1. HUM 2051: Civilization I Fall 2012 Dr. Perdigao September 12-14, 2012
Into the Underworld
HUM 2051: Civilization I
Fall 2012
Dr. Perdigao
September 12-14, 2012

2. Storylines Storytellers
Book IV: Agamemnon’s story told by Menelaus, Odysseus’s own story retold—models of memory, storytelling within the epic
Demodocus
Odysseus: “It goes against my grain to repeat a tale told once, and told so clearly” (355). At the end of Book XII, it returns to bard’s story—from Odysseus as storyteller from bard’s accounts, back to Calypso and homecoming
Weavers
Penelope, Calypso, Circe
Circe weaving at loom—enchanting web (like web of deceit in Agamemnon) (320)

3. Centering the Journey Circe (Book X) Aeaea Hermes’ guidance Aeolus
Bag of Wind
Laestrygoians, Antiphates
Eurylochus tries to report what happens to crew ( ), then cautious about staying; Odysseus impervious to Circe’s charms, her response: “You have a mind in you no magic can enchant!” (322, 365)
Guides to/in the underworld
Circe, Tiresias
Circe tells him what he’ll undergo next, descent into the underworld (326)
Elpenor ( )
Burial—sign of courtesy and propriety (Clytaemnestra does not show Agamamenon); “remember me” (330, 78)

4. Deconstructing the Descent
From Elpenor’s death to the underworld
Book XI: Descent into underworld—hero tires in task and is at moment of exhaustion
Figurative death in descent
Consults wisdom figures, Tiresias, family members
As a result of confrontation with wisdom figures, goes through rebirth in return with new strength, to go back to the quest
Pattern of whole poem in The Divine Comedy

5. Cast of Characters in the Underworld
Tiresias
Odysseus’s mother Anticleia
Women: wives of heroes
Agamemnon ( )
Achilles ( )
Ajax (342)
Tityus
Tantalus
Sisyphus
Heracles, as ghost
Desires to see first golden age—Theseus, Jason and the Argonauts

6. Framing the Hero
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with One Thousand Faces as story of ritual death, rebirth:
separation: initiation: return
Rites of passage— “monomyth”
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won. The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” (30)

7. Stages of Descent
I. Departure: call to adventure, refusal of the call, supernatural aid
II. Initiation: round of trials, meeting with the goddess, woman as temptress
III. Return: refusal of the return, the magic flight, crossing of return threshold, master of two worlds, freedom to live

8. Framing the Narrative Sirens
Version of Pandora story, excess, control , like Sirens—desire to hear (curiosity) but control applied—also in Book X with the sack of wind, then story of flood with six nights, seventh day of rest
As bards themselves, enchanting with story (349)
Narrating The Iliad?
Clashing Rocks, Scylla and Charybdis
Six-headed monster, whirlpool
“between a rock and a hard place” (354)
Helios
Sun cattle—hospitality, respect (reverses Sirens episode with his control)