Corporación Universitaria del Caribe “CECAR”

Bachelor in Education
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Subject: English Literature Analysis
Workshop: The odyssey
Dear student please develop the following activities following these instructions properly:

1. Go to the resources section (in the virtual campus) and find a link called:

The odyssey – First task

a. Watch the video about “The Odyssey” by Homer (8th Century BCE).
b. Explore the timeline & Map, Slideshow, Connections and Key Points.
c. Read the Getting started section and Text section (Book 1) check the glossary too.

2. Answer these questions:

a. Write in front of each description the name of the character:

DESCRIPTION CHARACTER
Main suitor; all suitors take over Odysseus's Agelao
house while he's gone; most arrogant suitor.
Stays faithful to her husband, all the suitors Penelope
wish to take her hand in marriage; questions
her own husband to prove himself, before she
believes him.
Strong and brave epic hero, left for Troy and Odysseus(Ulises)
doesn't return home until twenty years later,
the epic story is based in his journey home;
defeats and kills all the suitors in battle with
Telemachus; the suitors had invaded his home
while he was gone.
God of the sea, brother of Zeus Poseidon
King of gods, Poseidon's brother Zeus
Grew up without a father, sets out in order to Telemaco
find his father; defeats and kills all the suitors
in battle.
Daughter of Zeus; goddess of wisdom; helps Atenea
Odysseus through his whole journey home and
aids Odysseus and Telemachus in their battle
against the suitors.

b. Whose help is invoked to tell the story of Odysseus and his adventures as the epic opens?

The muse

c. On whose island is Odysseus imprisoned at the beginning of the epic?

Calypso

Author: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz

 Corporación Universitaria del Caribe “CECAR”
Bachelor in Education
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Subject: English Literature Analysis
Workshop: The odyssey

d. Review the Expert´s View about the Odyssey in the materials provided and identify each
expert´s view in the following comments:

"When they were married, Odysseus didn't simply have a bed made for them, it was almost as if
he constructed the palace around the whole bed. It was sort of a tree bowl that had grown into
the palace and they built the bedroom around it."

Expert’s name: Simon Armitage

This scene shows a fascinating mix of psychological realism and a symbolically heightened reality,
in a kind of expansive elaboration of the early flashes of realism to be found in the Babylonian
Epic of Gilgamesh. In that story, Gilgamesh denies that his beloved friend Enkidu has died, sitting
by his corpse for six days and seven nights, until a worm crawls out of Enkidu's nose. Homer
makes much use of this vivid physical detail to bring his scenes to life even farther. A lesser work
would have cut straight to the chase, giving us an emotion-filled scene of rejoicing as the long-
separated hero and heroine rush into each other's arms. Yet here, surprisingly, Penelope refuses
to recognize her beloved husband, despite the fact that Athena has even restored him magically
to his youthful appearance of twenty years before. Not yet a modern novelist, Homer is quite
comfortable giving us this miraculous transformation, and Penelope herself never questions how
this rejuvenation could come about. So why doesn't she recognize him? Or does she, but she is
refusing to admit it to herself? Or is she so completely a match for Odysseus that she takes
nothing for what it seems to be? Homer leaves us to plumb the meaning of the scene as he fleshes
it out with the many details that Odysseus, having fallen into the loving trap set for him by his
wife, calls to mind in outrage at the idea that she now might have a new, movable bed.

Expert’s name: David Damrosch

"From the time which it began to circulate in the Greek world, The Odyssey was acknowledged as
a traveler's text. So Alexander the Great, when he set off to Egypt, had a copy of The Odyssey
with him. Lawrence of Arabia is the other classic explorer who is famous for citing The Odyssey
as his inspirational text. I've heard it said The Odyssey was a text that Columbus traveled with,
and that in addition to the Bible, it was one of his master narratives for his New World exploration.
There's seldom a period when The Odyssey falls out of view."

Expert’s name: Greenwood

"Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, and she's a perfect match for him, because she's just as crafty
as he is, just as devious, just as careful, and just as imaginative. She's keeping all of these suitors
at bay in her house who are just clamoring to marry her and take over the castle and the lands
of Odysseus by telling them, Oh, you know, I have to weave a shroud for my poor father, and I
just have to finish this, and so she weaves it every day, and then at night she unweaves it, so it's
never ever done. So, even though he comes and he says, I'm home, it's me, it's your husband,
she wants one test."

Author: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz

 Corporación Universitaria del Caribe “CECAR”
Bachelor in Education
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Subject: English Literature Analysis
Workshop: The odyssey
Expert’s name: Mary Zimmerman

"I think in a modern novel, you would expect a husband and wife to recognize each other before
any other recognition scene happens. But in The Odyssey, that relationship is so complex and so
deep that when it has been severed, it takes a very long and hard time to rebuild."

Expert’s name: Gregory Nagy

3. In a short paragraph, define what is the importance of this book in history. Include aspects
like:

- The social impact.

- The importance in world literature.
- The topics and characters and how they have transcended in history.
- Any other aspect you consider relevant.

4. Complete the chart with the following information:

CHARACTERISTIC ANSWER
Setting It happens in the sea but also in the town of Itaca
Plot Genres of action, drama and narrative epic
Theme It narrates the adventures of Oddyseusen the sea until it reaches the
shores of Itaca.
Characters Ulises, Penelope, Poseidon, Atenea, etc.
Conflict It is the confllicto between Troy and Greece and in this conflict the
adventure of Oddyseus or Ulysses is developed.
Resolution Poem of love and heroism, symbol of the voyage that every man must
do to find himself, to his destiny, the adventure of a striving hero who
tries to return to his homeland, to his home, and who loses companions
and years, but gains the reward of definitive fidelity and peace.
Tone Epic
Tense In ancient Greece and in the 11th century
Climax Ulysses manages to do all his job and so put everything in order.

Author: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz