Odyssey, Books 13-16

What is your favorite episode in books 13-16 of the Odyssey, and why? (response and 2 comments on classmates' posts due on Tues., March 13, 2012, before class)

Example 17: Odyssey Cruises

Perhap the most ironic, least researched use of the name Odyssey, would be it’s use in Odyssey cruises. The mistake doesn’t need to much explanation, as we all know the story of the Odyssey follows the “unluckiest man” Odysseus, through the Mediterranean and fairy land for ten years in a desperate attempt to return home. Odyssey cruises promises breakfast, lunch, or dinner in a sophisticated setting, but it may as well be a promise from Circe with a treacherous name like Odyssey. They specialize in marriage as well, or true love as they call it. Arguably this is the only similarity with the story of the Odyssey, as Odysseus is in a constant search for his wife and love. Once again however, no one should feel confident in a company which implies the wedding might take 10 years, in which time it's very possible your wife could be relentlessly sought after by your old employees (as no one has subjects any more.) Odyssey cruises attempts to sound sophisticated by name dropping, but in the process appear fools, particularly since The Odyssey is the most read classic, it might explain why Odyssey cruises are only available in Boston, Chicago, or Washington DC. The only open ocean available is in one of their locations, Boston.http://www.odysseycruises.com/

Example 16: The Ultimate Defense

                         After racking my brain endlessly, I failed to think of anything that referenced the Odyssey that hadn't already been posted. Then I happened by a condom and immediately saw a connection between our culture and that of the ancient Greek world; the Trojan. I know the Trojans were largely the focus of the Iliad, but they do arise in the Odyssey when there is talk about the Trojan war or heroes in the Achaean ranks. The way I see the Trojan working for the condom companies is like this ''Our condoms last like that of the great city of Troy, and it would take a ten year onslaught to breach our defenses.'' Which is reassuring to the contraceptive intent. 

Example 15: South Park, season 6

ryanMar 6, 2012 09:28 AM

 This is a scene from south park season 6, the episode "Child Abduction is not funny". Although this episode does not relate to The Odyssey as a whole, this clips certainly does. It's a play on the famous story of the Trojan Horse that Meneleus reveals the story of in book 4. It is a great clip because for one it's just really funny, but it also shows how a story like this one has stayed so famous over time. This clip implies that the story of the Trojan horse is so very well known, and even if you haven't read the Odyssey the story is something you've heard. That's where the true humor comes from is taking the story of the Trojan Horse and making it's outcome unexpected and not what you are used to.

Example 14: Burn Notice and the Crafty Hero

One of the most important aspects of the Odyssey is that its main character, Odysseus, is the type of hero who would rather think his way out of a problem than anything else. True, he will stab a cyclops in the eye, but only after he has executed some brilliant plan to incapacitate him and ensure his own victory. This behavior, using tactical knowlege to take down bigger and or more dangerous opponents, is exactly what is demonstrated in this clip from the tv show Burn Notice. In it our hero, Michael, is trying to get a drug dealer to move out of the house next to him. Instead of directly confronting the man, though, the main character uses his guile to ensure victory. Like Odysseus, he attacks when his opponent can not see him (in this case this is accomplished by shooting through a wall and not by blinding). After incapacitating his opponent, there still remains the problem of escape/capture. Both characters treat this situation very similarly, by subverting expectations and entering/exiting in such a way that prevents their opponent from noticing them/stopping them. Really, in terms of character skills Michael and Odysseus have quite a bit in common. 

Emailed by Johnathan on 6/3/2012

Example 13: The Minivan

The Honda Odyssey minivan

Knowing how Odysseus' crew mates fared and how long it took even the sole survivor to get home, I don't know if I would have chosen the name "Odyssey" for a vehicle meant to transport a family safely from point A to point B.

Example 12: Greek References in Todays Politics (2009)

This political cartoon takes the well know trojan horse story we see early in the Odyssey and uses its idea to explain the authors feelings towards Obamacare and socialized medicine. From the authors prospective, Obamaare is just a cover to bringing, from his prospective, dangerous socialized medicine in to the United States, much like the tail of  Odysseus's  plan and action to build a similar trojan horse to breach Troy. It is interesting to me to see how the story that for the Greeks reflected wisdom and cunning now be a much more simple joke or to try to persuade ones political beliefs.        

Example 11: Allusions to the Odyssey - Stargate SG-1

Stargate SG-1: Season 1 Episode 11 is called "The Torment of Tantalus".

Obviously, as you can probably tell by the name, this is a reference to the story of Tantalus (a story which we haven't encountered yet in the Odyssey, I believe it is a few books later), but it also has allusions to other elements of the Odyssey.

In the episode, a scientist was stranded on a distant planet after having traveled a great distance through the stargate and was unable to reactivate the gate to return home. The scientist was engaged, and throughout all these years his fiancée had been told he died on that trip. The SG-1 team travels through the gate, along with the scientist's fiancée to find the scientist trapped on a deserted planet, where he lived for more than 50 years. After arriving on the planet, Daniel Jackson finds a ancient device which holds a great amount of knowledge, possibly even the meaning of existence of humans. When the team is ready to leave (after Macgyvering the gate in to a working condition) Daniel almost refuses to go, wanting to study the ancient device. The scientist finally convinces Daniel to leave with the rest of the team by using his life as an example of what could happen if Daniel stayed.

I like how this episode incorporates many plot elements of the Odyssey, such as the story of Tantalus - the scientist is so close to returning home, but can't reactivate the gate, and can learn the knowledge from the ancient people but have no one to share it with, the similarity to Odysseus' journey - being stranded on a far away uninhabited planet (island) wanting to return to his home and fiancée (wife), and the allure of the ancient device which almost succeeds in stranding Daniel on the planet alone (the lotus). Also, while the elements a present, it doesn't feel as though they are obvious - somebody who hadn't read the Odyssey would not feel as though this story was an awkward combination of elements from another story.

The episode is available for streaming on Netflix, and you can probably find it online elsewhere. I've included just the preview of the episode below.

Example 10: The Simpsons: “D’oh Brother Where Art Thou?”

In episode 14 of season 13 of The Simpsons, entitled “Tales from the Public Domain”, Homer plays Odysseus in the short story called “D’oh Brother Where Art Thou?”. Homer, along with his normal gang of friends now named after other characters from The Odyssey, start at the Battle of Troy, and eventually make their way to Circe’s island and then back home to Ithaca, where Homer fights all the suitors for his wife Penelope (Marge) and eventually wins his wife, son, and home back. This episode does a good job in the scene with Circe in running parallel but still different to how the books go in the Odyssey. In the Odyssey, Odysseus’s crew eats a fruit that causes them to never want to do anything but eat the fruit and makes them forget about home. Odysseus is forced to drag them back to the ships to make them come back along with him. In The Simpsons version however, instead of eating a fruit, all the men are turned into pigs. Furthermore, instead of dragging his men back to the boat, Homer just gets hungry and eats all his men for a snack.

Send by email from Kaitlin on March 5, 9:58 PM.

Example 9: Walking Dead

WARNING PARTIAL SPOILER ALERT IF YOU PLAN ON WATCHING THE WALKING DEAD I KIND OF REVEAL A FEW THINGS The Walking Dead, one of my new favorite t.v. shows that I just can't seem to get out of my head, presents to us very intense scenes and themes that grant us insight into the human psyche. To some, the parallels between Homer's tales and the Walking Dead might be a bit of a stretch, but one thing is certain: they are both pretty epic. The acts of unmitigated violence committed during the siege of Troy are very similar to the desperate means the characters in the Walking Dead are forced to take in order to survive, in the sense that they differentiate a great deal from typical actions. During the Iliad, we see great heroes depart from their homes for a king's honor, but in the process drift farther and farther from the norms of Greek culture. Before the war even begins, for example, Agamemnon kills his own daughter to whip up the winds. Agamemnon commits further atrocities: belittling his equals and killing noble Trojans who had surrendered. Other heroes are guilty as well. Achilles himself attempts to deface a man who was clearly loved, not only by his people, but Zeus himself. Oh, and apparently Hector's son was thrown off of the walls of Troy. Cowardly and completely anti-Greek? Maybe just a little. Meanwhile, in the Apocalypse, all rules are thrown out the window. People are left for dead, women suppressed, children executed (Zombies, but still), women raped, husbands cheated on, suicides are a regular occurrence, and families are completely destroyed. The list goes on, but you get the point. Women in particular get the shit end of the stick quite often. Sorry ladies, but its back to washing laundry. So far in the Odyssey, we have seen many of the characters longing for home and their families book after book. Odysseus wants nothing more than to reach his homeland and hold his wife and child. Time and again, however, he is delayed. Cyclopes, Gods, and an extremely seductive Nymph gets in his way. The characters in the Walking Dead also want nothing more than a safe place to stay and their old lives back. However, the world has changed for the worse, and not only do zombies oppose them, but other humans and even people in their group attempt to kill them or convince them to commit suicide. When Rick first wakes up alone in the hospital, his first thoughts are of his family. As he walks through Apocalyptic America, Rick goes through many trials and tribulations before reuniting with his family. Even then, things don't become blissful. Rick and the others still long for their dead culture. I think the major difference between the Odyssey and the Walking Dead, is going to be that once Odysseus is home, things will be settled and return to normal. Story over, drop the curtain. What makes the Walking Dead such a fascinating retelling, other than the fact that there are zombies running around, is that we don't know for certain that that will happen in their case. Rick could die. Shane could die. Laurie could die. Many characters have already died. Furthermore, unlike Odysseus, Rick and his merry band of ethnically diverse misfits have nothing to go back to.

Example 8: Cast Away (2000)

I think that Cast Away can loosely correlate with the beginning of the Odyssey. In the beginning of the story Odysseus is faring well but languishing for home on a desert island. Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is stuck on a deserted island, eventually he is surviving well. He to longs for home and eventually makes a raft to leave the island. This is similar to Odysseus's exit from the island. Both of these characters were on journeys that were brutally interrupted. The gods destroyed Odysseus's ship and drowned his crew, and Noland survives a plane crash with no other survivors. Both of the main characters are clever and strong willed with a drive to survive. There is also the epic romance of both characters. What keeps Noland alive and fighting to live is the memory of his girlfriend. Odysseus has his wife Penelope, to which he loves and is "faithful" in spirit to and wants to return home to.
However, Noland is not being kept company by a Nymph. He has to make do with Wilson, his volleyball. Also, Odysseus really isn't struggling to stay alive. He lives in relative comfort, while he may be bored Odysseus faces nowhere near the same amount of struggles as Noland does on his island. However, later in the Odyssey might make up for this. Both are trapped on their respective islands for years at a time, meanwhile their epic romances are tested. In Cast Away, Noland loses his love which is much different than Odysseus's last minute rescue of his.

Example 7: Disney's Hercules (1990)

A contribution by Gabrielle:

Disney's 1997 film 'Hercules' is a loose adaptation of the legend of
Hercules. One of the film's climactic scenes shows Hercules defeating
a Cyclops even though he has lost his strength. While I am not
familiar enough with the Hercules legend to know whether it too has a
battle with a Cyclops as one of the decisive scenes, it is still clear
that this scene draws heavily upon the legend of Odysseus and the
Cyclops. One of the most pivotal ways in which this scene echoes The
Odyssey rather than the traditional Hercules legend is that in the
movie, Hercules defeats the Cyclops through cunning rather than sheer
might--Odysseus' strengths rather than typically Herculean traits.
While in the Homeric legend Odysseus tricks the Cyclops into getting
drunk so that he might stab the creature's eye before claiming that
'Nobody' is responsible for it, in the Disney movie Hercules-though
having to face a monster for the first time without his god-like
strength-blinds the Cyclops with a torch before tangling the monster's
feet in rope so that he collapses off a cliff. In this manner both the
Cyclops in Hercules and the Cyclops in the Odyssey were defeated
through a more Odysseus-like trickery than simple power. The
motivations for the characters are also similar. In the Odyssey,
Odysseus' ultimate goal is to get home to his wife, who is swarmed
with unwanted suitors, while the ultimate goal of Disney's Hercules'
is to attain the love of Meg, whose soul is controlled by Hades.
Essentially, both characters are deeply driven by love.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4B5xbgYCF8

Example 6: The Bourne Identity (2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeGDBR0Ej_0



The opening scene of the Borne Identity can be compared to Odysseus's arrival in the kingdom of the Phaeacians. Jason is miraculously found alive drifting in the ocean on a very stormy night, just as Odysseus drifts ashore only after surviving with help from the Gods. Jason is found by strangers who clothe, feed and assist him, just as Odysseus is found by Nausicaa (a stranger) who does the exact same. Both the Phaeacians and the fisherman help these two lost seamen heal from their secretive journeys and give them tools to help them on their journey home. Both our male heroes are integrated into their new communities. Jason helps the fishermen fish and eats with them, without revealing his identity. Odysseus competes against the Phaeacian youth in competitive sport games and feasts with them as well. He is given a ship to go home, Jason is given money for the next leg of his journey. Jason doesn't reveal his identity (he is not aware of who he is), and Odysseus attempts to avoid divulging his identity as well. While in secrecy, they both reveal clues to their helpers. Jason has inherent physical reactions to certain things, as well as a chip under his skin revealing something of his past (a bank account number). Odysseus is grief stricken whenever a story is told or song is sung about Troy. The main difference is the fact that Jason is suffering from amnesia and cannot remember who he is, while Odysseus knows who he is but is avoiding telling the truth. Even in this difference, however, there are similarities. Part of the reason Odysseus never made it home is because of lotus fruit fed to his soldiers which made them forget their identities. Calypso can be seen as similar to Treadstone in the Borne movies - the organization and the woman both held the heroes captive, preventing them from being reunited with their former life. The last and most blatant similarity between the two epics is that both of these stories occur in the Mediterranean Sea!

Example 5: "Cold Mountain" (1997): The Modern Odyssey

An amazing retelling of the Odyssey is the novel by Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain. This wonderful novel is about a Confederate soldier named Inman who deserts the Civil War and makes his way back to the woman he left behind, Ada.  This novel truly is a modern retelling of the Odyssey.  It is very clear that Inman is Odysseus and Ada is Penelope.  Inman faces many troubles on his journey home to Cold Mountain: he is pursued throughout his odyssey by the Home Guard, much like Poseidon pursues and attempts to hinder Odysseus' return home. Furthermore, at the beginning of Cold Mountain, while Inman is still in the infirmary, he spots a blind man selling peanuts.  This character can be taken as Homer himself, whom historians believe was blind. Lastly, both Ada and Penelope back home are dealing with suitors, where while Penelope may have 108 suitors, Ada herself is being pursued by the town sheriff, Rudy. Throughout Cold Mountain there is much imagery and metaphors used, as well as the symbols of birds, which we have learned from the Iliad and Odysseys that bird signs were frequently interpreted as omens.

Example 4: "2001: A Space Odyssey" (USA, 1968)

The film 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick, besides being a modern epic unto itself, includes allusions to Homer's The Odyssey. Aside from the obvious reference in the title of the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey is largely about one man's return to home. This man is an astronaut and scientist named David Bowman. He can be equated to Homer's Odysseus. In the film, Bowman kills HAL 9000, an intelligent supercomputer who wreaks havoc while on the crew's mission to Jupiter by killing one of the astronaut's piloting the space craft and all of the crew members who are in hibernation. HAL 9000 represents the Cyclops, particularly because he is embodied by a single glowing red eye. In order to shut down HAL 9000, Bowman has to enter the main-frame type area of the spacecraft, which I think resembles a cave, where HAL's "brain" is kept. Bowman inserts a key to kill HAL 9000, similar to Odysseus's use of a stake to blind the Cyclops. I think Kubrick does a really great job with the rendering of this scene. It is haunting, particularly with HAL's pleas in the background and the song he sings just before his death. I encourage all of you to watch this fantastic film if you haven't seen it already. Here is a link to the scene I described (unfortunately embedding was disabled): http://youtu.be/px0c4Tgg6gg

Example 3: Odyssey Allusion in Sonic X

In this episode of “Sonic X: An Underground Odyssey”, Sonic and his friends trek into a deep cave in search of emeralds. The cave is very similar to the cave of the Cyclops. Throughout the episode, there are many random allusions to the Odyssey. For example, in the very beginning the people on the deserted planet are “longing to be home” and “have been lost for a long time.” And along with that, they hope to be home soon, and are not giving up hope, much like Odysseus. There is also a scene where, a character, Chris is talking about how the cave might be dangerous and a different character holding “Snuggles” reassures him by saying, “don’t worry, if things get scary at least snuggles is there, he wouldn’t let anything happen to them Chris, ‘cuz he’s tough!” This seems to be a reference to the gods, and more specifically, Athena as she was always at Odysseus side and now Telemachus as he searches for his father, the “emerald.”It is interesting because, this is a kid's cartoon show and it alludes to the Homeric classic. It is funny to me because the targeted audience is highly likely to not understand the allusions at all. So why include references to the Odyssey in a cartoon show?

Example 2: Symphony X: The Odyssey (2002)

Symphony X is a modern metal band with a penchant for Greek Epos. In 2002, they released an album entitled The Odyssey, which features an epic 24 minute track, The Odyssey. This song follows Odysseus' journey in an epic fashion. This song consists of 5 parts, which serve to highlight different emotional aspects of Odysseus' plight. I will talk about the first 3 parts, which relate to chapters 1-9. Part one is purely instrumental, and lasts for around three and a half minutes. It serves to set the emotional grandeur for the rest of the song. It has great highs and lows, and ultimately succeeds in feeling grand. In this ways it mirrors an epic poem, as the emotions evoked are grand. The second part of the song is initially calmer in its instrumentation. This slowly peaks as the song continue, ultimately evolving into an complex, fast-paced metal song. This section features a large amount of orchestral instrumentation, in addition to the metal band, which serves to increase the grandiose of the song. The lyrics in part two speak of Odysseus' desire to return home. They highlight several important parts of the epic, such as Odysseus' common crying, which shows his grief. Part two ends with in a heavy metal section, with the lyrics "we are coming home," which shows Odysseus' determination to reach Ithaca again. Part three speaks of the contact between the Achaeans and the Cyclops. It opens with what may be seen as formulaic verse, "Awaked at dawn", much the way that Homer starts many a verse speaking of dawn. This section speaks directly to the encounter with the Cyclops, by referencing the Cave of Woe (Cyclops' cave), and the Eye of Hate (the Cyclops). This section also uses epic features, when it refers to the Cyclops by using a metaphor. Part 3 continues to describe the encounter between Odysseus and the Cyclops, and ends with a description of an eye flowing with blood, much as the Cyclops' eye did in the Odyssey. I believe that this genre of music is apt to portray an epic poem such as the Odyssey. Progressive metal allows for the complexity and use of orchestral instruments necessary to highlight the grand characteristics of the poem, while it simultaneously allows for the use of grisly images, much like the Greeks did in their epic poems.

Example 1: Ulisse (Italy, 1954)

(NOTE: Your discussion does NOT have to be that long! Ca. 250 words suffice.)

Attached below is a collage of excerpts from one of the classical movie adaptions of the Odyssey, Mario Camerini's Ulisse (Italy, 1954) with Kirk Douglas as Odysseus, Silvia Mangano as Penelope/ Circe, Anthony Quinn as evil suitor Antinoos, and Franco Interlenghi as Telemachus. The title Ulisse, by the way, echoes the Latin name of Odysseus, Ulixes.

The Phaeacian princess Nausikaa was played by Rosanna Podesta (the same who a year later played the title role in Helen of Troy, the movie that made her famous), but she is not featured in these excerpts.

The Cyclops episode in this film is remarkably effective, even if the Cyclops' one-eyed make-up (by then well-kown special effects artist Eugen Schüfftan) may seem crude in the view of today's computer-assisted special effects. Yet the Cyclops appears appropriately gigantic and crude compared to Odysseus and his crew.

The film preserves much of the Homeric plot, although the story has clearly been shortened, and there are also a series of other interesting changes. The Cyclops episode, for example, is noticeably less gory than Homer's original. We don't actually get to observe the Cyclops eating his Greek victim, unlike in Homer. In fact, we also don't see him actually smash his victims against the walls of his cave. No brains are splattered, nor does the sleeping Cyclops throw up bits of human flesh. Similarly, when the Greeks pierce the eye of the sleeping giant with a seething hot sharpened stake, we are not treated to a view of the sizzling eye, as in Homer, but instead see the frightened Greeks from a frontal perspective as they quickly retreat from their screaming victim. Strangely, the perspective from which we see them would be that of the Cyclops if he still had his eye sight.

A notorious goof in this episode has to do with the wine Odysseus uses to make Polyphemus drunk. After the first wine skin is empty, Odysseus shows Polyphemus that one can press wine out of grapes. As requested, Odysseus and his men produce more wine by crushing grapes, the juice of which Odysseus gives immediately to the Cyclops without letting it ferment. So the Cyclops gets stinking drunk from no more than grape juice.

One of the many interesting plot changes that reflects the different tastes of the 1950s comes later in the Circe episode (not part of the selection). When Odysseus encounters the witch, she has the appearance of his wife, Penelope (both roles are played by Silvia Mangano), and that's why he sleeps with her and finds it hard to leave her again. So in 1954 Italy, the notorious skirt-chaser Odysseus has suddenly become someone who commits adultery only because he succumbs to the illusion of sleeping with his wife. 

Similarly designed to excuse the more questionable sides of the Homeric Odysseus seems to be the last episode on the selection where the beggar Odysseus drops his disguise and starts shooting the arrogant suitors with his reclaimed bow. In Homer, Odysseus is clever enough to have Telemachus remove all weapons from the dining room before the bow contest begins, so that he can later shoot his 108 enemies when they are unarmed. In the 1954 movie, the suitors fight back with spears and swords, so Odysseus' merciless butchery of them looks more justifiable, like actual self-defense.

Odyssey 1-9 in Modern Adaptations

Find a modern image, film, or story that alludes to one of the episodes in Odyssey 1-9. Explain what you think is good, bad, or remarkable about it. If possible, illustrate your blog post with a relevant image or film clip or add a link instead. (Due: Tu, 3/6/12).



To embed a video from YouTube, just follow these simple steps:

1. Click on the "Share" button underneath the YouTube video.
2. Click "Embed" to find the embed code.
3. Copy the code, then paste it into your blog while on the "Edit HTML" tab (as opposed to the "Compose" tab).
4. Publish your post!