Assignment:
Please answer briefly the following 10 questions. Depending on the context, some questions may require up to 200 to 400 words to answer, some much less.
Answer them in the order they are listed and display the number for each question.
QUESTIONS
1. Explain the difference between verse and prose and state which one of the two is characteristic of the early ancient literature.
2. Which are the MAIN categories of writing?
3. What is the difference between an epic poem and a regular poem? List specific central cases that exemplify best the distance between the two. Use as examples poems you have read for the course (Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, "Ithaca") to illustrate your definition.
Be specific and use examples to illustrate points.
4. In the introduction of the Odyssey, Wilson emphasizes the importance of hospitality in the ancient Greek world and she discusses the element of pompe as an integral aspect of hospitality in the Odyssey. Please explain what is pompe exactly, when it occurs and in which particular episode(s) it appears in the Odyssey?
5. Why do you think Penelope remains so reluctant to recognize Odysseus when he is back in Ithaca and what is the final evidence Odysseus needs to reveal to Penelope after the massacre of the suitors, so she can finally identify him and welcome him back?
6. Eurycleia in the Odyssey recognizes her master by his scar. What is the significance of this scar? What do we learn from it specifically? And how does it interfere technically with the flow of the narrative?
7. Discuss the encounters of the two main epic heroes, Gilgamesh and Odysseus, with their mothers. Identify and name the two specific women and explain what each of the two epic heroes learns from his mother's insights?
8. What is exactly the lesson that king Gilgamesh learns from Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh?
9. What is the last disguise of Odysseus in the Odyssey? Who is he trying to test and why?
10. If you were to interpret the Odyssey through an Analytic point of view, then what your interpretation of its authorship would be?