In the second half of the readings, the majority of stories took place in the "land of the dead" that Circe had described to Odysseus.
The "land of the dead" was described exactly as it sounds. It was an island where only the dead lived.
In these stories, it described a variety of "people" who lived on this particular island. The residents ranged from dead brides to warriors.
The island also had "famous ghosts," which I found pretty funny. The famous ghosts had their own sort of "club" and thought they were still better than everyone else (even know they were dead).
Odysseus sacrificed a sheep in order to contact the dead. If the dead drank blood, they were able to talk to the living. The ghosts that I found the most fascinating included:
Elpenor
Teiresais
Anticleia
Agamemnon
The second half of Homer's Odyssey was much more gloomy and dreadful than the first half. On the "dead island," Odysseus saw his mother (Anticleia). Since he had been at sea, he did not know that his mother had passed away. She said she died because she was missing her son too much.
After leaving the island, Odysseus and his crew ran into another horrific sight... Scylla. Scylla was a massive, dangerous sea monster. The crew ran right into her and she destroyed six of Odysseus' best men right in front of his own eyes.
Although the second half of Homer's Odyssey was tragic, it was very entertaining and descriptive. I could picture the ghosts and the sea monster by the adjectives used.
No comments:
Post a Comment