Author Archive for Erin

Odysseus the hero, continued

So I’ve been doing more research, and I found something that kinda builds upon my last post (about Odysseus giving up his immortality, the heroic paradox, etc.)  In Nancy Sultan’s Exile and the Poetics of Loss in Greek Tradition, the wife of a hero is extremely important, as her mourning perpetuates his glory after his […]

Odysseus the hero

For my senior seminar paper, I’m writing about the influences of classical Greek literature in Southern Renaissance literature.  Basically, it is stemming from a novel we read about the Civil War which is loosely structured after the Iliad.  Consequently, I’ve been reading a lot about Greek epics and heroes.  One of the books I’ve read […]

a conglomeration of things…

First, I have to say this blog is very handy when you’re out of town!
In the translation, I had difficulty with lines 193-4.  I understand it’s something about leaves on the ground (appropriate for this season!), but I just can’t seem to put all of the words together.
To echo Midori’s post, I, too, was amused […]

The underworld, and a few other things

Reading Books 11 and 12 really intrigued me.  Book 11’s portrayal of the afterlife was very interesting, and I was amazed by the number of people he encountered.  I guess the typical person in Homer’s time would know the stories behind the names, but I did not know of most of them.  I’ve been looking […]

Odysseus’ crying

It is interesting to compare Odysseus’ mourning in different sections of the book. In chapter 10, which we translated, Odysseus weeps upon hearing that he must go down to the underworld, then once he is satisfied, asks how he should undertake this adventure and prepares to go. However, when on the island of […]