The Odyssey-Part 2

I really enjoy all the descriptions in The Odyssey. Everything is really easy to imagine, and I still really like the format of all the different stories.

Everything seems really dismal for all the heroes in general. Their lots in life seems to be incredibly difficult, dangerous, and emotionally damaging. In The Kingdom of the Dead, every hero—most whose names have been mentioned in relation to how awesome of hero they were—had a tragic end. They spent so much of their lives in this drastic situation, a tightrope of life and death, and they all ended up in the exact same place, without ever having the chance to live their life. Their lives were determined, more or less, the moment they had a god or goddess for a parent. But they all still were more or less destined for the same fate, the same end. Heroes do not seem to survive very long, and the gods and goddesses do not really let them. It really seems like the only way a demigod would be able to survive for very long is if they managed to avoid having any of the gods or goddesses know they exist: no great or powerful deeds, no quests, nothing. If they lived their life quietly, then they would have a significantly less blatant chance of angering someone who could kill them—and has absolutely no problem whatsoever killing people. The gods are way too emotional.

I still really do not understand why everyone wants to kill Odysseus. It honestly does not seem like he is worth the effort to try to kill him. Obviously no one has succeeded thus far, and since apparently none of the gods and goddesses can actually work together well enough to off him, and no one can quite work together well enough to save him entirely, everyone should just give up their dreams of revenge or heroics and let the guy live his life (more or less) in peace. If he really is so important, he would be better off left to his own device actually able to make a difference than dragged all over the place in attempts to kill him.

I am also seriously impressed with how easily women seem to swoon over him. Odysseus really does not seem that great. He is not dead yet, great. There are easily hundreds of thousands of men who are also not dead yet. Get over yourself.

Why do you think, out of all the possible people to talk to Odysseus, why was it Achilles who went through the list of the dead?

Do you think Odysseus would have made it this far without the help of any gods or goddesses, or anyone else? Do you think he was strong or smart enough to figure everything out on his own?

Why do you think, out of all these people and heroes, why is Odysseus so important?

Homer's Odyssey

I like The Odyssey way better so far than The Epic of Gilgamesh. I love learning about the Greek gods and goddesses, though. And as much as I love Genesis, I also like The Odyssey better. The Odyssey seems to have a lot more action than both The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis. The Epic of Gilgamesh did have a lot of action, but that action always seemed very passive to me, I guess.
I like all the other characters more than I like Odysseus. He is incredibly lucky that so many people liked him, because he really does not seem that intelligent. So far the only thing he really has going for him is the debate and escape from the Cyclops Polyphemus. To be fair, he did help his men several times, but he is recounting his tales to the Phaeacians. We do not really know whether or not Odysseus is a reliable narrator. I feel like he very well could be, but everyone embellishes stories at least a little when they tell them. On the other hand, he does actually seem to listen to the requests of the gods and goddesses helping him out, and there is something to be said for that. The goddess Ino gave him a veil to help protect him from Poseidon, and when he was more or less safe, he obeyed. There is something to be said about that. It seems like out of any of his personality traits, his confidence is probably the one that got him in trouble in the first place, and probably is the one that gets him in trouble the most.
What on earth did Odysseus do to piss off Poseidon? It generally takes a lot to anger him, as opposed to angering some of the other gods, who already have terrible tempers, like Zeus or Ares. Poseidon is generally a lot more laid back than some of the other gods. Odysseus is seriously lucky that Athena likes him, and that she along with others are trying to help protect him. Most gods do not forget other people’s mistakes that easily, although they all seem fairly excellent at forgetting their own.
I seriously love Calypso’s character. Her story is so interesting, because she did not actually do anything wrong besides support her father Atlas in the Titan war. He was cursed to have to hold up the world, and he couldn’t put it down unless someone else agreed to hold it, and she was forced to live on an island in the middle of nowhere all by herself, with only Hermes as the occasional visitor. On top of that, sometimes men (like Odysseus) would wash up on her shores, but she was cursed to fall in love with only men who could leave. Only once she fell in love with them would they leave her behind, never able to find the island again. Also, her speech to Zeus about double standards is fantastic. She really knew how to use her words.
I really like all the separate stories in The Odyssey, and how they all come together in one big story. I am not a huge fan of Odysseus’s character, but he does have a few, minimal really, redeeming qualities.
Which story do you think best shows Odysseus’s character? Why?
Which god (that we find out about) has the worst temper? Which one has the worst temper?
Do you think Odysseus would have been able to do as much as he did and make it as far as he did if he had not had help from so many of the gods and goddesses? Why?

Genesis Part 2

It is interesting how focused the whole lens of the book of Genesis becomes. I have never really noticed that many literary things about it before. I also think it is really interesting that I did not notice this until today, since the book gets equally as focused with what we read last week, and where we left off, with Jacob and his wives, is exactly what the rest of Genesis focuses on. I think the only reason I did not notice before was probably because I did not think it was strange, but then we mentioned it in class, so my attention was drawn to it.

I always felt bad for Rachel in this story. Jacob wanted to marry her, and her dad was just kind of a jerk, and then he tricks Jacob into marrying Leah, and only after 7 more years of work does he get to marry the daughter he actually loved. I also felt bad for Leah. At this point, neither she nor Rachel or happy, but Leah gets to have thirteen children, and no matter how hard Rachel tries, she only ends up having two. Also, it always seemed to me like Leah was in on her father’s treachery, which made me not like her, but it seems highly probable that she did not really have any other choice. Even if she did like Jacob, which it seems like she did, at least a little, it would suck to marry someone that you knew for a fact did not love you. Especially when all they tried to do after that was marry your little sister. This just seems like everyone involved, besides Laban, was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I am still kind of surprised that everything worked out so well. I mean, yeah, Jacob and his wives and his children ended up running away from Laban, but that seemed to magically all work out, even though Rachel was a thief and lied about it. I also really never understood (and still do not) why Rachel decided to steal the household gods in the first place (household gods? Are those, like, smaller than regular gods, but still bigger than apartment gods?). They seemed like a really useless thing to steal, and definitely a really strange thing for Laban to chase after them just to get back. I feel like it was just an excuse to see if they had stolen from him in any other way. He was incredibly greedy, which did not end up working out for him in any way, shape, or form. Still, it seems like Laban would have figured out that someone was lying, or at the very least had a temper tantrum because he did not end up getting what he wanted.

On to the matter of Jacob’s sons. Seriously, everyone in this family seems unhappy and incredibly upset with their lives, except they all work out in the end, which seems like something we would classify as fairytale-like today. Which is kind of interesting and strange, thinking about the Bible having the first fairytales. Anyway, I digress. I always felt really bad for Joseph, because the poor guy gets thrown down a hole, by all his jealous brothers, and guess what, his mother is extremely upset because she thinks her only child is dead. She had one child, and then her sister’s sons all thought it would be a brilliant idea to throw him down a hole and hope that he died, but not bother to verify that information. Which explains why Joseph was the genius who managed to help run a country and they were not. That always seemed like a weird segue/outcome. Still does.

Why do you think the book ends the way it does, with Jacob’s death?

Why do you think the Pharaoh’s wife was so interested in Joseph? Why did she try so hard to get him into trouble?

Why do you think Joseph was so willing to forgive his brothers, even after they threw him down a hole, despite the fact he had not seem them for like twenty years?