What about women?

Use the comment button to post summaries of articles that deal with women (attitudes toward women, their defined roles, their ability to act--or not, their responsibilities, etc.) in Ancient Greece, and in The Odyssey in particular.

I see....a long, perilous journey

Use the comment button to post summaries of articles dealing with prophecies (as plot/poetic devices), gods and Fate.

How do I know anything you've said to me is the truth?

Use the comment button to post summaries of articles that deal with Odysseus as a man "skilled in all ways of contending " (disguise, story telling, improvisation/fabrication, and so on).

Mi casa es su casa

Use the comment button to post summaries of articles that deal with the importance of hospitality to the Ancient Greeks, especially as portrayed in The Odyssey.

And so with gods and men...

Use the comment button to post summaries of articles dealing with the Ancient Greek gods and/or their relationship with mortals.

Favorite lines from The Odyssey

Use the comment button below to post your favorite line (or lines) from the poem, and give a brief explanation of why you made your choice. Indicate the speaker, the book, and the line numbers.

I'll start:

"Let me hear no smooth talk
of death from you, Odysseus, light of councils.
Better, I say, to break sod as a farm hand
for some poor country man, on iron rations,
than lord it over all the exhausted dead." (Achilles, Book XI, lines 542-546

Achilles, who traded glory for death, is humbled; he speaks a message of life that all mortals can relate to. Furthermore, he cuts right through Odysseus's clumsy attempt to honor him in death. One of the few moments someone is an equal match to Odysseus's rhetorical skills.

Thoughts about The Odyssey.

Use the "comment" button below to add a brief (roughly 200 words) reaction to The Odyssey so far (Books I-XVIII).

You might discuss the oral aspects of the poem, or the way the poet unravels the plot. Maybe you want to write about Odysseus' s wild adventures or simply about what it means for him to be "skilled in all ways of contending."

Write about women in the poem, especially as they related to Penelope; or maybe write something about the interesting interplay between the Gods and mortals.

Write on something that interests you, and write well!