The Odyssey Books 1-8-2 PDF

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Summary of books 1-8 of the Odyssey...

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Laranetto

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Daniel Laranetto Karen Rhoads Van Dyck Literature Humanities 42 22 September 2016

The Odyssey of Homer: Books 1-8

The first thing that I noticed before reading the first 8 books of The Odyssey of Homer was that we were reading a translation by Richmond Lattimore, who also translated the version of The Iliad we used. One difference between the way Lattimore presents The Odyssey compared to The Iliad is that above each page of The Odyssey there are a few words that highlight the main action of that page. Looking at these words is an interesting way to gain insights about what Richmond Lattimore thought were the most important events on each page. A possible theme that stood out to me from some of the first few books is how revenge seems to be a very influential motivator for many of the characters of these epics. In book 4, Menelaos tells Telemachos of how he heard of the murder of his brother, Agamemnon, from the Old Man of the Sea. On page 79 he recalls, “So he spoke, and the inward heart in me was broken, and I sat down on the sand and cried, nor did the heart in me wish to go on living any longer nor to look on the sunlight”. But Menelaos was rejuvenated when he was reminded by the Old Man of the Sea, that he could still go back to the land of his fathers and kill Aigisthos for killing Agamemnon. This is a similar phenomenon to what Achilleus experienced in The Iliad, when he first heard the news of the death of Patroklos. Achilleus is immediately heartbroken and appears to have lost all will to carry on living. The only motivation he has to try to endure is the hope of getting revenge by killing Hektor. A few of the other features of the story that have stuck out to me thus far include the importance of hospitality, the continued theme of fate, and the constant conflict between mortals and immortals....