Unbalanced

"Where shepherd calls to shepherd as one drives in his flocks
and the other drives his out and he calls back in answer,
where a man who never sleeps could rake in double wages,
one for herding cattle, one for pasturing fleecy sheep,
the nightfall and the sunrise march so close together."
~ Odysseus
Book 10, page 233, lines 91-95

Temptation

"Why, even a deathless god
who came upon that place would gaze in wonder,
heart entranced with pleasure. Hermes the guide,
the mighty giant-killer, stood there, spellbound..."
~ Narrator
Book 5, page 154, lines 81-84

Subconcious Transitions

"He set out for the woods and not far from the water
found a grove with a
clearing all around and crawled
beneath two bushy olives sprung from the
same root,
one olive wild, the other well-bred stock."
~ Narrator
Book 5, page 167, line 525-528

This depiction of Odysseus that Homer gives to us shows us the current state that our hero is in. Naked with nothing to aid him, shelter him, or provide for him, we see that Odysseus has been reduced to the circumstances of a human. Purely with nothing else, he sleeps underneath these two olive bushes; one wild, one tame. This natural imagery tells us of the boundaries between the civilized world and the uncivilized world; the difference between wild, and tame. Odysseus, having nothing, is dirty, naked, hungry and wild. The action of sleeping represents a transition for Odysseus from the wild to the civilized world. The separation from reality and fantasy is represented by sleep; it is a transition.

Hercules

"Son of Zeus that I was my, torments never ended, forced to slave for a man not half the man I was: he saddled me with the worst heartbreaking labors. Why, he sent me down here once, to retrieve the hound that guards the dead - no harder task for me, he thought - but I dragged the great beast up from the underworld to earth and Hermes and gleaming-eyed Athena blazed the way!"

- Hercules. The Odyssey Book 11 Page 270

In the modern world we still make references to Hercules and his labours in everyday life. From television to movies to magazines to casual conversation, even advertising is riddled with references to the classic hero. The above quote illustrates his take on what he had to do, on how he felt about what he was faced with and I believe it is a good show of morality. It makes him real, no longer this mythical being in a sense because he felt pain. He felt sorrow and heartache, he felt despair and the torment - he was human. As are all of us so if he can face this adversity, despite his god given gifts, and become immortalized then what is to say that one of our generation will not be the next Hercules.

Odyssey

"When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more"

- The Odyssey, Page 216 Line 190

Throughout this novel this line is repeated over and over. Why? I believe it is because Dawn represents rebirth, the "dawning" of a new time. By using this in the Odyssey Homer is almost starting a new chapter within a chapter - he is stating a beginning. Dawning, the beginning, it all comes back to that. To see Dawn is to start a new day, to begin fresh - to start over. Odysseus is trying to start over, trying to erase the years of absence, and everytime he sees the Dawn he begins anew.

Telling Tales

"It is the Dark Age that the exceptionally rich mythic culture of the Greek world first developed"
-The Ancient Mediterranean World (Greek Civilization: Hellas and Hellinism, pg 57)

This quote does not make sense when you first look at it. How could culture develop in a time period that lacked any remnants of literature, art, or music. The mythic culture developed because of the oral traditions of Greek people. Instead of writing things down-partially because of the lack of literacy or supplies-citizens told myths and tales through speech. Stories were passed down through generations of families.

When a cultural rennisance emerged in the Archaic Period, authors and poets such as Homer began to write myths down. Two of Homer's poems, Illiad and Oddysey were a couple of the first great pieces of literature. Greek mythology surely would not have become as well known or powerful without the written element-something that Homer is greatly responsible for- however it is because of the telling of myths and the fact that they changed ever so slightly each time they were told that Greek mythology has its mystique.