CLAS 1000 Lecture 3: Homer Continued and Religion and Myths

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLAS 1000
• Professor: John Walsh

Document Summary

The comic odyssey (morris and powell chapter 6) Set upon odysseus" journey home after the trojan war. He wanders across the mediterranean to return home (ithaca)(took 10 years) In his absence, his kingdom has besieged itself by aristocrats and his wife was taken (penelope and the suitors) During his travels home, odysseus is diverted by the lotophagoi (drug. He also has to face the sirens. The confrontation between odysseus and the cyclopes is the representation. In the threat of the sirens, odysseus winds up on the island of the cyclopes of civlizied vs. barbaric cultures. The cyclopes eat a large portion of odysseus" men. Odysseus and his men get the cyclopes drunk with wine. Myths are a collection of abundant stories and religion is the practice" of these stories/myths. Myths can come as legends (sagas) (early historical record for the greeks) as well as the divine myths which focuses on the gods as a way to describe the physical universe.