CLASSICS 224 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Eteocles, Odysseus, Absyrtus
Document Summary
Use examples drawn from greek myth to illustrate your response. One function of a myth is to reconcile the world we perceive with ideas or information that are not easily incorporated into the cultural or cogitative framework we possess. The sirens of the odyssey are able to reveal the future, due to their prophetic abilities. A bard is a poet or a storyteller. Land of the phaeacians, another bard explained the court stories of the trojan war. These stories included the great achievements of the men during the war, including odysseus. These stories demonstrated how great of a leader odysseus is. It is then that alkinous, the king of the land of phaeacians suspects who odysseus really is and that he is just not a stranger. Odysseus finally reveals himself and this is where he begins telling his adventures on his way back to ithaca.
