Annemily's Blog

A lot of the things I’m still struggling to understand in the Odyssey are rooted in things I don’t understand about society in Odysseus’s Greece and especially about class in the Odyssey. So I did a bit of historical research to see if it could help me understand what Odysseus is dealing with. First off – I understand that Greece was comprised of many small kingdoms ruled independently (kingdoms might not be the correct word, but you get the idea) and there was a lot of cultural variety and not everyone necessarily fit into a few neat class categories. I also understand that the Odyssey is set in a variety of locations and that it might have been written over an extended period of time. Nevertheless, I think some vague generalizations about ancient Greek culture might be useful. Basically, the hierarchy in Ancient Greek society had male citizens at the top (including aristocrats with land, poorer farmers, and a middle class including artisans and traders), t...

We’ve discussed a lot to what extent we think Odysseus is a reliable narrator. The main piece of evidence for his reliability is that he includes details about the way he treated his crew that reflect badly on him. Today in class I suggested that he could include these details to make lies seem more realistic and someone suggested that Odysseus probably just truly feels bad about his men’s deaths. But that started me thinking about the weird dynamic of Odysseus’s relationship with his crew so I looked back in the book to see how he talks about his men and their deaths. I presented on book eleven, so I immediately thought of Elpenor. Elpenor certainly seems important to Odysseus since Odysseus mentions him three times: when he first died, when he’s in the underworld, and when he’s actually buried. Odysseus’s attention to Elpenor both in burying him with all the proper rituals and in describing his death in detail in his story shows that Odysseus has some level of affection for him...