Week 3 Essay Assessment: The Odyssey

Assessment:  The Odyssey

  For this week's essay option, I decided to look back at my reading of The Odyssey and make an assessment for this unit.  I thought this was a well rounded and easy to read unit compared to most of the other units that I have gone through so far.  The majority of sections in  The Odyssey unit were very good and flowed together very nicely, compared to its Iliad counterpart which felt very disconnected.  However, I did find a couple of sections in the Odyssey unit unnecessary and should be replaced with others.  My main qualm was with the sections involving the ghosts.  While they are definitely an important part of the epic that Homer gives us, I felt like they could have been put as just as an introduction summary for another section.  We are given a long section over a fairly unimportant character who is only mentioned with by his unfortunate death prior to the trip to the underworld.  Also, the ghosts of famous women section, at least in my opinion, was pointless because the majority of these women haven't been brought up in previous sections or they are not commonplace names.  The sections over Agamemnon and Achilles were all right, they did bring some conclusion if you had read The Iliad, but they did bring in new information that didn't fit very well, such as Achilles having a son who fought in the Trojan War also.  The Ghost of Ajax was in my opinion decent.  My main problem was that it was extremely short and again brought in information that didn't further the Odyssey.  

Odysseus.  Web Source:  Hellenica

   In summation, I felt like these 6 or so sections took up too much of the reading and detracted from the total story.  In fact most of the information was summed up at the beginning of The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis, where it says that Odysseus got information on the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis.  Instead, while I don't know whether this would have worked, but I would have preferred to have some information on when he returns home or even other adventures along the way.  I understand it might not have worked due to a large portion of the book remaining, but I felt like better sections could have been used.  When I finished the Odyssey, I felt like I had watched parts of, for example, the Lord of the Rings where Frodo is on his adventure to Mordor to destroy the One Ring, but never actually saw him destroy it and instead maybe stopped halfway through.  Sure, the majority of parts were good, but without the conclusion you are left somewhat wanting.

Storytelling for Week 3: A Lethal Detour

A Lethal Detour

    After finishing up a contracted operation from the United States Army back in 2006, my Blackwater Team, a private military contracting company, and I were to rendezvous back at the regional operation base 100 miles from our previous target in a small Afghani town.  We completed our mission successfully but my team suffered heavy causalities back at our mission to eliminate a local chief and also lost several of our SUV's to IED's (Improvised explosive devices) on the road.  The trip back that we were on would take a couple days due to problems with locals and poor road conditions.  We rode with poor spirits through this lawless countryside and found an seemingly safe place where we could treat our wounded and rest.  The area we were in was rocky and mountainous, and contained many caves and crevices.  I rounded up a six man team of my remaining healthy men with me to see if the locals were friendly.  While we didn't have food, we did have some good vodka  one of my men had procured from our previous mission to give as a good-willed gesture.  Also most of our larger .308 and .223 rounds were gone, so all we had were our Beretta side arms. We trekked up the nearby mountain with the little ammo we had and eventually stumbled across a vacant village with its back a huge sheer cliff.  After scouting a bit, we decided to make ourselves at home in the house at the back of this abandoned village right next to the cliff.  

     Not much time had passed when we heard a commotion outside.  We stepped out of the house to see several run-down trucks full of at least 20 or 30 armed men.  While we were not wearing U.S. troop gear, we definitely looked like we didn't belong in the mountains of Afghanistan.  Finally noticing us, the obvious leader of their band yelled out in broken English, "Who are you and what brings you to our camp?  You are not American soldiers but do you bring us trouble?"  Since I was in charge, I carefully spoke out, trying to avoid conflict since we were out-manned and outgunned:  "We are private contractors, not part of the U.S. forces and we just seek shelter and rest."  Their leader's eyes blazed with hate and said, "You people are just as bad as they, but I am not going to do anything, however, where are the rest of your men, are they close?"  Knowing that he would hunt down the rest of our injured group, I said, "It's just us, we're a small group and the others with us died from a roadside bomb."  After a silence that seemed to last forever, he lifted up his AK-47 and gunned down two of my men instantly.  We fled inside and watched as he mercilessly destroyed the remains of the two men.  Since the house we were in was backed by the cliff, we had to make due and hold out.  Their leader laughed, blockaded us in, and set up some of his men to make sure we didn't try anything, knowing we couldn't escape but not wanting to lose any men trying to get us out. 

(An Afghan soldier in Loi Kalay,  Websource: Vanity Fair)

     We waited for a while, posted up taking guard shifts, glancing outside to make sure they didn't try to advance.  As night fell, the two men on shift noticed movement outside and quick as a flash, the two of them were consecutively sniped by someone using an old Russian Dragunov sniper rifle.  After hearing the rifle shots and hearing my comrades' bodies hit the floor, I quickly realized the futility of our predicament.  Knowing that their leader was probably nearby, I shouted out as loudly as I could, "We are beaten and you could kill us, but if you spare us we can pay you handsomely in U.S. dollars and we even originally brought you a gift of good Russian vodka."  I opened the door a tiny bit and managed to roll out the couple bottles of vodka we had.  After what seemed like an eternity, we heard a voice from the dark, "Is that all you have?  Throw out the rest of what you have and we'll consider."  After throwing out what we had left, we waited in silence and after some time had passed, we heard the sounds of carousing and the majority of their men began drinking the spirits we had given them.  We glanced out the window and saw most of the guards had gone leaving only a boy too young to drink with his gun trained on the house.  

     Waiting until most of them fell into a drunken stupor, we quickly rushed and overpowered the inexperienced boy guarding us, knocking him out and taking his gun.  We stole our way to where most of the men were passed out from drinking.  We quickly pulled out our knives and began to quietly kill all of the men.  The last one we came across, their leader, was my target so I could enact revenge but against the urging of my men, I decided to not kill him but instead blind him so he could live out the remainder of his days useless.  As I slashed his eyes, he began to scream out in agony and realized his mistake in letting down his guard.  We left him there and made our way back down the mountain to the rest of our team.  At the sight of us, they were filled noticed our missing members and the pitiful state we were in.  We quickly packed things up and headed on our way, leaving that miserable mountain behind. 

Author's Note:  For this storytelling week, I used The Land of the Cyclopes, Prisoners of the Cyclops, and The Cyclops Defeated from Homer's Odyssey.  If you haven't read the original it is essentially Odysseus and his men are trapped by a cyclops in a cave where they are slowly being eaten.  After some time, they trick the cyclops into getting drunk and while he is asleep, they blind him.  They use the cyclops disadvantage of no sight to sneak out but in Odysseus's pride, he reveals his name to the cyclops, who in turn gets his father Poseidon to curse them so they won't return home safely.  I decided to use the idea of private military contractors in Afghanistan because I had just recently watched a Vice piece on their practices in Afghanistan and Odysseus's actions and relation to Agamemnon from both the Iliad and this made decide to use this parallel.  I tried to keep a majority of the story similar to the original but there are some major differences.  In the original, there is only one cyclops, Polyphemus, that Odysseus deals with instead of a group of soldiers.  Also, I decided to omit the play on words Odysseus tells Polyphemus that his name is Nobody.  I tried to make something like that work but I couldn't make it fit.  There are of course other differences but I felt like those were the major ones that would diverge my telling from the original.

Bibliography:  "The Land of the Cyclopes," "Prisoners of the Cyclops," and "The Cyclops Defeated" translated by Tony Kline, from Homer's The Odyssey (2002).  Web source:  Homer's Odyssey

Week 3: The Odyssey

 The Odyssey

1.                   The Land of the Cyclopes

   Right off the bat this retelling of The Odyssey uses much more description than the retelling of The Iliad.  As the reading, you are swept up into the story very quickly due to the description and it transitions very smoothly into the actual events of this section.  I found Odysseus to be somewhat daft though, since he described the cyclops as being giant and terrifying yet he decides to see if he was "cruel."  To me this is like sticking my hand in a obviously hot fire to see if it would burn me.

2.                   Prisoners of the Cyclops

  I like how the story is told in hindsight by Odysseus as he comments on his own actions, I never noticed how it was told like that.  The funniest part of this section was how the cyclops first asks Odysseus and his men intend on bringing evil and then when they tell him he instead brings evil to them.

3.                   The Cyclops Defeated

  I always loved this section of The Odyssey; I still find the play on words of Nobody to be hilarious and as I read it now the revenge on the cyclops is more than just.  The cyclops's hate of Zeus is odd to me since they say Zeus provides them with rain and essentially life.

4.                   Escape from the Cyclops

   I hate reading this section because it always drove me nuts how Odysseus gloats and essentially screws himself.  However, many of us would do the same if we were in that nightmarish situation.  At first I thought the cyclops hated humans all together but it seems like the seer Telemus was on good terms with the cyclopes so I guess the cyclops just really hates Zeus.

5.                   The Curse of Polyphemus

 I felt like this section should have been divided better since part of it involves Polyphemus and the other part involves Circe's island.  I enjoyed how this transitioned though, I said it before but this translation is much better than its predecessor the Iliad.

6.                   Circe's Magic

   The preface confused me, did Odysseus encounter the cannibal Laestrygonians before or after his encounter with Polyphemus.  Odysseus's men are getting eaten left and right.  I found Odysseus's journey to Circe's odd as well: why does Odysseus need to eat Hermes's herb when he can just not eat or drink?

7.                   The Moly Defeats Circe

  It makes sense now why Odysseus ate the herb, since Circe now thinks that Odysseus is more than just a man since he resisted the drugs. I wouldn't mind being a crew member at this point since they are made taller and younger instead of the usually being eaten part.

8.                   On Circe's Island

  What is the point of Circe saying “Odysseus, of many resources, scion of Zeus, Laertes’ son?"  Is there some sort of honorific that doesn't translate well or some sort of custom for all of the extra words.  Also it doesn't say why but why do they stay at Circe's for so long?  It doesn't appear to be the same as the lotus eaters where they are tricked into staying.

9.                   The Death of Elpenor
  Some of the word choices don't make any sense, such as "fill the Groves of Persephone" or "the moist House of Hades."  As I read this section, what purpose does Elpenor's death serve?  This reading has done better in not adding random things and not telling their purpose so hopefully this plays a significant part later on.

10.               Ghosts of Erebus
  This might be a cultural thing but why would Odysseus have guard the sacrifice from powerless ghosts?  Also this section was very repetitive of the last couple since they are doing what Circe told them to do so I don't have too much to say about this section.

11.               The Ghosts of Elpenor and Teiresias
  Why did they leave Elpenor unburied at Circe's island?  I doubt it would have taken long for them to bury them before they departed.  Also it seems like they didn't even know what happened to him and just left him.  While the purpose of the blood is explained, it still seems odd why the ghost would drink the blood.

12.               The Spirit of Anticleia
  Thinking back on it now, what is the point of going to hear another prophecy when Odysseus is going to screw it up anyway?  However, I guess a lot of foreshadowing along with background story explaining is done so I could see this as a tool to explain things that the reader wouldn't know if they kept the regular first person tone of the Odyssey.

13.               The Ghosts of Famous Women
   This section was kind of pointless because it is adding characters that are not only not in the Iliad or Odyssey, but also characters that the modern reader would have no idea who they were.  So far if I could trim down any section it would be this one.

14.               The Ghost of Agamemnon
  In death Agamemnon isn't nearly as pompous as he was in the Iliad alive, but I find his death fitting and agree with his wife for killing him if he had Cassandra there for other reasons.  I am glad this section is in here because I was wondering a couple chapters back what happened to him.  Also the time of all the events here are beginning to throw me off, mainly because Odysseus is taking so long to return home.  If Agamemnon had time to return home you would think that Odysseus would be close.

15.               The Spirit of Achilles
   Why was Achilles' son not part of the Iliad, or at least a mentionable part.  According to Odysseus he seemed to be a great warrior so it's odd to me that he wasn't mentioned.  Also how did Achilles not know that his son was fighting near him?  The only thing I can think of is that death makes forget.

16.               The Ghost of Ajax
  Its becoming hard to talk about these sections since they are so short and really only describe ghosts that Odysseus sees.  This section was a little more likable though since it explains what happened to Ajax and also includes ghosts that I have an idea who they are.

17.               The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis
  I found this an odd place to end since Odysseus hasn't made it home yet.  However I am glad it ended with a somewhat essential part of the Odyssey instead of the part with the ghosts.  The preface was very useful for this section because it explains better why they had to go to the land of the dead.  After finishing this reading, I wish that it was made into two parts and included more and ended the epic with his return to Ithica.