And yes, as Suzanne suggested, Penelope is an equally clever and complex character--the only one to outwit Odysseus. The idea of her as a loyal, patient, helpless homebody just doesn't hold up!
Another friend commented that trying to find a contemporary comparison is causing him to lose sleep. :) I don't know Gurnah's novel, but I will check it out. Thanks!
It is hard to believe in a couple thousand years no one has attempted to copy Odysseus...speaks to the complexity of the Homeric epic... Abdulrazak Gurnah's Saleh from _By the Sea_ is the closest I can come up with and that ain't very close
Marvelous, M, particularly on Odysseus's complexity as a human. When I taught it, I focused on that, too, emphasizing his human flaws, including egotism and desire, as you note. (My male students liked to argue that he was powerless before the beautiful goddesses.) Throughout, despite his flaws, he is supremely clever--and Penelope is his match intellectually. I wonder if the film will show that. I think that one of the enduring (and despairing) lessons from the ending of the epic is that it takes Athena's intervention to end the cycle of violence and revenge (even after Odysseus and his men receive a warning sign from Zeus).
And yes, as Suzanne suggested, Penelope is an equally clever and complex character--the only one to outwit Odysseus. The idea of her as a loyal, patient, helpless homebody just doesn't hold up!
Another friend commented that trying to find a contemporary comparison is causing him to lose sleep. :) I don't know Gurnah's novel, but I will check it out. Thanks!
It is hard to believe in a couple thousand years no one has attempted to copy Odysseus...speaks to the complexity of the Homeric epic... Abdulrazak Gurnah's Saleh from _By the Sea_ is the closest I can come up with and that ain't very close
Marvelous, M, particularly on Odysseus's complexity as a human. When I taught it, I focused on that, too, emphasizing his human flaws, including egotism and desire, as you note. (My male students liked to argue that he was powerless before the beautiful goddesses.) Throughout, despite his flaws, he is supremely clever--and Penelope is his match intellectually. I wonder if the film will show that. I think that one of the enduring (and despairing) lessons from the ending of the epic is that it takes Athena's intervention to end the cycle of violence and revenge (even after Odysseus and his men receive a warning sign from Zeus).