1. The Odyssey Epic Poetry and Oral Literature

2. What is an epic? Epic: a long, narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes, in a grand ceremonious style.

3. The Epic Hero Protected by or descended from gods Noble birth or family Performs superhuman exploits Often saves/founds a great nation Achieves a worthy undertaking for the benefit of society

4. Folk Epics vs. Literary Epics Folk Epic: long poem of unknown origin, pieced together from oral folk tales (oral literature) The Epic of Gilgamesh (Assyrian, c. 500 BC) The Ramayana (Hindu, c. 500 BC) Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon, c. AD 700)

5. Folk Epics vs. Literary Epics Literary epic: long poem with a single, known author, written in imitation of traditional epic John Milton, AD 1667 The Aeneid. Virgil, c. 25 BC

6. Homer’s Epics The Illiad The Odyssey

7. Who was Homer? “blind poet” Scholars disagree on his existence Iliad and Odyssey possibly refined from older oral material by one or several aoidoi (singer-poets) around 800 BC The Emperor Hadrian asked the Oracle at Delphi who Homer really was, and she said that he was Ithacan, the son of Epikaste and Telemachus, from the Odyssey.

8. Epic Style Invocation of the Muse Begin in media res (in the middle of things) Formal Rhetoric Epithets Repetition Similes Meter

9. Invocation of the Muse. Muse : a source of inspiration to a poet, usually represented as a goddess. In ancient Greek religion, the muses were nine sister-goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (the goddess of memory).