See full version: Jenny; s Books
Oh, check it out, also. When Odysseus has gotten Polyphemus drunk and told him that his name is “Nobody”, he stabs out his eye with a burning piece of wood. Polyphemus starts hollering, and his friends come to see what’s going on.
Odysseus still can’t get home: [links]
Am I defensive? Perhaps a smidge. My sublessor, whose book this is, has written lots of uncomplimentary notes in the margins about Odysseus: Full of himself; HUBRIS; I like these “heroes” less and less; I’ll bet he loves the sound of his own voice. I do not appreciate these little asides. Odysseus is not full of himself – or, well, okay, he is a little bit, but with good reason! – and if he does have a tiny little hubrissy fit after he gets away from Polyphemus, I think that’s perfectly fair! The dude did just eat two of his crew members, and if Odysseus hadn’t outwitted him, he’d have eaten the rest of them too.
The scene where Odysseus visits the Underworld is excellent. For one thing, Tiresias (and others) drinking the blood of the sacrificed animals before they can talk to Odysseus is a creepy image. For another, I always like it when people get to go to the Underworld and still come out alive – Hercules, Orpheus (sad!), Aeneas. Now my undying favorite is Aeneas’s visit, for reasons that I will reveal to you when I inevitably read Fagles’s Aeneid, but Odysseus has a pretty good trip there too. He runs into his mother, and cries to hear of how unhappy his family is in his absence. In a particularly striking moment, he also sees Achilles, who you will recall was willing to die young as long as his name could be remembered. In the Underworld he’s singing a different tune: more
Following the instructions given by Queen Circe, Odysseus makes the dread voyage to the underworld, and there he does encounter the shade of the famous prophet Tiresias, who foretells that Odysseus will finally reach his home, and pay back the suitors who have been tormenting his wife and destroying his flocks as they feast in his halls in his absence. Then, Tiresias gives Odysseus an unusual mission:
image: Stellarium.org (outlines added later).
Below is a star chart showing Eridanus, springing up very near to the foot of Orion, who can be seen in the upper-left corner of the chart: [links]
Family traits: "resourceful Odysseus;" "thoughtful Telemachos"; "circumspect Penelope"
p.277: "much-enduring great Odysseus was happy/ because she beguiled gifts out of them, and enchanted their spirits/ with blandishing words, while her own mind had other intentions"
p. 80: Telemachos to Menelaos: "‘let the gift you give me be something that can be stored up./ I will not take the horses to Ithaka, but will leave them/ here, for . . . there is plenty of clover here, . . ./ There are no wide courses in Ithaka, there is no meadow . . .'"
"He spoke, and Menelaos of the great war cry smiled on him,/ and stroked him with his hand and called him by name and spoke to him:/ ‘You are of true blood, dear child, in the way you reason.'" here
1) journey of education v. journey of homecoming
2 homeless v. homeless
3) grieving for Odysseus v. grieving for Odysseus
4) recognition/ self-knowledge (his father's son) v. recognition/ self-knowledge (remembering who he is: not only sacker of cities, he is of the crafty designs, Nobody, but also Telemachos's father, Laertes's son, Penelope's husband, and king of Ithaka)
d) Odysseus talks to Achilles and Ajax. What does Achilles say to him about being dead, now that he not only has great kleos on earth but authority over the dead? [180: "I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another man, one with no land alloted him and not much to live on, than be a king over all the perished dead"] What does Ajax say to him? [nothing: unforgiving
This “mental time travel,” she says, is something humans often do, and can increase happiness in the present. Consider planning for retirement: You’re finding security in saving for a distant, future version of yourself. When you’re arranging a vacation, the payoff of that mental time travel is in your immediate future. And after a long stretch of time spent close to home, that joy of planning a vacation doesn’t necessarily need to come from a major splurge; you can begin by arranging a short, nearby trip. here
This is, in part, because experiential purchases often take the form of shared social experiences or provide stories to share after the fact, and also because they seem to be connected with how people understand themselves. “People see their experiential purchases as being deeply interlinked with their own sense of identity and their life stories in a way that material purchases typically are not,” says Dunn.
In this way, vacations are not only a way to derive immediate joy from planning and expanding your world; the experience of travel also helps you build upon your sense of self, the stories you carry, and your relationships with others. Getting away pays off in more ways than one, and you can experience the benefits before even exiting your front door.
O ver the course of the coronavirus pandemic, many Americans’ living rooms transformed into their offices. A walk around the block became the day’s outing. Gatherings were canceled, the prospect of travel limited. During these long, difficult months spent close to home, people were reminded that having something to look forward to is key to their well-being.
Research shows that the upsides of travel are manifold. This vacation generator can help you discover what type of trip you’d benefit from the most. more