1. The Odyssey
Lesson 6

2. The Odyssey
You are about to be assigned your PERSONAL copy of The Odyssey. Each novel is numbered and you are responsible for returning that same numbered book back at the end of the unit.
The novel and your students materials need to be brought to class EVERY DAY!
If the novel is lost or destroyed, you be responsible for paying for a replacement.

3. Have out on your desk... The Odyssey book
The Book One handout (pg student materials)
Character Traits resource (pg student materials)

4. Book 1: Athena Inspires the Prince
Now we will read the first half of Book One together. I will stop at various moments to check for your understanding and for us to discuss some plot details.
We will start on page 77 and stop on page 86--line 310.
Audio:

5. Questions
Page 79: Reading up through line 52, what is happening in the story? (Picture on next slide)
Page 79: Why is Odysseus still not home?
Page 79: Why is Athena so invested in Odysseus’s welfare?
Pages 80-81: “Where does Athena go first? What is the state of affairs?
Page 83: Who does Athena pretend to be?
Page 85: Why is Telemachus distressed?
Page 86: What does Telemachus dream of?
Answers:
Look at the next slide
2. Odysseus is being held captive by Calypso. Also, Poseidon still holds a grudge against him. 3. Athena is the goddess of wisdom and admires Odysseus for his wit. 4. Athena goes to Ithaca to find Telemachus, Odysseus’s son. The suitors have taken over the palace, and Telemachus is sitting passively daydreaming about what would happen if his father returned. 5. Athena pretends to be Mentes, an old friend of Odysseus’s. (Mentes shares the same root as the word mentor.) 6. Telemachus is distressed because the suitors are wasting all of his household goods--his inheritance, and they are bullying his mother into choosing one of them as a husband. 7. Telemachus dreams of Odysseus returning and taking his house back.

6. Book One opens by describing a complicated situation between characters from the Trojan War, the topic of The Iliad. Emphasize to students that Zeus is complaining about how humans blame the gods for their bad decisions, and he cites the murder of Aegisthus as an example.
Book One opens by describing a complicated situation between characters from the Trojan War, the topic of The Iliad. Emphasize to students that Zeus is complaining about how humans blame the gods for their bad decisions, and he cites the murder of Aegisthus as an example.
Breakdown:
Agamemnon, commander of the Greek forces (Odysseus’s commander), was married to a woman named Clytemnestra. They had two children: Orestes (a son) and Iphigenia (a daughter). When the Greeks are not making progress in the Trojan War, a prophet tells Agamemnon that if he offers his daughter as a sacrifice, the Greeks will be successful. Agamemnon tricks his daughter (Iphigenia) and wife into believing that Iphigenia is going to marry Achilles. Instead, she walks unknowingly to an altar to be sacrificed. Agamemnon’s wife is understandably furious about her husband’s decision to let their child be sacrificed. While Agamemnon is away at war, she carries on a love affair with Aegisthus. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra plot to kill Agamemnon when he returns home from the war, and Aegisthus carries out the act. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, avenges his father’s death by murdering his mother’s lover.

7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWPWHU8x6 kE (start at 2:00)
Types of Conflict
Man vs. Man Q
Man vs. Self
Man vs. Nature
Man vs. Society
kE (start at 2:00)
Man vs. Supernatural