Blog #32
May 8, 2020
Maya Zhorov Freshmen Period 1
Aim: How does "The Cattle of the Sun God" episode illustrate the culminating challenge Odysseus faces as a leader?
Today’s lesson was the analysis of “The Cattle of the Sun God”, the next section of the Odyssey. We started the lesson off with a think/ pair/ share question, answering how we would feel if we asked someone we highly trusted to not do something, and they did it anyway? I felt that I would be betrayed and would have trouble trusting others in the future. After, we did a spirit reading of the excerpt. “The Cattle of the Gods” takes place after Odysseus and his crew survived the Scylla and Charybdis sea monsters. Odysseus and his crew were stricken with grief and were craving shelter and food. They seemed refuge on Helios’ (the Sun God) island. Helios allowed them to stay there as long as they did not touch his precious cattle. The warning was the foreshadowing of future conflict in the excerpt as Odysseus’ crew had a history of refusing orders and making reckless decisions. After the circumstances worsened and food was becoming scarce the crew decided impulsively to eat some cattle. When Helios heard the news he became very mad and asked Zeus to seek revenge and destroy their ship with a lightning strike. In the end, it was explained that this whole excerpt was a flashback that occurred in the future.
After the spirit reading we played a kahoot game to test our knowledge and comprehension of the excerpt in a film yet effective way that allowed everyone to participate. Then, we had a class discussion about omens and how they played a role in the Odyssey. We also discussed the heroic qualities in not only Odysseus but also Eurylochus and how Eurylochus was a bad influence on the crew as he convinced them to not follow directions and take risks. We had to write a paragraph about who we believed we would follow if we were a part of Odyssesu’ crew. I chose to follow Odysseus because although Odysseus’ route isn’t always the easiest one, Odysseus would never leave a crew member behind and always chooses the safest path with the least danger. Soon after, we answered five comprehension and deeper understanding questions where we analyzed the character's actions and compared this excerpt to Scylla and Charybdis.
Reflection:
In our lesson, not only did we learn about the Odyssey but in reading today’s excerpt we learned some literary devices that furthered our understanding of character’s perceptions and of the plot itself. For example, the use of omens and foreshadowing, portrayed how the crew did not really grow as people as they still made selfish, reckless decisions that put them in harm's way and needed to be rescued by Odysseus himself. Also,we learned about omens and how some events can be portrayed as evil or good, based on previous actions. The last sentence of the excerpt was a game changer because after reading the whole excerpt the reader realizes that this was just a retelling of a story from the past.
I found online learning to be more difficult than I would have thought it would be. Many classes are assigning work that takes more time than their sectioned time. Also, I feel that when I went to school my time management skills and organization skills were a lot better but now I feel as if I have no time to complete these assignments and it’s overwhelming. Currently, Coronavirus is the worst in New York City with the highest number of cases and deaths. Since the beginning of March, Coronavirus has been getting progressively more and more serious and it’s a little scary to think how easy it is to catch a virus that doesn’t have a cure. I have been spending my time in quarantine doing schoolwork, trying new recipes with my sisters, practicing piano and painting and just spending quality time with my family. Hopefully, Coronavirus will settle down over the next month so we can still manage to have a fun summer.
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