{"id":37,"date":"2012-08-23T11:38:58","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T11:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/knownworld\/?p=37"},"modified":"2012-08-23T11:38:58","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T11:38:58","slug":"approaching-the-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/2012\/08\/23\/approaching-the-odyssey\/","title":{"rendered":"Approaching the Odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For Thursday, you will read the first two books of Homer\u2019s <em>Odyssey<\/em>.\u00a0 As you do so, you should keep in mind that the division into books is a modern convention; the ancient Greek text had no subdivisions.\u00a0 The illustrative titles, in turn, were added by our translator, Robert Fitzgerald.\u00a0 Nevertheless, you will discover that Homer\u2019s action moves through clearly discernible stages, and that there is a unifying theme to individual sections.<\/p>\n<p>First, some notes about how to do college-level reading in general.\u00a0 When approaching literary texts, you should ideally read everything twice \u2013 the first time to get the plot, the second time so you can fully concentrate on how details interact to create a complex narrative tapestry.\u00a0 Realistically, however, you may not always have the time for this.\u00a0 As a substitute, you should at least try to break longer reading assignments into manageable bits, so that your mind stays fresh, and you should always carry a pencil so you can take notes.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>During the first few weeks of the semester, I will give you study questions to contemplate while you are doing your reading. \u00a0These exercises are meant to train you in how to approach texts with an open mind; they\u2019re not exhaustive, and hopefully you will come up with many more questions of your own!<\/p>\n<p>As you engage with these questions, be sure to write down evidence rather than merely impressions.\u00a0 Literary study isn\u2019t like mathematics, where there is an indisputable \u201cright\u201d answer and many \u201cwrong\u201d answers.\u00a0 Texts will frequently support a range of different opinions on any given subject matter.\u00a0 But this doesn\u2019t mean that <em>all<\/em> opinions are equally admissible, nor does it mean that one particular opinion can\u2019t be supported with stronger evidence than all others.\u00a0 Your task is to find this evidence for me and quote it!<\/p>\n<p>Here are your questions for Book I.\u00a0 Again, remember to support them with specific passages:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What do we learn about Odysseus\u2019 home?\u00a0 What are the customs there?<\/li>\n<li>What kind of a person is Telemakhos?\u00a0 Does he say or do things that reveal aspects of his character that he might prefer to keep hidden?<\/li>\n<li>How is Athena characterized?<\/li>\n<li>Finally (and this is an ongoing question), do you notice unusual things about Homer\u2019s language?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And here are your questions for Book II:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What do you make of Penelope?\u00a0 How is she described?<\/li>\n<li>What about Antinoos?\u00a0 Is there any way to compare him to Telemakhos with whom, after all, he has hung out on occasion?<\/li>\n<li>What about Telemakhos himself?\u00a0 What does Book II add to his description?<\/li>\n<li>Look at the last fifty or so lines of the book.\u00a0 Does anything happen to Homer\u2019s language in this short span?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Thursday, you will read the first two books of Homer\u2019s Odyssey.\u00a0 As you do so, you should keep in mind that the division into books is a modern convention; the ancient Greek text had no subdivisions.\u00a0 The illustrative titles, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/2012\/08\/23\/approaching-the-odyssey\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-odyssey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/knownworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}