Plato's 'Republic'

For this reading, please pick two passages from the text that interest or intrigue you and write about them. What do you think Plato reveals in this dialogue through the passages you have chosen (themes, ideas, analyses, etc.).

Also - Please post on your blog at least one question you have about the reading that you can address to Professor Borck.

Odyssey (Day Four: Books 16-20; Day Five: Books 21-24)

Consider at least two of the following topics from each day for your blog discussions (or bring up your own topics with analyses). Use specific quotes from the text to support your statements. Remember - I would like to see your own thoughts and analysis of the text, NOT general statements about plot or incoherent sentences that say nothing.

For Day Four (Books 16-20):

1. Meeting of father and son, hiding identity from Eumaeus

2. The character of Melanthius

3. Odysseus's test of the suitors

4. The character of Irus

5. The text's treatment of Penelope

For Day Five (Books 21-24):

1. The symbolism of Odysseus's bow

2. The violence against the suitors and guilty women - can this violence be justified when Odysseus's entire journey is one away from the violence of his past? Can further murders negate his murderous past?

3. The symbolism of the bed

4. The resolution of the final book

5. Final thoughts about the epic poem (possible topics of discussion: appearance vs. reality, intelligence, hospitality, gender, violence vs. peace, loyalty vs. infidelity, etc.)

Clip from "Outnumbered" I mentioned in class

Calypso - Suzanne Vega

The Odyssey (Day Three: Books 11-15)

These questions are for Wednesday. Questions for Monday are below.

Please answer two questions or bring up your own topics and analyses for discussion.

1. Book 11 is Odysseus's descent into Hades. How do you interpret this descent (metaphorically)? This is really a descent into what? To whom does he speak in Hades? Why?

2. Book 12 presents a series of tests for Odysseus: (1) the sirens, (2) Scylla and Charybdis and (3) the Cattle of the Sun. Choose one of these tests and analyse it by answering these questions: (1) what does this test represent? (2) What do the elements of this test represent (the sirens, Scylla / Charybdis, the Sun)? (3) Who succeeds and who fails? What does this success and / or failure represent?

3. How do Odysseus's tests and trials ready him for his return to Ithaca in Book 13? Why the need for a disguise (yes a literal reading is obvious, I'm looking for the symbolism of the disguise)?

4. What does Eumaeus represent in book 14? Why the need to move from the seashore to his hut? What does this transition represent?

Trailer to Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"

This is the trailer to the film I mentioned in class last week:

Homer's Odyssey (Day Two: Books 6-10)

Please answer two questions or come up with your own topics of discussion (with analyses).

Remember, your answers should reflect that you have READ and THOUGHT critically about the text. No short two-sentence "answers" that say nothing except general statements my eight year-old niece could make because they are so obvious.

Please use specific scenes / quotes from the text to justify your responses.

1. What do Calypso (Book 5) and her island represent within the overall story? How might she be an ambiguous character within the text? How might Calypso be a kind of "anti-Penelope?"

2. The central characters of Books 6-7 are Naucisaa, Arete and King Alcinous. What do they (along with where they live) represent in Odysseus's journey (remember, these are the first characters he meets after Calypso - how does this move represent the beginning of his "journey home"?).

3. Book 8 introduces Demodocus, the blind singer. This book introduces what important theme into the work (that we have already discussed, but here is it quite obvious). How does Demodocus become a "key player" in Odysseus's journey home? Why?

4. Book 9 with its Cyclops is one of the most famous episodes of 'The Odyssey.' What do the Cyclops represent? How does what he represents indicate a kind of "starting point" for Odysseus's trials on his journey? Why the need for these trials? How do you interpret Odysseus's statement that he is "Nobody"?

5. How is Book 10 in many ways the "opposite" of Book 9? Aeolus and the Laestrygonians represent what themes? Why do they both cast him away?