By Raed Hariz Last week’s class discussion was ultimately interesting and rich with exciting events and stories. At first, we zoomed in to the underworld, the world were men die twice. The underworld story is a flashback story told to Phaiakians, and to the King Alkinoos and the Queen Arete. The aim of telling this story is to impress the Queen, because she can facilitate Odysseus’ homecoming. Although it was extremely hard to reach there if a person was not dead, Odysseus had the power to do so. He went there with the objective of asking questions, his curiosity drove him into the underworld. For Odysseus to leave, he had to go to the underworld to ask Teiresias about the proper way to have a glorious homecoming that would satisfy his superb position in Ithaca. Teiresias recognizes Odysseus directly; he then drinks from a nasty pool (containing a mixture of blood, honey and milk…) in order to become prophesized. Afterwards Teiresias becomes able to recognize Odysseus’ fate, which is full with sufferings and sorrows on his homecoming journey. Teiresias then tell Odysseus that even if he comes back home, he will see Penelope and then go on another journey to sacrifice animals, and that he will die in an unwarlike way, which is disgraceful. Then you must take up your well-shaped oar and go on a journey until you come where there are men living who know nothing of the sea, and who eat food that is not mixed with salt, who never have never have known well shaped oars, which acts for ships as wings do…Death will come to you from the sea, in some altogether unwarlike way, and it will end you in the ebbing time of sleek old age. Odysseus met a lot of people in his underworld tour. He met his mother, Antikleia, their meeting was overwhelming because he couldn’t touch or feel his mother. Odysseus asked her a lot of questions, his mother informed him that the reason behind her death was because of her longing to him and not because of sickness. She also told him that his father is still alive and Penelope was faithful and have been weeping on his departure. Odysseus makes sure from his mother that his stuff is still hidden and safe. Odysseus then meets Elpinor, Elpinor was with him in the battle field and Odysseus did not know that he was dead. Elpinor drank too much and fell of the roof and snapped his neck out of the socket. He had the ability to recognize Odysseus because he wasn’t buried yet, so he asks Odysseus to go back to his land and bury him. Moreover, Odysseus lists all the mythical women he met (Tyre, Antiope, Alkemene, Megara, Epitasle, Chloris, Leda) and he tells Queen Arete their stories in details. He conveys the women’s stories to impress the Queen, because Greeks like listing. Afterwards, he tells Arete that he met Hercules who is known for his strength and power, and that Hercules told Odysseus that he is similar to him, which makes Odysseus as a result very important. Odysseus meets Agamemnon as well, who was killed by his wife before he saw his child; Agamemnon tries asking Odysseus about his son Orestos, but Odysseus Refuses to give an answer. Then, Odysseus sees Achilleus who is responsible of the underworld; Achilleus informs sadly Odysseus that he’s unfortunate in his stay in the underworld, and that he prefers to work as a slave for a poor person instead. O shining Odysseus, never try to console me for dying. I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another man, one with no land allotted him and not much to live on, than be a king over all the perished dead. Finally, the queen Arete decides to make the Phaiakians take Odysseus back to his home and gives him a lot of luxurious and valuable gifts. When Odysseus first lands in Ithaca, he did not realize it at first because Athena have changed the way it looked before he arrived. He first meet Athena, who was disguised as a shepherd, Odysseus asks Athena for mercy, he wanted her to tell him where he was, and he wanted to hide his valuable possessions or gifts. He lies to Athena about his identity, but then Athena reveals herself and shows her interest in his cunningness. They both start planning on how to kill the suitors. Athena then changes Odysseus into an old beggar, Odysseus meets Eumaeus,who shows his extreme loyalty to his master Odysseus, and who prefers to stay a slave for his master than be a free man with his family. Odysseus reveals his identity to his child Telemachus, they start weeping and then plan on how to kill the suitors. They assign a boxing match between the beggar (Odysseus) and another man. Odysseus had a confusing situation, if he wins and doesn’t kill that other man, the man will have a despicable future and if he kills him, he will reveal himself. He decides not to kill him to keep his identity a secret. Penelope met the old beggar with disgrace and asked him questions about her husband, he explained him perfectly which made Penelope take good care of him and asked Eurycleia to wash his feet. Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus from a scare in his feet but he held her throat and obliged her not to say a word. Penelope Afterwards assigned a bow contest, Odysseus wins in it and revealed himself and killed all the suitors in his house with the help of Telemechus, Eumaeus and Philoetius. Odysseus then revealed his identity to his wife, who was surprised and did not show any affection.
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By Sama and Laudy This week marked the beginning of our journey through the Odyssey, an epic tale revolving around the homecoming (Nostos) of Odysseus to Ithaca, 10 years after the Trojan War. 10 years? Just how long could it take a man to get home? Well, quite some time if he’s been cursed by the earth-shaking God of the Sea, Poseidon! Just like the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Odyssey was passed on throughout the generations orally before someone saw the importance of writing it down. All we have is the name Homer for an author, the first and the greatest of the Greek epic poets, who is believed to have lived around 850 B.C. The story was introduced cleverly, intriguing the reader and hindering him or her from understanding it except through reading on. “Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven The opening lines of the Odyssey not only introduce us to our hero as cunning man of many ways, but also look back at his great suffering in the vast seas, his long and glorious journey, and how Odysseus’ companions all perished because of “their own wild recklessness,” though he attempted to protect them. Odysseus is wed to Penelope, and has a sole son and heir named Telemachus. His family love and praise him but twenty years have passed since they have seen him and they are not even certain that he is alive. Ithaca has no king, and Odysseus’ family is caught in a predicament. Suitors for Penelope are abusing the guest-host relationship in their residence, seeking to gain the throne through marriage, but the uncertainty about whether Odysseus lives or not is troublesome. Penelope has remained faithful to her husband, but Ithaca can no longer remain without a king. What happens if she weds another man and then her husband, the rightful king returns? A major theme we covered in class was the role of women as temptresses in both the Odyssey and Gilgamesh. Whether it came from Calypso, Nausicaa, or Circe, Odysseus has had to push aside all temptation to get home, but he did so wisely every time because he needs their aid to get home instead of their wrath. For example, when Calypso mentions that his heart still longs for Penelope after all this time, Odysseus is cunning enough to respond that he pines for his home and not for his wife, who could never match Calypso’s beauty. On the other hand, Gilgamesh is disrespectful and doesn’t think twice about his actions when he refuses temptation, listing Ishtar’s misdeeds with her previous lovers, which makes her unleash Heaven’s Bull upon him. Right after Odysseus leaves Calypso’s Island, Poseidon’s fury destroys his boat. As he is floating on a raft, the sea-nymph Ino gives him her veil and tells him to use it so that he may escape. He believes that Ino is trying to trick him, and this is where we learn that Odysseus is both stubborn and an excellent strategist, deciding to remain on the raft and use the veil when it is destroyed. We have seen that the loyalty of men to their wives does not pose any particular issue in the Odyssey. In a society governed by the father-son relationship and inheritance, a man cheating on his wife is not a threat. In fact, Penelope praises Odysseus for sleeping with goddesses while on his journey, seeing that it only adds to his glory. It is important to remember that glory to the ancient cultures is simply the ability to do what other men could not, even if it is not exactly something positive. Despite that, loyalty to a particular God is very important in the Odyssey. Odysseus is portrayed as a pious man, especially towards Athena, who admires him for his cunning and bravery. It is easy to see how similar they are, and why a bond of friendship might form between the two. Throughout the Odyssey, Athena acts as the patron goddess of Odysseus, taking the initial step by pleading to Zeus to allow our hero to go home while Poseidon is away. She visits Telemachus disguised as Mentes, and inspires him to be rid of the suitors to avenge his father and prepare for his return by mentioning Orestes, a man who killed his mother and her lover to avenge the death of his own father. Though she aids Odysseus through all his trials, she could also be held responsible for all the troubles he faced in the first place. During the sacking of Troy, Ajax the Lesser dragged Cassandra out of the temple of Athena and raped her. In her wrath, she made the Greeks’ homecoming more difficult, sending Odysseus on the adventures that led to his arrival on the Cyclopean Isles and to the blinding of Poseidon’s son and Cyclops, Polyphemus. Then again, there is the matter of pride. As the opening lines of the epic claim, Odysseus tried to save his companions but “they were destroyed by their own wild recklessness” (1.7). Couldn’t the same be applied to Odysseus? His pride threatened and almost destroyed his homecoming. As Odysseus tells his story to the Phaeacians in book IX, we get a long and detailed look into his journeys before Calypso’s Island in the form of flashbacks. Because of his cunning, we can never be sure if what he says is true or if it is merely for the sake of impressing the Phaeacians to help him. He looks back at when he lands on the Cyclopean Isles, and sees a mountainous man in the distant. Odysseus still decides that he would like to take home gifts from the island. He ends up discovered in Polyphemus’ cave with his men and has the audacity to ask for gifts, which is met with the Cyclops eating two of his men. There’s no Xenia –guest-host relationship –there! At first, Odysseus claims he is “Nobody”, but upon escape, he yells his true name at Polyphemus so that he may tell the world who it was that blinded him. Odysseus bathes in his fame and glory, but it is his pride that brought upon him Poseidon’s wrath. As Polyphemus curses him, he also asks that Odysseus finds troubles in his home, perhaps foreshadowing to something that is yet to come.
The concept of Xenia is very important in the Odyssey because the Greeks were a seafaring people and it was important to build relationships and have assurances that you won’t be slaughtered as someone’s guest as you travel outside your territory. The guest-host relationship is a sacred bond that seems to be a bit like bartering. The host attempts to impress the guest, who then praises the host. After that, the guest is honored with many gifts and isn’t even asked for a name until he is about to leave. We saw this bartering system when Odysseus visited the Phaiakians, though they failed to impress him with their warlike games after Odysseus joins the games when he is insulted and the Phaiakians had to resort to dancing to impress him instead. Again, to further highlight the threat that his pride poses on his homecoming, Odysseus reveals some key information about his identity to the Phaiakians before he is even asked for his name, telling them that of all the Achaians that attached Troy, he was 2nd only to Philoktetes in archery.
Due Wednesday, February 18
1. When Odysseus lands on Ithaka he first meets Athene. What does he tell her? What is her response? 2. How does Telemachos nearly spoil Odysseus' plans to string the bow? By Cassandra and Nahla The past week, we discussed several new things concerning the epic of Gilgamesh. First, we understood that the epic we are reading isn't actually a single story where all the events are interconnected. In fact, the story of Gilgamesh as it is presented to us is a collection of texts that were forced together in one piece. The story of the flood for example, didn't initially belong with the rest of the text. This is why a lot of things don’t seem to make any sense in a connected story-like way. For instance, we notice the several repetitions of the same paragraph: "And why should not my cheeks be starved and my face drawn [...]" (p. 101); this repetition makes the paragraph appear as if it were being forced to take part in the text.
So the goddess conceived an image and it was of the stuff of Anu of the firmament. She dipped her hands in water and pinched off clay, she let it fall in the wilderness, and noble Enkidu was created. There was virtue in him of the god of war, of Ninurta himself. His body was covered with matted hair like Samuqan's, the god of cattle. He was innocent of mankind; he knew nothing of the cultivated land. (p.62) One of the other things we saw in class this week was the humanization of Enkidu. So Enkidu was created as an equal to Gilgamesh in order to distract him. Gilgamesh, though the shepherd of his people, was exercising a somewhat "justified tyranny," which led us to question the characteristics of epic heroes, that seem to be heroes as long as they're protecting the city even if they may kill innocent people, steal from them, rape them, or even cry and weep. Enkidu, however, was created as a natural man who ran with wild beasts and lived in the mountains. Gilgamesh advised a trapper to take a harlot to Enkidu so that she would help him become a man. What happens then evokes some similarities with the Old Testament, as we mentioned in class: the sex (that reminds us of sin), the clothing and the eating (just like the apple). The whole process seems to indicate a fall of Enkidu. On the other hand, the humanization of Enkidu is also characterized by an elevation, in difference with the Old Testament. In fact, he is called a god many times after his humanization. However, the whole process is neither an elevation nor a fall, it's more like a transition of Enkidu. Next, we talked about the reason behind the specific quest to the Cedars, where Gilgamesh and Enkidu aimed to kill Humbaba. As we said in class, Gilgamesh's faith was to accomplish something big. He chose Humbaba specifically not because he was evil, but because Humbaba was a strong protector of the Cedars whose killing would glorify Gilgamesh's name and practically make him invincible. Indeed, Enlil foretold that Gilgamesh's destiny was to become glorified through the killing of Humbaba, specifically. Another point we noted in class concerning this particular quest, was Gilgamesh’s view of death; at this point he was aware of his mortality and knew that everlasting life wasn't his destiny. This is another reason behind his quest, for he wanted to live as a hero - the one who killed Humbaba in particular - or die trying. We also took the time to talk about Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship, which is quite intriguing. At times, they are depicted as husband and wife, in fact, when Enkidu was first created and described, he seemed like the perfect women for Gilgamesh. However, when they actually met (after they fought), they seemed to be friends, where they appeared as equals. Nevertheless, Enkidu is also depicted as a servant of Gilgamesh later on in the text. We talked in class about Humbaba offering Gilgamesh his servitude and seeing Enkidu as a rival. Gilgamesh had peeled off his clothes, he listened to his words and wept quick tears, Gilgamesh listened and his tears flowed. He opened his mouth and spoke to Enkidu:' who is there in strong-walked Uruk who has wisdom like this? Strange things have been spoken, why does your heart speak strangely? The dream was marvelous but the terror was great; we must treasure the dream whatever the terror; for the dream has shown that misery comes at last to the healthy men, the end of life is sorrow. (p. 92) A major topic we also discussed was wisdom. In the epic, the idea of wisdom is very different from what we conceive it today. Wisdom was more related to knowing things no one else could know than the actual knowledge of important and challenging things. For instance, Enkidu was called wise because he had a dream about the afterlife, informing him about the future. Gilgamesh was considered the wisest man alive, just because he constantly had dreams about the future, even though he couldn't explain them on his own. This subject also led us to talk in class about the two dreams Gilgamesh had about the coming of Enkidu. He dreamt of a rock first then of an axe, and then sought his mother's assistance to explain them. Ninsun interpreted them both as symbols of the coming of Enkidu. He was going to push Gilgamesh to accomplish things, as she says: "a goad and spur" (p. 66), to explain the first dream. The axe, showed that Enkidu would be a constant companion to Gilgamesh and that he would help him in necessity, just like the axe they used to carry around all the time that helped them get food and defend themselves.
The last thing we talked about in class concerned Utnapishtim and the trip Gilgamesh took to find him. We said that Utnapishtim was immortalized because when Enlil and the gods agreed to kill all humans (due to their noise), he escaped the horrible flood with the help of Ea, who advised him to build a boat to survive the flood that lasted seven days. Enlil got enraged that he survived and so he granted him immortality. Now Gilgamesh wanted to find Utnapishtim to find out how he could become immortal. Throughout his trip, he constantly repeats that he seeks everlasting life for the sake of Enkidu who is dead. So, Gilgamesh first kills lions and eats their raw meat. He then finds the scorpion man (half dragon, half man), that allows him to cross to the mountains, where he walks twelve leagues in the darkness. After that he meets with Siduri - the wine maker. We discussed how we would think of her as an old woman but is actually a pretty young girl, who closes her gate in Gilgamesh's face. However, he forces himself in, which evokes rape in the Greek's minds. Now she first tells him to forget about Utnapishtim and go enjoy life, drink and get married. But then, she helps him find Utnapishtim by telling him about the ferry man who could help him cross the river of death. When Gilgamesh finally finds him, he is told that he must earn immortality, but he fails Utnapishtim's test. And on his way back to Uruk, a snake eats the rose he called "The Old Men Are Young Again" (p. 116), so he finally understands that everlasting life isn't his destiny. The funny thing, however, is that throughout all of the epic, Gilgamesh has to make peace with his mortality, but after his death he is actually immortalized. He becomes deified and worshiped as king of the underworld which made us understand in class that the fear of death doesn't concern death itself but more the fear of going to a really dreary place. Hey all,
On Friday I gave an assignment due on Wednesday: Answer the following questions as you do the reading for this week. Here they are. 1. Why is Orestes mentioned in Book I, and indeed, throughout the Odyssey? (Remember: Orestes was the son of Agamemnon). 2. Name three primary characteristics of Odysseus. 3. What does the decision Odysseus makes at the end of Book V tell us about him? (he's out on a raft...) 4. What is it about Nausikaa that is used by Athena and Odysseus to manipulate her? 5. How and why does Odysseus give himself away in Book VIII? As I said in class, the answers should be short but precise. Two sentences will do in most cases. Good luck! "I will proclaim to the world the deeds of Gilgamesh. This was the man to whom all things were known; this was the king who knew the countries of the world. He was wise, he saw mysteries and knew secret things, he brought us a tale of the days before the flood. He went on a long journey, was weary, worn-out with labour, returning he rested, he engraved on a stone the whole story." (p. 61)
"But the men of Uruk muttered in their houses, 'Gilgamesh sounds the tocsin for his amusement, his arrogance has no bounds by day or night. No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all, even the children; yet the king should be the shepherd to his people." (p. 62) This past week in class we talked about how good the Gilgamesh text really is for teaching us how to be critical of what we read, how it is presented, and - more interestingly - how we would initially try to interpret it. We learned that we need to ask ourselves many questions when approaching a text: Is it a translation? Is it even, in this case, an "Epic"? Is it from one text or many? When was it written? What do we know of the author? Etc. We saw that despite the cover of the book, N. K. Sandars is not the translator of Gilgamesh, merely the compiler of different translations. We also saw that these original translations are actually fragmentary and range in origin from 3000 B.C.E. to 700 B.C.E. and originate from several different cultures. One fact was saw, for instance, was that the story of the flood was never part of the original Sumerian version. It also seems evident that few of these episodes were originally composed as part of one story or "epic." In short, the version we are reading never existed until N. K. Sandars put all this material together and chose to call it an "epic" (a Greek word after all; the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians likely had no such term!). From this we arrived at three conclusions. First, we should not be surprised if the text contains contradictions, since much of it was never composed to fit together. Keep a lookout for such contradictions as you keep reading, for there are many in the text. We must be careful, for this reason, not to immediately assume a change in the text was intended, for instance the difference between Gilgamesh's view of death in The Forest Journey and what we will see later. This may just be a result of different texts being forced into one story. Second, we saw that because our knowledge of these ancient languages is very imperfect, we must be careful when considering individual words and their connotations. The woman that makes Enkidu a man, for instance, is called at one time a harlot and at another time something like a priestess of Ishtar. This should cause us to ask several questions: is "harlot" a good translation (likely not). Do these ancient people's think of sex in the way we do today? Certainly not. Then how do they understand it? - That sends us back to reading the text to find out. Third, we saw that perhaps the greatest challenge of this text - but a challenge present really in reading any text - lies in trying to see it from the point of view from which it was written. How can we possibly come to see what the Gilgamesh story meant to the Sumerians? To the Akkadians? You might think this is impossible, and you would largely be right. But it is not totally hopeless, because we know a lot about history. In particular, we know a lot about what has been discovered and what has happened after these ancient peoples lived that they could not have possibly known. This means we can try to approach their view of the Gilgamesh story by a negative process. We can realize, to give a few examples: They had no conception of science. They had no conception of history. They did not separate government from religion. They certainly had none of the connotations that we have regarding things like "evil" or "sex" or what have you, which are greatly influenced by our monotheistic religions. They predate monotheism. They had no conception of sin. They didn't view all gods as worthy of respect, but only their local gods. They had a totally different view of the afterlife than we do, and so must have had a very different conception of death. So when Humbaba is called "evil" in the text, for example, we must ask ourselves: What does evil mean here? And once we realize it cannot mean what we at first might think it to mean, we must realize that the only way to approach an understanding is by reading the story and seeing how the word is used. The same goes for Giglamesh's "wisdom" and even his "greatness." We must let the text teach us what these mean. That's how we can learn from it. |
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May 2015
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