Blogger #12- Sahil Gandhi- Period 7- 4/28/21- Day C

 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?”

Personally, inspiration comes from a variety of sources that each possess stimulative qualities, with the importance of each one depending on the individual. Regardless of individuality, many find inspiration from others and objects, such as their family, friends/role models, music, art, and literature. 

Many of my peers in my class also provided thoughtful explanations for where inspiration comes from. In particular, one interesting response that stood out to me came from Joanne; to her, inspiration emerges from things such as music, art, and literature, and it reminded me of my own definition of inspiration. Another one that I remember is a different classmate mentioning personal experiences, which I initially hadn’t perceived as being inspirational.

Today’s Lesson:

Before proceeding with the lesson, we also finalized our class teams’ name changes. As one of the pointmasters, it would be up to us and the managers to ensure that every team has their name updated in any instances where their old respective team names were recorded. 

Many teams decided on using names that revolved around common themes in Greek mythology, utilizing concepts such as discord, prophecies, mythological creatures, and cities  among other things. My team went with a more whimsical approach and ended up adopting the name Kittens of Discord.’

Today, according to Mrs. Peterson, would also signify a turning point in the year. Although it is the end of April the Poem Anthology project is over, classes are not going to become any easier. On the contrary, this is when literature will become serious; complex Greek literature, more intensive lessons per cycle, more homework to fit with the unconventional schedule, preparing to become sophomores, and much more. This seems like a daunting task at first, but I believe that if we put our minds to it and work hard towards our goals, this unit on Greek mythology is going to be an enjoyable experience.

The Nine Muses:

A muse is an inspiration for poets, musicians, and other types of artists. In particular, Greek mythology identified nine primary Muses, goddesses of art, literature, and science.

This is also where we are introduced to Homer’s invocation. Homer’s invocation pays homage to the Nine Muses and collectively Ancient Greek culture as a whole. We watched a video on the Nine Muses as well, which was informative and gave us further insight on them. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKCWfbrY8k

Homer’s Invocation:

After learning about the Nine Muses present in Greek mythology, we moved on to Homer’s invocation, which was mentioned previously. We read Homer’s invocation as a class (link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s-NNLrpTeNKGXaJYMqGKo_QPZ57DMIx0/view?usp=sharing) and in essence, Homer called upon the daughter of Zeus and praised her, asking that she bequeath upon him the ability to masterfully narrate the story of Odysseus’s journey home to Ithaca from Troy.

Following this, we discussed as a class 3 important questions regarding Homer’s invocation. Provided are the questions and my answers to each one.

What is your opinion of Odysseus so far after hearing Homer's invocation to the muses and learning about the Trojan War? My opinion of Odysseus after hearing Homer’s invocation to the muses and learning about the Trojan War was that he was a man of great discipline, charisma, and strength, capable of razing a city as grand as Troy to the ground and making the arduous decade-long journey back home.

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 maintains the audience’s interest in the story regardless of the fact that the audience knew the outcome from the start through often exaggerated diction that portrays Odysseus strength and character.

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 imply that Odysseus endured through a lot of struggles following the fall of Troy. Through the author’s word choice (words like “harried” or “contending” we can comprehend the idea that Odysseus’ struggles were numerous even after his primary goal was achieved.

Anticipation Guide:

We participated in an anticipation guide in which we had to state our opinions on a variety of topics, but it was clear that the questionnaire revolved around the Odyssey and the questions were related to aspects of the epics.

At the very end of the quiz, we had to construct a paragraph that would provide further explanation for any single answer inputted previously in the quiz. My response was to the question of whether intelligence was more important than strength and it was:

“Intelligence is equally as important as strength, and one does not overpower the other. Proof of this can be seen through the stories of the Trojan War. The Trojan War came to end thanks to the ingenious idea of the Trojan horse; disguising a legion of soldiers within a large wooden horse gifted to Troy. However, if the soldiers didn't have the strength necessary to hold out for so long and fight with valor, they wouldn't have had the chance to undertake a plan as intricate as the Trojan horse.”

Aim: How does “Sailing From Troy” and “The Lotus Eaters” (Book IX) establish Odysseus’ role as a leader?

The Next Lesson:

After completing the Anticipation Guide, we moved on to the second lesson, which started with another discussion, with the question being, “Consider the fact that Odysseus has been trying to return to his home in Ithaca for 10 years. Imagine being away from home for that long. What would you miss the most and why? Why do we have sayings like the ones below?

Lixiang said that if he was in that position, he’d miss his family and the phrases “home sweet home” and “there’s no place like home” exist for a reason. Family is irreplaceable and no matter what happens in the end they’re still your family. Tempestt added on to that and mentioned “home is where the heart is.” He also said that he’d also miss basic things like a bed or showering, and that they all related because the family is like home. Many other students added to this idea. 

My response to these questions was that I’d miss my home, my family, my friends, and what life meant to me. One statement I remember vividly was “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” This was also one of the questions presented in the anticipation quiz.

Characterization:

Characterization is an author’s distinct method of defining the aspects of a character, specifically things such as personality or experience. It often differs from author to author, and it’s one of the most important features of fiction and mythology. It can be divided into two different categories of characterization, for which the definitions are provided below.

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.

Here is also a video that gives a brief summary of characterization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCshdu8loDo

Most people use direct characterization because it’s easier and there’s no reading between the lines; indirect characterization is a lot more tricky. In the Odyssey, both forms of characterization are implemented multiple times. As such, we have to think about the author’s purpose and what they intended to convey through both forms. 

However, to help us identify indirect characterization, we learned a strategy called S.T.E.A.L. When you’re working with indirect characterization, you’re actually asking yourself the type of questions that constitute the letters in S.T.E.A.L.

• SPEECH - What does the character say? How does the character speak?

• THOUGHTS - What is revealed through the character’s private thoughts and feelings?

• EFFECTS - 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?

After going over STEAL we read Sailing from Troy. It was about Odysseus departing from the Goddess Calypso’s island and landing in a land known as Phaecia, where the ruler is willing to provide Odysseus with resources to get back home given that he tells him of his adventures in Troy. We were also supposed to read and discuss about Lotus Eaters, but we ran out of time and this was instead assigned for homework.

Reflection:

Today we read about Homer’s invocation, and learned about various topics such as muses (the Nine Muses), what inspiration is, direct and indirect characterization, and methods to tackle them. The lengthy lesson of this cycle was definitely a change of pace, and I definitely didn’t anticipate to learn that much from this lesson because of time constraints. However, as it turns out, this was an invaluable lesson that I staunchly believe will play a crucial role in later lessons as we extend our reach throughout the world of Greek epics. I can say with confidence that I definitely noticed how direct and indirect characterization and the associated method of S.T.E.A.L. are and will be of critical importance in the near future. I also believe that for the same reasons stated above, there were good reasons why we had this lesson. This is because when studying this genre of literature, it is clear how convoluted and tedious ancient Greek epics often tend to be, and knowing about how to dissect the numerous verses and many characters presented will be more important than ever. I think this lesson was a great opening segment into properly understanding and taking apart ancient Greek literature and as mentioned previously, will play a pivotal role in comprehending the structures of the Odyssey.