HUM 210-006: World Mythologies Topics for Second Short Essay Due: Thursday, April 27 (in class) Length: 3-4 pages Papers must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, in a standard font (such as Times New Roman, 10, 11 or 12 pt). You do not need to attach a title page; instead, make sure that your name, section number and the essay topic appear on your first page (top left-hand corner) – and don’t forget to insert name and page number, on EVERY page! Include an interesting and relevant essay title above the main body of your text. Your essay should be written in full sentences and proper paragraphs with all your sources properly documented (MLA format). Papers should be stapled, but no folders or covers please. Choose one of the following topics and write a 3-4 page essay in response. TOPIC ONE At a general council of the immortal gods on Mt Olympus, Zeus offers the following observation about mere mortals: “Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods. from us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes, but they themselves, with their own reckless ways, compound their pains beyond their proper share. (The Odyssey, Book 1, lines 37-40) This council meeting has been called so that the gods can discuss the situation of Odysseus (currently trapped on the island of Ogygia with Calypso) and consider possible ways and means of insuring his return home to Ithaca, sooner rather than later. Write an essay in which you explore the role of the gods in Odysseus’s decade-long journey home from the Trojan War. Discuss the way in which the gods seem to interfere, even deliberately impede, Odysseus’s desperate attempt to reach Ithaca. Which gods seem to be so intent on preventing Odysseus (and his men) from reaching Ithaca? Why is this the case, and what do these gods do? Which gods are intent on assisting Odysseus reach Ithaca, even though this takes ten long adventure-filled years? What exactly do these gods do, and why do these gods support Odysseus? Please provide specific evidence from the text to support your discussion. TOPIC TWO In The Odyssey, Autolycus, the hero’s grandfather, makes the following statement: “give the boy the name I tell you now. Just as I have come from afar, creating pain for many – men and women across the good green earth – so let his name be Odysseus… the Son of Pain, a name he’ll earn in full.” (The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 460-464) Is this an appropriate name that Autolycus, the grandfather, requests for his infant grandson? Explore the appropriateness of the name Odysseus for this “man of twists and turns,” drawing on evidence from the books of The Odyssey we have read and discussed in class. Does Odysseus inflict pain on others, or is he the victim upon whom pain, both physical and emotional, is inflicted? Remember to support your discussion with specific evidence from the text. Essay2/Topics/1 TOPIC THREE Atwood’s The Penelopiad offers readers a radically different version of the material presented in The Odyssey. As this title suggests, the story in Atwood’s text is told from the perspective of Penelope rather than that of her husband, the hero, that “man of twists and turns.” Penelope herself narrates the story. Very early in the text, Penelope says: I knew he was tricky and a liar, I just didn’t think he would play his tricks and try out his lies on me. Hadn’t I been faithful? Hadn’t I waited, and waited, and waited, despite the temptation – almost the compulsion – to do otherwise? And what did I amount to, once the official version gained ground? An edifying legend. A stick used to beat other women with. Why couldn’t they be as considerate, as trustworthy, as all-suffering as I had been? That was the line they took, the singers, the yarnspinners. Don’t follow my example, I want to scream in your ears – yes, yours! (2) These words offer a very different perspective on her husband, the hero Odysseus, and we also experience the speaker, Penelope, as very different from the faithful wife who is willing to wait (and wait, and wait, and wait…) for her absent husband to return from his adventures. Write an essay in which you explore the differences in the presentation of Odysseus and Penelope in The Penelopiad. The Penelopiad can be understood as both a challenge to and commentary on The Odyssey, the “official version” of the story (or stories). But what is the significance of Penelope’s warning in the excerpt above? What is challenged in these powerful words of Penelope who speaks to us from beyond the grave? Please remember to support your discussion with specific examples from both The Odyssey and The Penelopiad. TOPIC FOUR In Book 22 of The Odyssey we read the following: Then, as doves or thrushes beating their spread wings against some snare rigged up in thickets – flying in for a cozy nest but a grisly bed receives them – so the women’s heads were trapped in a line, nooses yanking their necks up, one by one so all might die a pitiful, ghastly death… they kicked up heels for a little – not for long. (lines 493-499) This passage, along with words of high praise for Penelope from the ghost of the great King Agamemnon, who had been murdered by his own wife Clytemnestra on his return from the Trojan War, are used to introduce the reader to the world and text of The Penelopiad, even before Penelope starts her speaking: the faithful wife of Odysseus is compared with those faithless traitor-maids, those “sluts – the suitors’ whores.” “Son of old Laertes – mastermind – what a fine, faithful wife you won! What good sense resided in your Penelope – How well Icarius’ daughter remembered you, Odysseus, the man she married once! The fame of her great virtue will never die. The immortal gods will lift a song for all mankind, a glorious song in praise of self-possessed Penelope. (Book 24, lines 211-218) Discuss the presentation of the maids in The Penelopiad. Although Penelope herself is the main speaker in this version of the ancient material, explore the role and function of the maids as they appear, and reappear, repeatedly, throughout this text. What is the meaning and significance of those ten “chorus line” chapters that punctuate Penelope’s own narrative? The Penelopiad is brought to a close, not by Penelope, but by the maids’ “chorus line” (“We’re Walking Behind You, A Love Song”), followed by the final jump-rope rhyme “Envoi.” What is the effect of these final performances by the dead maids? What does The Penelopiad suggest about the relationship between Penelope and her maids through this dramatic interweaving of speaking by Penelope and the maids? Explain the significance of the final lines of the text: The Maids sprout feathers, and fly away as owls. Essay2/Topics/2 
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