promises are meant to be broken and many people like doctors, church believers swore an oath(do no harm, etc), and usually many people take an oath at a time.
XENIA:
When we talked about xenia, we said it was the ancient Greek concept of hospitality and guest-friendship. Many gods and goddesses may be disguised as wandering travelers. Then, we watched a video on xenia, which helped me immensely on the topic of xenia because i didn’t realize what it meant. I realized that sometimes, gods like Zeus, which had the name of Zeus Xenia, would go about, receiving xenia and then reveal himself which is why this tradition even began. The video is this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYQRIQtnvII
We then began to answer the third question.
3). How does xenia play a role in King Menelaus’ treatment of Paris?
How is this ironic?
Lowell also answered for this one that King Menelaus welcomes Paris here because of xenia and treats him well. Ironically, this helps Helen fall in love with Paris, and runs away with him. The king’s wife was stolen by Paris at his own castle.
The Trojan War and the Epics:
The next slides document what happened during the war. At first, Paris sailed to Sparta and the king welcomed him. King Menelaus’s wife, Queen Helen, left him for Paris because she fell in love with him as per Aphrodites’ offer and they left for Troy. Then, King Menelaus found out, and he was furious, so the rest of the suitors who had sworn an oath to protect her also followed to attack Troy. There we meet Odysseus, who was one of the suitors, and the main hero. He had the idea of creating the Trojan Horse and helped make it possible for them to stop the 10-year stalemate, which led the Greeks to victory. We learn more about him on the following slides. One thing that I thought was cool was that Achilles was son of the sea nymph and her husband, the sea nymph dips Achilles into the potent lake but she was holding him by the heel, which was his fatal weakness. He also died in the war, but the sea nymph that was his mother was why the party on Mt. Olympus even happened and why the three goddess got into a fight. The next slides, we talked about some of the other epics like the Iliad and the Odyssey and how they are important. The epics are taught in schools to teach about human qualities and values they had, like the importance of xenia, bravery, etc. and what the heroes and characters in the story did wrong.
Reflection:
During the class, I improved my listening skills and tried to write down important bits of what they were saying and simplify them into a summary. The whole class learned about the Trojan War and why it happened. We learned about the lessons of the epics, the war that happened, and how the gods and goddess got involved. For me, even though I already knew some of the facts stated in this lesson, this lesson helped me understand more about why rather than what happened. I have also grown an interest in reading those epics and greek mythology in general. I liked the contrast between the ideas and thoughts today, versus back then. They emphasized more on religion, like xenia, while more and more people now focus more on themselves and are more individualistic. I also now wonder if gods and goddesses should have human qualities; wouldn’t they be better off not having these so they could do their jobs better?
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