Recap of Friday’s Lesson
Aim: How do Odysseus' actions in "The Cyclops" support or refute his epic character?
Today’s lesson starts off with a continuation to the lesson on 10/22/21 (Friday of last week.) Last Friday, we started off with a class discussion on Xenia, or the concept of hospitality. Then we went over some vocabulary terms such as foreshadowing-a writing technique authors use to give hints about something that is going to happen in the story later on-and Hubris, which is a character’s arrogance and overconfidence which can usually lead to their downfall. After that, we read “The Cyclops” which is part of The Odyssey. We read up to line 32o before we ran out of time.
Today’s Lesson
As stated in the recap, today’s lesson was a continuity to the lesson on 10/22/21. First, we started off by finishing “The Cyclops”
The Cyclops Summary and My Thoughts:
In the portion of The Cyclops that we read today, we see Odysseus preparing the weapon with which he will stab Polyphemus’s eye after the cyclops fell drunk under the influence of delicious wine. Odysseus encouraged his men with positive words and together, they stabbed Polyphemus’s eye. Lines 335-340 displayed very gory and graphic imagery of the Polyphemus's damaged eye. Polyphemus screamed in pain which attracted the attention of his fellow cyclopes residing in their caves nearby. When asked what was wrong, Polyphemus replied, “Nohbdy, Nohbdy’s tricked me, Nohbdy’s ruined me!” (Note: Nohbdy was the name Odysseus provided for Polyphemus.) Thinking that nobody had harmed Polyphemus, the cyclopes soon left. Odysseus found this very funny and so did I. After reading this section, I finally understood why “nobody” was spelled incorrectly when Odysseus told Polyphemus his name. Now that Odysseus has blinded Polyphemus, Odysseus needed to find a way to get him and his men out safely without falling victim to Polyphemus’s blind rage. He came up with the idea to tie his men under the belly of sheep and waited until dawn when Polyphemus performed his daily routine of letting the sheep out. This was how Odysseus and his surviving men were able to escape Polyphemus's cave alive. As Odysseus boarded his boat with his men, Odysseus couldn’t help but taunt Polyphemus. This prompts the cyclops to pray to his father (Poseidon, god of Earthquakes) and basically curse Odysseus to never arrive home, and if he ever did, make it so that he arrived home with all of his men dead. Odysseus rubbing it in on Polyphemus actually threw me off because when he came up with the idea to hide in sheep, I thought he was incredibly intelligent, therefore as an intelligent person, he would know not to taunt a cyclops who also happens to be Poseidon's son. I think this is a prime example of “Hubris” since Odysseus displays a lot of arrogance and in lines 479-481, “If I could take your life I would and take your life away, and hurl you down to hell! The god of earthquake could not heal you there,” he actually somewhat mocks Poseidon.
Group Discussion
After we finished reading The Cyclops as a class, we were instructed to turn to our teams and answer some questions. After group discussion, we got together as a class to review our answers.
Question 1: Based on your understanding of foreshadowing, review lines 153-156. How is foreshadowing used, and what exactly is being foreshadowed?
5. Victuals: n. food or other provisions
I wrote: “Lines 153-156 (shown above) depicts how wonderful the wine was and how “no man turned away when cups of this [wine] came round.” The lines also tell us that Odysseus thinks he will be meeting a “towering brute,” “a wild man.” This foreshadows Odysseus’s meeting with the cyclops, Polyphemus and how he uses the wonderful wine to ultimately bring down Polyphemus and bring his surviving men to safety.”
Question 2: What heroic qualities does Odysseus display thus far?
(Heroic Qualities: Intelligence/Resourcefulness, Strength, Bravery and loyalty, Weakness)
What does the fact that he doesn’t want to attack the Cyclops reveal about his character?
Question 3: Refer to line 232-243. How does Homer use figurative language to create imagery? (identify examples and explain their effect)
Question 4: How should we judge the heroic qualities of Odysseus based on his actions with the cyclops?
Question 5: Contrast Polyphemus’ values and the values of Odysseus (hospitality [xenia], respect for the gods, protections for his men).
Can you identify any qualities/characteristics that both Odysseus and Polyphemus share?
If Odysseus represents civilization, and Polyphemus represents nature, what do you think Homer is saying about the relation of man to nature?
i. Can you see potential dangers (that are becoming increasingly evident, especially in the modern era) in this position taken by Homer?
Question 6: As previously discussed, the story is told through flashback (Odysseus is revealing the past events of his journey), therefore, how has Polyphemus’ curse impacted the course of Odysseus’ future.
After the class discussion on the questions above, we moved on to “7: Odysseus vs. Polyphemus Socratic Sem” slides.
7: Odysseus vs. Polyphemus Socratic Sem
Aim: How can a virtual debate lead us to ascertain who’s actions were more egregious (outstandingly bad, shocking) in violating the code of xenia?
Do now:
The do now that happened in the middle of today’s lesson was a whole class discussion on debate and why we enjoy getting into debate. My answer to this question was that people like to get into debates because it is human nature to want to prove each other wrong. However, after hearing my classmates’ answers, I changed my mind a little bit. One response that stood out to me the most was Sasha’s response. Sasha said that debate is actually a conversation, or a more civilized argument and we do it because we want to have a topic to talk about when engaging in conversation. This class discussion actually foreshadows our class debate on Odysseus vs Polyphemus we will be doing soon.
Reflection
Today’s lesson (and part of Fridays) was actually one of my favorites. I usually find literature boring but there are always select fictions that interest me and I think The Cyclops is the latest addition to that select group of fiction. The wording was complex but still simple enough for me to understand. Although I did not enjoy the graphic descriptions and cringed at my eye when I read about Polyphemus's eye getting stabbed, I enjoyed the story. Today, I learned about a part of Odysseus’s journey in The Odyssey where he went to a cyclops's cave and blinded Polyphemus. I learned that Odysseus taunting Polyphemus led to cyclops praying to Poseidon and basically cursing Odysseus was the nail to the coffin for the prophecy which states that Odysseus will not return home for a long time if he joins the Trojan War. I also learned that debate is a conversation. I think this is important to learn because learning is a way to pass down stories, just like how The Odyssey was once a story that was passed down verbally. By learning and reading The Odyssey and other classical literature, we are preserving these stories and the lessons that they teach. Although I do appreciate it, I actually don’t find the learning about poetry particularly useful especially for the field I plan to focus on when I grow up. I guess a way I would use everything I learned today is to help me appear more interesting and educated. I feel like if I was walking into a room full of strangers, striking up a conversation about Greek epic poems would be quite interesting. Overall, I think it never hurts to know about something because you never know when you might need it.
AimAim: How can a virtual debate lead us to ascertain who’s actions were more egregious (outstandingly bad, shocking) in violating the code of xenia?: How can a virtual debate lead us to ascertain who’s actions were more egregious (outstandingly bad, shocking) in violating the code of xenia?
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