The Odyssey of Homer A Close Reading - Week 1

Video: https://vimeo.com/642829312/245fb2b6a5

The Odyssey of Homer: a Close Reading

• Will Quinn
• Dr. Elizabeth Patton

Looking at Chapters 1-4

• Council of Gods on Mount Olympus
• Journey of Telemachus (Telemachy)

Translation

Using Richmond Lattimore's translation of The Odyssey in part because he keeps the sens of the formulaic epithets.

Dactylic hexameter

• Longfellow used it in Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

"This is the forest primeval."

Epithets

• "The man of many ways" (Odysseus)
• much enduring Odysseus
• rosy fingered dawn

These sorts of epithets are designed to fit the epic into the dactylic hexameter.

Background of story

Proem

in Greek suffering can mean "learning"

Q: When does the council on the gods take place?

"Council of the Gods" in Galleria Borghese (Rome) ceiling_ceiling.jpg)

Penelope with the Suitors by Pinturicchio

Circumspect Penelope