1.      The one thing I had a question about more than anything throughout the Odyssey was the bard. What is a bard? They seem to sing, and sing epic stories – but what does the word mean exactly? Upon research, this is what I found. “1.

a poet, traditionally one reciting epics and associated with a particular oral tradition.”

 

A bard, therefore, doesn’t even have to sing but can sing if he wants to. He tells stories, that are passed down through generations… Interesting… so was it through bards that the story of the Odyssey was carried down orally?

     Response to Books of the Odyssey, V-XII

     Throughout these eight books in the Odyssey, I noticed a few things. First of all, Ulysses is always talking extremely fancy. I can’t help but laugh at him! Come on. When he sees the girls washing clothes, and he’s naked? He talks to himself. Think about how realistic this is. “Will they kill me? Are they evil? Is she a goddess? I know what I will do! I will go out and see for myself. That is how I will know.” Yeah, if you were put in Ulysses’ position, you wouldn’t say all that in that situation. You’d might think it, but to say it out loud? No. You wouldn’t. Secondly, I noticed that even though all these people are hospitable, they can be just as cruel – such as when the one blessed man sent Ulysses away saying, “You’re cursed.” Thirdly, Ulysses is clever and wise – but he does, like everyone else, have a big head. He is easily provoked into joining in the games, and immediately starts bragging about how he is the best at all of them and will accept any challenges. All of that due to one little insult. This “ego” shows up a little throughout the story.  
     As the storyline itself goes, I found it to be much the same as Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. The Sirens, Circe, Scylla, and the whirlpool all show up in the Percy Jackson story as well. I found that interesting. God’s intervene all over the place, such as when Mercury appeared to give Ulysses the root dispelling him from all charms – where did Mercury come from? Why did he do that? It was very quick, I thought. Also, I’ve heard audio books on the Odyssey before, and I remember the tales of Scylla and the whirlpool and the Cyclops being much harder than this reading. It was described in much further detail, and I they were barely hanging on for life. But when I read it this week, it seemed like they made it through each of those without too much difficulty. They lost some men, sure. But they just kept going, and seemed to forget about it. I’m not sure if this is due to a lack of detail from Homer, or if Ulysses just skipped over some parts, or if I listened to an inaccurate audiobook. Either way, I was surprised that so little time was spent on each of these hardships.
     One of the other things I noticed that was strange was the swift changes in attitude in Ulysses. He asked the singer to sing a song about the Wooden Horse in Troy. He was “weeping bitterly” according to the Odyssey. The king asks the singer to stop, and then asks Ulysses to tell his story – and Ulysses just starts telling the story like an honorable hero. Did some time pass for him to stop crying, or did he simply stop crying and tell the story like a true adventure man? That’s a far-fetched attitude change, I think. The last thing I noticed is the king of Phocaea throwing a mini Olympics for this man [Ulysses], of which he knows nothing about. He doesn’t even know Ulysses’ name, but judges him rather on how he talks and looks. What kind of culture is this? Did people really trust others that much back then?

Odyssey Response, Books II – IV

It’s getting interesting! In these books, Telemachus is looking everywhere for his father. My thoughts and reactions were not really on the story, but the way it was written – did anyone else get annoyed by the “rosy fingered Dawn” thing? I laughed every time I read it. Also, how easy was it to get someone to cry back then? I mean, the only crying part in this story so far where the character actually deserved to be “weeping” is the part where Menelaus finds out his comrades are either dead or aren’t doing well. I’d cry for that. But if I were a maid, and my mistress was weeping, I wouldn’t start weeping too just because she is. I found that part, along with all the other crying parts, very strange and kind of comical. Also, I found the suitors are pretty stupid. Who in their right mind would walk into someone else’s house, and stay there forever? Think about this happening today – it’s unheard of! The people would be in jail at once. Why aren’t the local authorities taking action on the suitors? Was that kind of behavior actually legal back then? That seems so weird, that people would really just do that. Anyhow, I’m looking forward to reading more, and getting into Ulysses’ half of the story.

Heroes – “A Hero is a selfless person who is courageous and overcomes fear to benefit others despite any obstacles.” That was our class definition. I looked up the site on the blog, and found three of those four definitely abiding by this definition. The people who raised the flag at Iwo Jima totally fit this, I read a book on them once – each one didn’t care about themselves, more or less did what they did to fight for America’s freedom. They raised that flag, despite the bullets flying from all directions and rough, crazy terrain – despite all those obstacles. They most definitely fit the definition. I’m not sure I understood the second example, I wasn’t familiar with what it or he was and there wasn’t anything to read about. Batman? He was a hero. He didn’t care about himself, and ran around catching those villains so the people could live in peace. So he did what he did to benefit others… no matter what the cost, or the obstacles. And firefighters are everyday heroes that save hundreds of lives all the time. They risk everything to get an innocent person out of a fire, no matter what the cost to them, and no matter how bad the fire is. They are selfless, and get that person out despite any obstacles. These fit the definition perfectly, “selfless” “benefit others” “despite any obstacles”. All those examples fit our definition perfectly. By the way, I think we should send our definition into Webster – all they have on hero is “A person who is greatly admired.” While that may be true in some cases… I like ours much better.

 

 

Response to the Odyssey Book I

I enjoyed it, I’ve always been a huge fan of Greek Mythology so I’m looking forward to reading this poem. What I found most interesting is Zeus is referred to as Jove. I’ve heard Zeus named as Jupiter before, but never Jove, so that was interesting. I found the text a little confusing. It’s just old language I guess, and it takes a little more thinking to comprehend than newer more casual writing. Nothing surprised me that much, not yet anyways. Active reading helped me understand the tricky language better than usual, through re-reading and summarizing it was much easier to understand the language. Looking forward to Book II!

Response to Geeks Bearing Gifts
     The two main writing techniques I see here are the organization of the paragraphs and the suspense of the “conclusion” paragraphs. The organizing of the paragraphs I thought was cool – he had a paragraph of her going out into the public, and then a paragraph with her sitting down with her boyfriend telling him how it went. That was kind of like a paragraph where the information was stated, and then a paragraph where it was concluded. Basically it was “information”, then “conclusion”. But it occurred almost every two paragraphs, and therefore gave the essay a unique kind of flow; a very confident flow where the reader always understands what just happened. This would help my writing a lot, because I know I tend to ramble on sometimes and give my writing a somewhat messy flow.
     But at the end of each one of these “conclusion” paragraphs, there was a sentence that led you to look forward to the next time she went out in the public – which leads me to the second technique. In these sentences, the author gives you a feeling of suspense for what’s going to happen; the result of this is that when the essay finally ends, you’re left wondering what happens, or what will happen. It’s always good to make your readers want more, it shows you know what you’re doing as a writer. My short stories could always use more suspense, perhaps this technique could be used to achieve it.