According to scholars, The Odyssey was known to be written by Homer sometime around the c 440.BC. It is an Epic poem made up of 24 traditional books about the king of Ithaca, named Odysseus. For 10 years this characters has been trying to get home after the trojan war, however the poems only take place in the last few months of his journey.
The Odyssey was actually written especially for oral poets. These poets were often found to be wearing a robe and also a staff when sharing the adventures of Odysseus. They would sometimes often speak for hours to crowds at religious and traditional gatherings. Other ways that these poems would be orally shared was by singing... Read more!
My Thoughts:
When reading just for first couple pages of the odyssey, (pg 20-25) I was taken aback by the loads of details that was shared with the reader. My doing a little bit of research, and is also shared in the video above, is that these translations have been written many, many different times, as well as for the most part it was easy to understand when you think about ho
w different people spoke back then than in current times.
When reading through this story, "Calypso, The Sweet Nymph", I am honestly impressed. When I think of old writing passed down many generations and centuries, I wouldn't necessarily think this THIS particular writing. I love all the detail, as well as the listing off of animals, what is going around in the atmosphere. I got a clear sense of all of the five senses in just a few lines of Homer's writing.
Also, the picture (pg 23) given to us in the Holt Literature Textbook (Link down below) I truly beautiful! Thanks to such a clear image given to us by the author, an artist was able to create a picture of a scene that everyone can relate to because we all have the same picture.
Sources:
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2018). Aphrodite | Mythology, Worship, & Art. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aphrodite-Greek-mythology
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