Odyssey

The Odyssey has to be my favorite read of all time.  I love how Odysseus dominates all the obstacles set before him.  With his wit and charm he can elude any unfortunate conflict, but he is not one to shy away from battle.  His hunger for knowledge has its downsides though.  When he wishes to hear the sirens he has his crew strap him to the mast of their ship while they have bees wax in their ears to muffle the melodious sirens' songs.  His pride gets the best of him when he reveals his name to Polyphemes. 

"The Lotos-eaters" and photos from the Odyssey

I know Dr. Clemente said he was going to bring in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Lotos-eaters," next week, but here's a preview of it if anyone wants a sneak peek!
The Lotos-eaters by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

And here are various photos of paintings and other artwork of images from the Odyssey. 

Geneology of Greek Mythology

I found this image of the Family Tree of the Greek gods.

Another page with a family tree of the gods is here.  It has clickable links with futher information. I HOPE it works, and I hope it is helpful!

Calypso

The Odyssey on stage!

Even the thesbians have tackeled Odysseus's epic journey. The challenge of multiple locations is a difficult one to meet. The set designs of both Doane and Minnesota State University met the challenge beautifully but with very different approaches. MSU chose simplicity with a series of white tapestries and poles while Doane chose extravagance.



Doane had an elaborate set including sand!









MSU used a shadow to depict the larger-than-life Cyclops too.

Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

One of my favorite movies, Oh Brother Where Art Though?, fallowing the story line of The Odyssey. The Cohen brothers put together an American version of the classic tale set during the depression in the South. George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson play three escaped prisoners in search for hidden treasure. The various characters and road blocks the trio encounter on their journey parallel  those of Odysseus and his men, including the seductive Sirens, one of my favorite scenes from the movie.

Athena

Athena's an amazing character so far in the Odyssey. I hope there will be more of her to see.

My computer's being mean, so here's a link to the picture of Athena I wanted to post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Athena_Parthenos_Altemps_Inv8622.jpg

Uruk

This is a picture of the "excavated walls" of Uruk.

Check out this site that talks about Mesopotamia and, specifically, Uruk. The short description about the city even mentions Gilgamesh and his building of the walls.

First Posting World Literature

These three images reflect the first three texts we will encounter this term, The Gilgamesh, Homer's Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid.

All the members of the World Literature to 1500 will take part in the creation of this blog to add to the class discussions and knowledge base, using all manner of materials, from hyper links about, say, a graphic novel about Gilgamesh, to video of a new game called Dante's Inferno.




The previous two links point to ways in which these ancient epics remain very much part of our contemporary culture, including, of course, a very different Homer's Odyssey: