Read this blog post after you finish your reading of Book One.
Today in class we responded to a quote of Aristotle's criticism of The Odyssey, but that was only an excerpt. Here is the full quotation from his philosophical text on poetry, drama, and literature known as On Poetics:
“...The story of the Odyssey can be stated briefly. A certain man is absent from home for many years; he is jealously watched by Poseidon, and left desolate. Meanwhile his home is in a wretched plight—suitors are wasting his substance and plotting against his son. At length, tempest-tost, he himself arrives; he makes certain persons acquainted with him; he attacks the suitors with his own hand, and is himself preserved while he destroys them. This is the essence of the plot; the rest is episode.”
I want you to read this quotation. Then I want you to post a blog post responding to the following questions:
1) What claims about The Odyssey does Aristotle make?
2) Consider the events of Book One. How did you react to Odysseus’s situation, Telemachus’s situation, and Penelope’s situation? Why might you want to see them resolved in the “episodes” that Aristotle references?
3) Consider the information provided in the invocation (the beginning lines of the epic) and the quote from Aristotle. In each text, the story of The Odyssey is captured in brief. In fact, we know how the story ends. So why do we read it? Similarly, why do we listen to stories retold by friends and family even though we know how they end? What does the experience of hearing or reading a story in full do for us?
This is due Nov 20 by 11:59 PM
Best,
M.W.S.
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