At his lowest point as a man and hero, Odysseus looks inward — away from the living — in order to see just how he fits into the world of the living, how he got to the position he’s in, and what he can to extricate himself from hell.
Tag Archives | epic
Poor, Confusing Elpenor
Near the end of his stay with Circe in Book X of the Odyssey, Odysseus and crew prepare to leave Aiaia and head for the Underworld. It wasn’t his idea: Circe told him to go to hell. Well, what does he expect? He hung out with her for a year, ate her food, shared her “flawless bed of love,” and one day — from the prompting of his men — decides to leave, and fairly urgently judging by what happens to Elpenor.
On the Primary and Secondary Epics
Difference in the condition of the composition leads to a difference in the character of the poetry. Because Homer composed for recitation, his composition is in some ways freer and looser than Virgil’s.
Carl Sagan’s Vision: Toward a Science Fiction Epic
Carl Sagan, in his career as humanist, has encouraged and assisted his community begin to rediscover what it means to be human by bridging those gaps that separate us from each other. By employing Leonardo’s “true science” with an artistic sensitivity to tradition, Sagan envisions a present where our “intelligence and our technology have given us the power to affect the climate” of humanity and offers moral guidance on how we might use that power.
Epic Poetry
In its strict use by literary critics, the term epic or heroic poem is applied to a work that meets at least the following criteria: it is a long narrative poem an a great and serious subject, related in an elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race.
Notes on Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is a primary epic, composed over a thousand years by cultural stories of the legendary king, Gilgamesh, who is thought to have historically ruled Uruk circa 2700 BCE. The oral stories were probably assembled by a poet and cast into the narrative form of the epic between 2000 and 1600 BCE and finally written on clay tablets in cuneiform during the reign of Assurbanipol in 668-627 BCE.
The Odyssey: General Notes
Homer’s Odyssey has got to be — still after multiple readings — one of my favorite works of Western Literature. This epic is a nostos, or a story of return, and asks can one come home again, especially after years of bloody war?