Ms. Hill Kaushal Rao Due Date: 9/31/13 Period 3 English 1 The Heroic Quest Newsletter Odysseus’ Story The Odyssey opens in the country of Greece nine years after the Trojan War ended. Because of Odysseus' absence, several suitors want to marry his wife, Queen Penelope. However, she believes that her husband will return, so she does not want to marry. Odysseus' son, Telemachus, also believes that his father is still out there alive. Meanwhile, Odysseus is trapped on…
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The notion of the journey is a fundamental thematic element in both The Odyssey and Inferno. Both of these narratives are bound together by journeys, although both have quite different effects. Homer and Dante used the theme of journey as a metaphor for maturing. In Homer’s The Odyssey, the plot reveals Odysseus’ struggles while he attempts to make a return to his homeland following the victory he and his men experienced in the Trojan War, and it is also concerned with Telemachus’ journey as he goes…
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divine descent endowed with great strength or ability,” (“Merriam-Webster”). There are two types of heroes, epic heroes and modern heroes. Odysseus and Mahatma Gandhi are both heroes who show courage, perseverance, and leadership, but differ in adventure. However, one thing is certain, modern heroes can be identical to epic heroes if they are larger than life, express the morals of their culture, embark on a perilous journey, and possess super-human, prominent characteristics. Epic heroes are always…
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shared” (129). This contradicts all of the solo journeys he has taken where he noted how much he enjoyed himself in his journal. McCandless recognizes that his entire journey was not built on happiness because it was missing a vital element: friends and family. The Alaskan odyssey suddenly seemed like a burden and he would have no one to share the experience with and some people would only experience it through second hand stories. McCandless began to want someone with him in the wild to share the experience…
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professor of Greece. The two historical poems, the Iliad, and the Odyssey were the beginning of Greek literature. Although the time frame is questionable, scholars have projected the time to be after the Trojan War. However, the Encyclopædia Britannica Online reports that Homer’s offspring’s called “Homeridae,” had taken over the safeguarding and spreading of Homer’s poetry. These Homeridae’s recited fragments of the Iliad and the Odysseys at events or public assemblies. Because of the different time…
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of these poets’ works would act as a precedent and point of reference for the poems that would follow as the times changed. Epic tradition has endured a long journey, growing and evolving over the centuries, beginning with Homer and his Iliad and Odyssey, the cornerstones on which later epics would be shaped. Homer is widely considered to be the first epic poet, having a lasting impact on Western canon that has touched most of the classic works that scholars so closely study. From him, the torch passed…
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Stories of mythology often reveal themes of human life and nature, like in the tale of Odysseus and the Sirens from The Odyssey. In this myth, Odysseus’ ship is sailing through the Sirens, these mythical monsters with the heads of women and the body of birds. Odysseus dares to listen to the Sirens’ alluring song, and he devises a plan so that he might survive it. The reader can learn a lot from this story. Margaret Atwood, an author of many literary works, and John William Waterhouse, a painter,…
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These Gods had supernatural powers. Each God was usually in charge of a certain element of earth. For instance Hades was in charge of the underworld or hell and Poseidon was in charge of the oceans. The gods had human characteristics and had human feeling like happiness and jealousy. The first books about the adventures of the Gods were written by Greek poet named Homer. Homer wrote the Iliad and Odyssey. Ancient ruins and artifacts often show the stories of the gods. The Greeks worshipped…
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being something greater than ourselves. Once stripped of its deceptive fibs and fabrications, the beautifully raw art of creating a life from imagination is revealed. The film Big Fish and the book entitled The Things They Carried both incorporate elements of the primeval configuration of telling stories, myths, and parables. The profound effect from these two works is to place value on telling stories, and how the evolution of human nature is dependent on the influence of storytelling. There lies…
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In The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus, a man who left his home for twenty years to fight in the Trojan War. Him and his men go on a long journey to Penelope. Throughout his peregrination, he has to fight and overcome the land and sea’s creatures, monsters, and gods. Some of Odysseus’s attributes bring him to a flawed hero. His imperfections are the reason for vexation of gods and monsters, like Poseidon, who comes to hate Odysseus after the Trojan War, and protracts his return back to Ithaca. Some of…
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