THE ODYSSEY BY HOMER.

The Odyssey by Homer.

Oscar Rodolfo Velázquez.

Questions about the author.

1) Is a single Homer possible?

   There are different theories about Homer. The one that is the most considerable like true, is the one that says that Homer wrote The Oddysey along many years. For that reason, the book have some incomplete aspects.

2) What was the implicit reader in Homer?

The greeks first, and in second term, all the people, because is a valuable sample of conscious self-knowledge, also mentioned in a social, religious context.

3) What was his expectations horizon?

   I think the story is universal, because it stablished definitely the oral historic-religious story of a hero, Oddysseus, and the complex culture of the ancient Greek, with a lot of wisdom.

Questions about the sources.

1) How much real time happened between the event and the book?
More that 100 years because Homer wrote his story of The Oddysey from the historical event that he didn´t live, only he knew the oral version transmited generation by generation.

2) How many "variations of Greece" are superimposed?

There are presents the cultural, the political, religious and commercial Greek.

3) How did he find out: trips, stories, books?

He knew the story from trips and oral stories.

4) Was he from a court of scribes?

The life od Homer is not well known, but from his profound way of write, he could have had influency from a familiar writer.

Questions about the anecdote.

1) Why Poseidon?

Because when the hero Oddyseus was in the beach before of strart the travel to his house in a ship, he listened form a soldier that is not important to offer gifts to the gods. Poseidon listened that, he angered and makes it difficult for Odysseus to get to his house.

2) What was the value of a city?

In the epic poem of The Odyssey, the principal city is Ithaca, whose value is given to be the house of the most important warrior, Oddyseus, therefore it represents the value of the family, his beloved wife Penelope and his son Telemachus, his heritage, his house, his city.

3) What was the value of the individual?

The most important human aspect wasn´t the force; was the intelligence. Because Achilles, that represents the force died in the attack of Troy, but Odyssey, that represents the intelligence and the cunning, came out alive from the war.

Questions about the Structure.

1) Structure for the Song?

The facts are estructured using a narrator and characters to relate the 24 songs.

2) Organization of the facts?

The language, relevance of main ideas and the way of presenting the information.

3) Communication of the Sense?

Good structuring makes it possible to communicate the meaning.

Questions about the facts:

From the contemporary reader.

1) Is it an adventure book ...?

No, it´s an travels story. The interpretation will be different for a kid, that for her, probably The Odyssey is an adventure book, because the child will relate the travels in the story with adventures. Instead, for an adult it will be an travels story. The doubt of it´s classification falls in the undifferentiated use of the terms travels story, adventure and tourism.

2) What do the facts represent?

On the one hand, the barriers that the gods put for Odysseus to return home. On the other hand, Odysseus search for the key to return home.

3) How do I match it with my context?

I relate it as the desire that every person has to return to their home and as the satisfaction of being in it together with the family.

From the author.

1) Who is it headed for?

To the Greeks by extension, and by time to all humanity.

2) Men vs. gods or Men and gods?

Men and gods vs. men and goods, because, on the one hand, Odyssey had all the time the help of Athena and the autorization of Zeus to come back to his house. Also, he had the help to Telemachus to search for him. On the other hand, there are goods and mens that make it difficult for Odysseus to return home, like Posidon, Calipso, and that are against of Telemachus like the suitors, in the part where they ambush Telemachus to kill him.

3) The whole Hellade?

Yes, the social, political, briefly because the author's intention is to write a travel story and not a story of ideas, because it is tiring to read a story where there is such a long climax.

Questions about the Action.

1) Is it really possible another representation of the action?
Yes, but the story is written in a way that attracts and catches the reader.

2) Is the climax a paradigm to break?
Yes, because the work teaches that it is possible that there is more than one climax, because the tension in the work must be maintained constantly in a story well told, more if it is a work where there is love, hope, expectation, uncertainty, action, revenge, waiting.

3) How should the balance between climatic points be achieved and understood?
There must be a return to a climatic situation without immediately following another, as in the book there is a climax in the descent to hell and at a distance, the return of Odysseus to his house and the slaughter of the suitors.

Questions about the time of the story.

1) What is the intention of the Flashback or analepsis?
Move the complete action.

2) What is the intention of the prolepsis?
Get ahead of the coming events.

Questions about Space.

1) What is the intention to present the world and the underworld?

The duality of living beings and dead beings. Make a contrast between life and death. How man seeks his destiny and works to achieve it.

2) The sea as space?

It is a space that fulfills the function of a constant landscape. Also, it´s a geographic description of the known cities in the time of Homer.

3) The space as Homeland?

The meaning of the place where you live. The Greeks called the sea "ponto", because they take as part of their homeland.

Questions about the narrator.
1) Why doesn´t he speak for himself?

When it is a character, it is fulfilled. Establish a communication between the author and the reader. The witness narrator makes concessions to the reader and the author. Because he is the intermediary.
2) Advantages of a narrator vs. Advantages of a narrator character?
The witness narrator creates a link very close to the reader and the external narrator is more distant from the reader.

Questions about the expression:

1) Expression of Poetry, Narration or Theater?
Poetry as an oratorical form, declamatory form. When recovering the natural dialogue there is a theatrical nuance. It is also theatrical. Mixture of the present of and of the past, facts lived in the moment and others remembered.

2) Effects of Linguistic Expansion?

The Odyssey is complexity and it has a variety of teachings. That´s the reason of it´s many traductions in the majority of languages in the world that makes an important expansion of the lingüistic expressions.

Questions about the characters.

1) How important is Odysseus?
It´s totally important because he´s the protagonist.

2) What are the gods, as characters?
They are the sustenance of the work, which show alliances with men for good and for bad.

3) Which character did you like the most and why?

Telemachus, because always he fight to search his father with courage and perseverance.

Questions about ideas.

1) Is there more concern for the gods than men?
Yes, because the gods are present in all the story controlling the destiny of the people.

2) What is the importance of intelligence?
The intelligence of Odysseus who wins and returns to his house is more valued than the strength of Achilles, because he died in battle.

3) What is the importance of technology?

It is indispensable because thanks to the navigation techniques of the time, Odysseus can return to his home.

Questions about the symbols.

1) Is Ithaca the greatest symbol and to which others converge?
Yes, in the sense that it represents the home and the homeland, there are others that are also important: the cows of the Isla del Sol, the sirens, the piece of cloth that weaves and weans Penelope, among many others.

Questions about the Meaning of the Work.

1) Is the Odyssey important as literature?
Yes, because it use a series of literary resources.

2) Is it a great work, like it or not?
Definitely, yes. The book has had a lot of influence in the literature because it´s a very well constructed story with religious, historical, geographic, sense, the human values that it has, the use of diferent times, the detailed descriptions, his memorable passages. It´s a fantastic mural of human virtues and bad intentions.

Questions about the reception of the work.

1) I liked it?
Yes, absolutely, because I learned from another culture and I later of the reading, I know myself a little more.

2) Did it meet what I expected?
Yes, because it is a global vision to the life and it teach that oneself could perseverence to achieve the personal goals.

References:
- Homero (2007). "La Odisea". Traducción de Luis Estalella. Editorial Porrúa, colección "Sepan cuántos": México, prólogo de Manuel Alcalá (393 pp).
- Roldán, B. (2018). Apuntes de la clase de "Cultura literaria". Universidad Panamericana: Guadalajara.

Links:
- Película de "La Odisea" de 1954, disponible en:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53FoqPbH_7I

- Resumen del libro disponible en:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnZar0NUGyM

- Audiolibro completo disponible en:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OQ4qwym2Do