Chap 12 Flashcards
(87 cards)
1
Q
What is the origin of Nostalgia?
A
“nostalgia” comes from two Greek words: Nostos (return home) and Nostalgia (Home sickness, pain/ suffering after coming home).
2
Q
how did Greeks observe the Nostalgia?
A
Achilles is fighting at Troy, he realizes that he will never return home but instead will die there and be remembered in song. He says: “My return home (nostos) has died, but my fame (kleos) will not wither”
3
Q
what was Nostoi?
A
The oral songs called Nostoi “ Returns” suggest that the Greeks were as interested in homecomings as they were in adventures.
4
Q
what is the elements that contain the hero’s successful return?
A
-One type of folktale called the “Homecoming Husband” offers a succinct overview of a hero’s reunion with his wife, upon which his life and livelihood depends
5
Q
Homecoming husband?
A
“Homecoming Husband” is tale-type found in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. This index classifies folktales by their dominant motifs and characters.
6
Q
What is Harold Bloom’s opinion about Achilles and Odysseus?
A
Achilles is “too much contaminated with death,” in the words of literary critic Harold Bloom. Odysseus, however, exhibits what Bloom calls a kind of “completeness” that most other heroes lack.
7
Q
What distinguishes Odysseus from other heroes?
A
While his long journey, filled with stormy seas, one-eyed giants, witches, and princesses, has made Odysseus attractive to generations of readers, it is his successful return to his island of Ithaca, and his reunion with his wife, his son, and his father that distinguishes him from other heroes at Troy.
8
Q
What is the meaning of nostos?
A
return from Troy to Greece after adventures on the high seas.
9
Q
what is the Huns-Jorg Uther’s description of homecoming husband’s tale?
A
a framework for examining and comparing tales of heroes’ returns:
In the absence of her husband (lover) who is far away on a journey (in prison), a woman is forced to choose another husband. The first husband (disguised, as a beggar) returns (with supernatural help, carried during a deep sleep, warned by a dream) on the wedding day and discloses his identity to his wife (by, a ring well known to her), is recognized by her domestic animals (horse, dog), or answers the woman’s questions correctly (concerning features of the house or birthmarks). The revenge on the rival follows.
10
Q
who stated the tale of homecoming husband’s tale?
A
It was begun by a Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne in 1910, expanded and revised twice by an American folklorist Stith Thompson (in 1928 and 1961) and by a German folklorist, Hans-Jörg Uther (2004).
11
Q
What is Achilles’s respond to Odysseus and Agamemnon’s gifts?
A
Achilles responds, “I hate that man like the gates of Hades’ house who conceals one thing in his heart, but says another”. Achilles implies that Odysseus is deceitful and that his eloquent words do not express his true thoughts and intentions.
12
Q
Odysseus essentials?
A
PARENTAGE King Laertes and Anticleia of Ithaca
OFFSPRING Telemachus (with Penelope)
CULT SHRINES Ithaca.
13
Q
What is the lineage of Odysseus?
A
Odysseus has a divine lineage which in part explains his character and behaviors. Zeus is a distant ancestor of Odysseus’s father, Laertes, whereas Anticleia, his mother, is the daughter of Autolycus, the son of Hermes.
14
Q
What is the origin’s of Odysseus’s name?
A
- Autolycus named Odysseus, a word that comes from the Greek verb odussasthai, “to be angry with” or “to cause suffering.” (In Latin, his name is Ulixes, whereas in English it is Ulysses.)
- Odysseus (the hated one, hated by Poseidon, preventing him from going home, Polumetis “very trickey” )
15
Q
What is the symbol of Odysseus?
A
As a young man in a hunting party, Odysseus succeeds in killing a wild boar, but not before the boar attacks him, leaving a scar on his leg. This scar not only identifies Odysseus but also symbolizes the suffering Odysseus causes and endures during his life.
16
Q
What is the common trait between Athena and Odysseus?
A
Odysseus’s cleverness or cunning intelligence (metis), the trait for which Athena is known, has earned him the epithets “very clever” (polumetis) and “very tricky” (polutropos) in Homer.
17
Q
Why Autolycus named his grandson Odysseus?
A
Autolycus explains that he has suffered at the hands of men and women, and he therefore asks that his grandson’s name commemorate his own life as well as Odysseus’s maternal heritage.
18
Q
What is Odysseus’s label as a descendant of Hermes?
A
Trickster hero
19
Q
what is the common trait of Odysseus, Athena and Hermes?
A
Like Hermes, he is a shapeshifter, a master of disguise who escapes the detection of nearly everyone he meets. And like his patron goddess, Athena, he is a man of many crafts and talents: a shipbuilder, a farmer, an athlete, and a warrior.
20
Q
What is the difference between Odysseus and Achilles?
A
Ø Achilles (choses death for the glory of being hero and Odysseus is opposite (achieve glory is on what he goes through as he tries to go home).
Ø Passive hero. Not direct confrontation of the enemy.
Ø A human hero with the practical intelligence (Metis).
Ø With Athena/ Hermes’s assistance he could win without direct confrontation with the monster.
He goes through suffering but finds way out of it. Polotrupous (having many wise).
21
Q
Explain the Sophocles’s tragedy Ajax?
A
begins after Odysseus, speaking more artfully than Ajax, has persuaded the Greeks to give him Achilles’s arms. Whereas Ajax believes that, as the better warrior, he deserves the weapons, Odysseus claims that his clever device of the Trojan Horse has secured the victory of the Greeks over Troy. Odysseus’s persuasive rhetoric leads to his acquisition of Achilles’s arms and to Ajax’s decision to kill himself after failing in an attempt to seek revenge on the Greeks. Odysseus then mediates a dispute about whether Ajax should be buried as a traitor (because of his attack on the Greek encampment) or as a soldier. Odysseus speaks with a skill and compassion that the other characters lack, arguing that Ajax should be buried with honors.
22
Q
How Odysseus is portrait in the Sophocles’s play Philoctetes?
A
Odysseus is a self-serving mentor to Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles; he counsels Neoptolemus that gaining one’s objective outweighs all other considerations, including ethical ones
23
Q
How Odysseus is portrait in the is tragedies of Euripides?
A
Odysseus appears both as a cutthroat politician (Iphigenia at Aulis) and as a man who must balance his moral inclinations against the necessities of the situation in which he finds himself (Hecuba).
24
Q
how Odysseus responded to his encounter with Sirens?
A
In his emblematic encounter with the Sirens, Odysseus plans strategically to defend his crew against their enchantments while allowing him to listen to and learn from their songs without succumbing to the dangers they present.
He gives beeswax to his men to plug their ears and has himself tied to his ship’s mast so that he will not abandon both boat and crew while in thrall to the Sirens’ songs. Rather than try to fight and destroy the Sirens, he ensures that he will be physically incapable of taking any action.
25
Why Odysseus's wanted to listen to Sirens?
Odysseus contrives to satisfy his desire to acquire knowledge, a desire that is noted in the poem’s opening lines, where Odysseus is described as learning the minds and cities of men.
Ø He was curious of knowing unknown and test his limits and luck.
26
What is Siren?
Sirens: Half women and half bird (Seal). Sits on the rock and sings
in Nordic mythology (half human+ have fish). Tritans in Greek (Half women and fish).
27
from who does Odysseus often learn?
Curiously, he often learns from females, not only from the Sirens but also from Circe, Calypso, the ghosts of his mother and of other women, and finally from Penelope, his wife.
28
How to observe the changes that Odysseus undergo as a result of his learnings from women?
Odysseus’s “education” from women and the consequent changes he undergoes can be traced by comparing his encounter with an especially memorable monster, the giant Polyphemus, to his visit in Underworld, to his time with Calypso, and finally to his reunion with Penelope.
29
What was Odysseu's last adventure before returning to Ithaca (home).
adventures to the Phaeacians.
30
Who was lumbering?
confrontation with the lumbering, one-eyed giant Polyphemus as a case in which his intelligence triumphs over Polyphemus’s brute strength, just as in the biblical narrative David cleverly defeats the massive Goliath with a slingshot.
31
Who was Polyphemus?
Polyphemus is one of several Cyclopes (the plural of Cyclops) who dwell on one of the islands that Odysseus and his crew visit.
32
What was Odysseus's judgment about Cyclopes?
Odysseus judges the Cyclopes to be lawless and arrogant because they do not pursue the activities that, by Greek standards, make a society civilized.
33
Why Odysseus thought of Cyclopes as lawless and arrogant?
He observes that the island’s harbor is well suited to protect ships and that its verdant and rich land would support agriculture.
-But, the fields are uncultivated, and the harbor has no ships; nor are there public spaces marked for gatherings. Odysseus surmises that the island’s inhabitants do not engage in agricultural work or seafaring.
-In addition, the lack of public gathering spaces suggests that those who live on the islands do not pursue the kind of conversation that leads to self-government or the cultural and social activities that are the hallmarks of Greek civilization.
- Odysseus deduces that each Cyclops establishes rules over his family, while being indifferent to his neighbors. Through these descriptions of the Cyclopes’ society, we see how this encounter with a monster conveys not just an element typical of heroes’ tales but cultural information as well.
34
How hospitability was reviewed in Greek society?
In Greek society, a high value was placed on hospitability (xenia). Such hospitality involved more than good manners; it was a religious and ethical demand that was overseen by Zeus himself, who was believed to protect both host and guest as they interacted. Hosts were expected to provide food and lodging to guests as well as to help them on their way in exchange for gifts and stories; guests were expected to be courteous and honest. As Odysseus narrates this tale, however, it seems that both he and Polyphemus violate the normative behaviors associated with xenia.
35
How Odysseus escaped Polyphemus?
In order to survive, Odysseus tricks the Cyclops into getting drunk and then blinds him by driving a burning stake through the sleeping giant’s single eye. He and his men escape undetected by clinging to the wool under the bellies of Polyphemus’s sheep as they are let out to pasture.
36
what was Polyphemus's reaction towards his rams and how was Cyclops reaction?
- Polyphemus appears compassionate, even empathetic, toward his animals. Appreciating Polyphemus’s tenderness in this simple exchange with his ram encourages an alternative view of him, and of Odysseus.
- When Polyphemus screams in pain, his neighbors immediately ask if he needs help. Thus, the Cyclopes appear less isolated and brutish than Odysseus claimed them to be.
37
According to scholar, Cyclopes can represent who?
Greek colonizing efforts in the Mediterranean. In this view, the Cyclopes are similar to people who defended their property and families from Greek colonizers, and whose languages and customs were different from (and therefore viewed as inferior to) those of the Greeks.
- Seen in this light, the blundering and simple Polyphemus represents Greek fears about non-Greeks, whereas Odysseus represents the cunning and bravery of the colonizing Greeks.
- As we have seen, the hero is almost always seen to represent cultural norms (in this case, Odysseus is the civilized and civilizing colonizer), whereas the monsters the hero encounters are distortions of those imagined to exist outside of those norms (Polyphemus is a deformed, dangerous, and barbaric foreigner).
38
What is the next encounter of Odysseus after Polyphemus?
he encounters many females on his journey home.
- The beautiful nymph Calypso delays Odysseus for years on her faraway island with promises of immortality, whereas on another island the skillful sorceress Circe offers him a life of indulgence and pleasure.
- The sirens seduce him with their songs of praise, and Nausicaa, the daughter of the king of Phaeacia, holds out the promise that he will become king if he marries her
39
What changes on Odysseus's personality can be observed after his encounter with female monsters?
- these encounters, attentive listening, or “passive heroics,” replaces violence and action.
- transformation from a marauding hero set on obtaining goods while abroad to a returning hero set on remarrying his wife and regaining his house and land.
40
What contributes to the successful remarriage of Odysseus with
Penelope?
Three encounters with females—the ghost of his mother and women in the Underworld and the goddess Calypso
41
What Katabasis mean?
katabasis, which translates as “descent,” is used to describe this particular kind of adventure to Underworld.
42
which ghost can speak?
Teiresias, who provides him with information about his journey home, explains to him that only ghosts who drink blood from the ram Odysseus has slaughtered are able to speak.
43
Who told Odysseus about his wife's faithfulness?
his mother.
44
what decision Odysseus make while being in underworld?
Odysseus realizes his past as an Iliadic hero has come to end.
- Odysseus then makes a remarkable and unexpected choice. He decides to spend his brief time in the Underworld with women he never knew while they were alive. They describe their experiences while their husbands were away at war.
- Odysseus listens to them as raptly as he listens to the Sirens. His choice underscores the high value Odysseus places on understanding and acquiring knowledge from and about women.
45
How long Odysseus stayed with Calypso and why?
8 year because she promised him immortality.
46
what was the impact of Odysseus's time spend with Calypso?
result in a transformation of the hero. For example, he may emerge determined to pursue a new course of action. Odysseus’s time as a captive and a beneficiary of Calypso’s care leads to such a change. When he leaves her island, his desire for travel and exploration is extinguished.
47
What happened to Odysseus after his released from Calypso?
A shipwreck sends him to Phaeacia, where he recounts his adventures after leaving Troy and he competes in athletic games, proving his physical prowess. He thereby unites his past as a soldier and wanderer to his present identity as a fit suitor for his wife, Penelope, and thus signals his readiness to return to Ithaca.
48
What is Odysseus's first task upon arrival to Ithaca?
to discover who has remained loyal to him during his long absence. Disguised as a beggar, he goes to the hut of his swineherd, Eumaeus, where his son Telemachus also arrives. After testing their loyalty, he reveals his identity.
49
Who was Argus?
He then goes to the palace to test the loyalty of his servants, the suitors, and his wife. His prized hound Argus (his dog), covered in fleas and languishing in dirt, recognizes Odysseus, upon his arrival. Argus symbolizes the condition of Odysseus’s house during his long absence; his death upon seeing his long-lost owner conveys the suffering of those who have remained loyal to Odysseus in hopes of his return.
50
What is Penelope's dream of eagle?
Their late-night conversations allow different interpretations. For example, in their first exchange, Penelope reports her recent dream in which an eagle kills her geese. Their deaths cause her great sorrow. The disguised Odysseus interprets her dream as a prediction: Odysseus is the eagle, and the suitors who have stationed themselves in her house are the geese; he will return home shortly and kill them. Penelope does not accept his interpretation, which, notably, does not explain why the destruction of the geese upsets her.
51
What is Penelope's contest for marriage?
Following her conversations with Odysseus disguised as a beggar, Penelope decides that Odysseus is most likely dead and that it is time for her to remarry. She sets up a contest to determine who will be her new husband: she will marry whoever can string Odysseus’s bow. When none of the suitors succeed, Odysseus asks to try. He succeeds, of course, and then kills the suitors, with the aid of Telemachus and Eumaeus; he anticipates a warm embrace from Penelope when she enters the hall and sees him with bow in hand and the suitors dead. Surprisingly, she claims to be uncertain if the man before her is Odysseus and then tricks him into revealing the secret of how their wedding bed was made. Only after Odysseus correctly explains the bed’s construction and thus passes her test, do they reunite.
52
What is the overall subjects covered int he last books of Odyssey's homecoming husband?
These include the recognition of the hero by an animal, social pressure on his wife to remarry, and his correct answer to his wife’s test concerning his identity, among others.
53
what is the importance of Penelope in Odysseus's successful return?
Penelope’s actions preserve his land, name, and family, while he is absent, and make possible their restoration upon his return. As one of the only stories of a successful return, the Odyssey makes clear that the partnership of the hero and his wife is the foundation for his ability to be reintegrated into the social order that his long absence has jeopardized.
54
What is mentioned in the epic's first book ?
he gods on Olympus tell the story of Agamemnon’s return in the epic’s first book. Zeus complains that mortals often blame the immortals for their suffering, and he uses the tale of Agamemnon’s family to illustrate his point. While Agamemnon was fighting at Troy, his wife, Clytemnestra, and his cousin Aegisthus became lovers. Upon Agamemnon’s return to Greece, Aegisthus murders him, despite Hermes’s warnings that he should not court Clytemnestra or kill Agamemnon. Orestes kills both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Thus despite divine advice and warnings, Zeus intones, mortals err and bring ruin on themselves.
55
What was Odysseus's conversation with Agamemnon's ghost about?
The ghost of Agamemnon describes his return to Argos to Odysseus in the Underworld. He emphasizes Clytemnestra’s betrayal rather than Orestes’s revenge. In his telling, Aegisthus and Clytemnestra killed him and his men during a celebratory dinner and filled the richly prepared dining hall with their blood, transforming it into a battlefield. He recalls how Clytemnestra killed Cassandra, his Trojan concubine, while she clung to him, and later refused to provide the appropriate ministrations to his corpse. Agamemnon concludes that there is nothing more shameful than a wife who plots her husband’s murder.
56
What conclusion Agamemnon tells to Odysseus?
Agamemnon then offers two contradictory observations: he assures Odysseus that Penelope is loyal and then advises him to return to Ithaca in disguise because all women are untrustworthy (11.405–460). Agamemnon’s story offers a clear message: a faithful wife is necessary for a successful homecoming.
57
What is the other version of Agamemnon's death?
While the Odyssey locates Clytemnestra’s infidelity as the motive for Agamemnon’s murder, the Oresteia, a trilogy by Aeschylus that revolves around this myth, offers a more complicated view of blame and responsibility in the story of Agamemnon’s return. Aeschylus begins his trilogy by recounting the events at Aulis, a launching site for the Greek ships headed to Troy. When the winds stop blowing and the ships are stranded, Agamemnon consults the seer, Calchas, who tells him that he must sacrifice his daughter, Iphigeneia, to the goddess Artemis. Agamemnon agrees and kills his daughter on an altar. When Agamemnon returns to Argos, Clytemnestra, not Aegisthus, kills him and claims that she is avenging her daughter’s murder. Thereafter, Aeschylus ceases to mention Iphigeneia and suggests that Clytemnestra acted to secure the throne for herself and Aegisthus. Despite their differences, both tales of Agamemnon’s return emphasize the danger that unfaithful wives pose to soldiers returning from war.
58
how is Menelaus's return to home?
The Odyssey describes Menelaus and Helen’s life in Sparta, when Telemachus visits them to gather information about his father. Their palace gleams because it is filled with precious metals, yet it has an eerie deathlike atmosphere, which Menelaus acknowledges when he tells Telemachus that his sorrows are greater than his wealth.
59
Who was Constantine P. Cavefy?
A Greek, One of the most widely known and beloved poems about Homer’s Odyssey is “Ithaca”.
60
what journey of Odysseus represent in Hero's quest?
a metaphor for life itself. He urges the reader to live life as though it were a long and rich adventure. The only monsters one would meet on such an adventure, the poet suggests, are those within—those which a reader might “carry … within your soul”.
- every person’s life is shaped by his or her desires and fears.
- Odysseus’s journey (indeed, every hero’s journey) is an extended metaphor for every person’s life, and every person’s life is shaped by his or her desires and fears, as well as the encounters shared along the way.
61
What is monomyth?
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Campbell describes the monomyth: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
62
What is Campbell's believe influenced by Carl Yung?
Campbell believed that the hero’s journey corresponds both to events in each person’s life and to the psychological maturation that transpires beneath the threshold of consciousness. For this reason, Campbell argued that the monomyth resonates with all people and appears in stories in all societies, past and present.
63
Who was George Lucas?
George Lucas, the creator and producer of the first three movies in the Star Wars saga, worked closely with Campbell
64
Who was Christopher Vogler?
Christopher Vogler, a story analyst for various Hollywood studios, including Disney’s, believed that Campbell’s monomyth offered a formula for selecting stories that would lead to successful movies
65
What did Christopher Vogler did with Campbell's monomyth theory?
He converted Campbell’s ideas into a “how to” manual, and eventually published it as The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structures for Storytellers and Screenwriters (1992).
66
what types of stories are made out of Campbell's theory?
It is no wonder, then, that many movies, particularly those centered on one person’s journey or those devoted to superheroes, are structured on Campbell’s monomyth.
67
what is Vogler's idea about monomyth?
But according to Vogler, the presence and appeal of these movies has little to do with Campbell’s books or his own manual. Monomyths, he argues, are “true maps of the psyche” and are “emotionally realistic even when they portray fantastic impossible, or unreal events.” In other words, Vogler, like Campbell, believed that the human psyche produces, recognizes, and enjoys stories with these structures. Campbell and other scholars simply identify and label them.
68
What are the counter argument to the Monomyth?
Many scholars, however, dispute this claim, arguing that Campbell’s monomyth applies to men’s journeys, not women’s, and is culturally specific because Campbell favored Greek and Roman myths.
69
Which scholar rebut the criticism of monomyth?
(Scholar and psychologist Clyde W. Ford rebuts this criticism in The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa.)
70
what is the definition that W.H Auden suggested about the quest heroes?
Auden emphasizes how the hero’s quest, no matter how outlandish, represents the internal realities not of the hero (as Campbell suggested) but rather of the readers of the hero’s adventures. Auden wryly observes that, despite the popularity of quest heroes, the audiences for such stories rarely embark on quests for adventure themselves. In other words, the hero’s quest (with its voyages, monsters, princesses, etc.) does not correspond to the objective facts of most people’s lives.
- the hero's quest, with its extraordinary elements, doesn't align with the mundane or objective facts of the readers' lives. Instead, it serves as a symbolic representation of their internal struggles, aspirations, or desires.
-
71
what is the difference between Campbell and Auden's argument?
Auden appears to be suggesting that the hero's journey, often depicted with fantastical elements like voyages, monsters, and princesses, serves as a metaphor for the internal experiences (subjective experience) of the readers rather than a reflection of the hero's own journey, as proposed by Joseph Campbell.
72
What is the question that Auden asks?
“Does not each of these elements correspond to an aspect of our subjective experience of life?”
73
What is the concept of villain for Auden?
For Auden, the villains or monsters and helpers encountered by the quest hero evoke subjective experiences shared by all readers.
74
Compare Auden’s six-point list to Propp’s and Raglan’s lists. Of the three, which do you think is most useful for studying Greek heroes? Of the three, which do you think is most useful for studying contemporary action figures?
Auden's Six-Point List:
Auden's list, as you've mentioned, emphasizes the connection between the hero's quest and the internal realities of readers. His focus is on the psychological and emotional resonance of the hero's journey.
Propp's Morphology of the Folk Tale:
Vladimir Propp's analysis, often applied to folk tales and fairy tales, identified a set of recurring character types and narrative functions. His focus was on the structure of the narrative and the roles characters play within that structure.
Raglan's Hero Pattern:
Lord Raglan proposed a list of 22 common traits that heroes across different cultures and myths often share. This includes elements like the hero's mysterious conception, the absence of a father, and a miraculous birth.
- Auden's approach, focusing on the internal realities of readers, could be particularly relevant for studying contemporary action figures. Modern storytelling often explores complex psychological dimensions, and understanding the audience's internal responses is crucial.
- Propp's structural analysis might still be relevant, especially if contemporary action figures follow narrative structures reminiscent of traditional folk tales or hero's journeys.
- Raglan's hero pattern might be less directly applicable to contemporary action figures, as it was developed based on a study of mythic heroes and might not capture the nuances of modern character development
75
What sorts of insights do a psychological approach to (Auden), a ritual approach to (van Gennep), and a formal description of (Propp) quest heroes offer?
Psychological Approach (Auden):
Insights: Auden's psychological approach emphasizes the internal realities of the readers rather than just the hero. It explores how the hero's journey connects with the psychological and emotional experiences of the audience.
Implications: This approach provides insights into the symbolic and metaphorical dimensions of the hero's quest. It helps uncover the psychological resonance of the narrative, revealing how readers identify with and project their own internal struggles, desires, or aspirations onto the hero.
- Ritual Approach (van Gennep):
Insights: Van Gennep's ritual approach focuses on the structure of rituals and rites of passage. It identifies the stages of separation, transition, and incorporation, providing a framework to analyze the hero's journey as a transformative process.
Implications: This approach offers insights into the symbolic significance of the hero's quest as a ritualistic passage. It helps understand the cultural and societal aspects embedded in the hero's journey, highlighting how the narrative reflects universal themes of change, growth, and transformation.
Formal Description (Propp):
Insights: Propp's formal description breaks down narratives into functions and roles performed by characters. It identifies recurring patterns and character types in folk tales.
Implications: This approach provides insights into the structural elements of quest heroes' stories. It helps identify common motifs and archetypes present in various hero narratives, offering a systematic way to categorize and analyze different elements of the hero's journey.
In summary:
Auden's psychological approach delves into the emotional and internal dimensions, revealing how the hero's quest serves as a mirror for readers' inner experiences.
Van Gennep's ritual approach emphasizes the transformative nature of the hero's journey, connecting it to cultural and societal rituals.
Propp's formal description offers a structural analysis, breaking down narratives into recurring functions and character roles.
76
In what ways does Odysseus’s encounter with Circe fulfill Odysseus’s psychological as well as practical needs? To what needs and desires of male readers or female readers might such a fantastical journey correspond?
Psychological Needs:
- Desire for Control and Cunning: Odysseus, known for his intelligence and cunning, faces a challenge in Circe's domain. Overcoming the enchantress requires not just physical strength but also cleverness, fulfilling Odysseus's psychological need to exercise his intellect and control over situations.
Longing for Home and Family: Throughout the epic, Odysseus yearns to return to his homeland and family. His encounter with Circe, although fraught with challenges, becomes a psychological stepping stone toward the fulfillment of his deeper emotional need for reunion and connection.
Practical Needs:
Navigational Knowledge: Circe provides Odysseus with valuable information about the obstacles he will face on his journey, including the dangers of the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis. This practical guidance enhances Odysseus's chances of navigating the perilous seas successfully.
Rest and Recovery: After facing numerous challenges, Odysseus and his crew find respite in Circe's palace. This fulfills their practical need for rest, recovery, and sustenance, allowing them to regain strength for the arduous journey ahead.
Readers' Responses:
Male Readers:
Identification with Heroic Traits: Male readers may identify with Odysseus's intelligence, resourcefulness, and determination. The challenges he faces, including those posed by Circe, could resonate with their own aspirations for overcoming obstacles and achieving goals.
Yearning for Home and Connection: The overarching theme of Odysseus's longing for home and family may resonate with male readers who have similar desires for stability, familial bonds, and a sense of belonging.
Female Readers:
Empathy with Circe's Agency: Female readers might empathize with Circe's character, who possesses her own agency and powers. Circe challenges traditional gender roles by being a powerful enchantress in control of her island.
Desire for Autonomy: Circe's character could appeal to female readers who appreciate narratives of female empowerment and autonomy. Her independence and command over her surroundings may resonate with modern expectations for female characters.
77
Who was Gertrude Rachel Levy?
In her 1953 book The Sword from the Rock: An Investigation into the Origins of Epic Literature and the Development of the Hero, classical scholar Gertrude Rachel Levy (1883–1966) writes, “[Heroes] navigate the waters of death to learn their destiny from an ancestor or prophet, as Gilgamesh, Odysseus and Aeneas did. If they find what they seek, they are likely to lose it again.”
78
how Aeneas was changed by his underworld journey?
Aeneas’s journey to the Underworld facilitates his transformation from a Trojan leader into Rome’s founder.
79
What is the first part of the Book 6 Aeneid about?
His journey can be divided into halves that correspond to these two aspects of Aeneas’s identity. In the first portion of Book 6 (lines 1–557), Aeneas arrives in Cumae, located on the coast of central Italy, where the Cumaean Sibyl’s temple and the opening to the Underworld, called Avernus, are located. Following the Sibyl’s instructions, Aeneas sacrifices, and buries a Trojan companion, Misenus, before entering Tartarus, where he sees heroes who died at Troy and Dido, the Carthaginian queen, who committed suicide when he left her kingdom to reach Italy (Aeneid Book 4). This portion of Book 6 takes place in the dark and gloomy regions of Tartarus and compels Aeneas to mourn the destruction of his city. In so doing, Aeneas recognizes that his identity as a Trojan must necessarily change so that he can forge a future for himself and his companions
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after passing the Tartarus where Aeneas reaches?
Aeneas and the Sibyl enter the beautiful and light-filled Elysian field (lines 558–802). Aeneas meets his father Anchises, who explains the origins of the world and how souls are reborn before describing the future kings and rulers of Rome. He advises Aeneas about the wars he must fight in Italy to secure this future. Anchises’s teachings and promises of glory enable Aeneas to look toward the future and seek to fulfill his father’s words. While the Sibyl addressed Aeneas “O Trojan Aeneas” at the opening of Book 6 (line 48), Anchises addresses Aeneas as “O Roman,” thereby confirming Aeneas’s new identity.
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Where can we see Aeneas's identity change?
While the Sibyl addressed Aeneas “O Trojan Aeneas” at the opening of Book 6 (line 48), Anchises addresses Aeneas as “O Roman,” thereby confirming Aeneas’s new identity (line 757). When Aeneas emerges from Avernus, his transformation is complete: the Trojan aspects of his identity have been shed, and he is reborn as a Roman. His journey to Avernus, an other-worldly and liminal place where present, past, and future exist simultaneously, has made his transformation possible.
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What type of place is the Sibyl's temple?
The Sibyl’s temple, for example, is “a cave is hewn into the immense face of the Euboean / cliff from which a hundred broad approaches lead, a hundred mouths / from which rush as many voices, [which are] the replies of the Sibyl”
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How Sibyl helped Aeneas?
Aeneas’s liminality and the possibility of being reborn is the golden bough Aeneas must obtain in order to gain passage to the Underworld. The Sibyl instructs Aeneas about where to find it and how to seize it.
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what golden bough exemplifies?
The golden bough, too, exemplifies liminality. It is both an inanimate metal and a living tree. It is a plant, yet has agency because its fruit follows only some “willingly.” It is subject to change and death (its fruits can be plucked), but it is also immortal because once plucked its fruit immediately grows back. In all of these ways, the golden bough captures the beauty and potential of liminality and the capacity to change, while retaining vitality. It symbolizes Aeneas’s own rebirth at the end the end of Book 6.
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Aeneas’s journey to the Underworld mimics the second stage of an initiation ritual. Make a list of the characters that contribute to his education and facilitate his transformation from a Trojan into a Roman
Characters:
Sibyl (Guide): The Cumaean Sibyl serves as Aeneas's guide through the Underworld, providing insights into the spirits he encounters and interpreting the significance of his experiences.
Anchises (Father): Aeneas has a poignant reunion with his deceased father, Anchises, in the Underworld. Anchises imparts prophecies about Rome's future and the destiny of Aeneas's descendants.
Dido (Former Lover): Aeneas encounters the shade of Dido, his former lover and Queen of Carthage. This encounter stirs mixed emotions and contributes to Aeneas's understanding of the consequences of his actions.
Heroes and Historical Figures: Aeneas encounters various heroic and historical figures, including warriors and leaders from the Trojan War. These encounters contribute to his understanding of the broader historical context and the importance of his role in shaping Rome's destiny.
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Aeneas’s journey to the Underworld mimics the second stage of an initiation ritual. Make a list of the objects that contribute to his education and facilitate his transformation from a Trojan into a Roman.
Objects and Symbols:
Golden Bough: Aeneas is instructed to pluck a golden bough from the sacred tree as a token for safe passage. This act symbolizes purification and readiness for the journey into the Underworld.
The River Styx: Aeneas crosses the River Styx, a significant obstacle in the Underworld, symbolizing the boundary between the living and the dead.
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Aeneas’s journey to the Underworld mimics the second stage of an initiation ritual. Make a list of the experiences that contribute to his education and facilitate his transformation from a Trojan into a Roman.
Experiences:
Seeing the Shades of the Dead: Aeneas witnesses the spirits of the deceased in various states, learning about their fates and understanding the consequences of mortal actions.
Visions of Future Glory: Anchises reveals to Aeneas the glorious future of Rome and the role Aeneas and his descendants will play in its foundation. This vision motivates Aeneas to fulfill his destiny.
Encountering Dido's Shade: The encounter with Dido's shade prompts Aeneas to reflect on the impact of his choices and actions, contributing to his emotional and moral development.
Understanding the Roman Ideal: Aeneas gains a deeper understanding of the virtues and values that will be essential for the future Romans, emphasizing duty, sacrifice, and the greater good.
