Metablogicon: Peace

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Peace

Open in the underworld. Everyone is boasting about how they died, and then the suitors arrive and bemoan their whole suitor story. Everyone else just laughs. "Happy Odysseus!" they cry (130-225). Sorry, Antinous. You're still a jerk. This is hilarious.

"He wore a goatskin skullcap to cultivate his misery that much more" (250-256). Poor Laertes--that would make me miserable, too. Once again (although I'm sure you'll explain it), I don't understand why he tests Laertes--everyone else knows it's him, and it wouldn't stay a secret for very long. Anyway, Odysseus makes him feel like crap by telling him he looks like a slave, and he starts to cry, and then all three generations are reunited and it's wonderful (277-284).

Good language: "rumor the herald" (457). I suppose rumors are rather like that.

457-520: Everyone wants to kill Odysseus. 520-602: They change their minds. Then Athena grants them peace and it's over! It's pretty brilliant.

In answer to your previous questions, you probably wanted me to read this book because it's full of human nature, and the consistency of it, and really epic stuff and good and bad things. You're all about good and bad and justice and whatnot, and you wanted me to figure out what was good and what was bad and what was justice. A poem becomes epic when it is focused on a hero, is majestic, heroic, and of unusually great size (so says dictionary.com). I suppose a connotation would be that it has all of that stuff I've mentioned previously, and people really like it. I haven't heard of epics, really, other than Homer and like two other Greek things.

You also asked what I thought of Telemachus and his situation--I don't understand what you mean anymore. I don't remember what was even happening. SORRS.

1 comment:

teacon7December 15, 2011 at 10:10 PM
Telemachus: I wanted to know what you thought of him. And all of the other things I asked back then.

Notice the reunion scene: all three generations together = heritage. That's part of the Identity triad (name, heritage, home). Big deals were had for the ancient heart and mind.

As for the definition of "epic" ... yes, epic means long. But I'd also add: "a story that really relates to human nature and human experience." Particularly when it talks about really noble and good elements of human nature. Is that a fair definition? I know it's not the only one, and I bet if I thought about it more, I'd come up with a better definition.
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Hello and welcome. We would love to have you comment and join in our little conversation, so long as you order your discussion alongside ours. So please... no solicitation, no trolling, keep it civil, rational, and vaguely on topic. Check your lolcats at the door. Thank you!

What's going on here?

We are, however humbly, parochially, and hampered by other pursuits, attempting to converse about ideas. We have in mind the enduring ideas from the “great conversation" of the heritage given to us by thinkers from the West. It is incomplete, imperfect, and poor. If you were looking for wisdom, I suggest turning to the authors themselves. The artifice here merely attempts to discipline ourselves into reading consistently, and thinking logically, and expressing any insights gained in a clear arrangement.

What remains posted here comes from many sources. A group of us read through Homer's Odyssey and commented on it. We also set up a discussion group over the Heritage 101 video course from Hillsdale College. Each has been suspended in favor of more pressing concerns from daily vocation, but the tools remain for another discussion in the future.