CLAS104 Lecture 19: Lecture 19

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLAS104
• Professor: Ronald Kroeker

Document Summary

Illustrations show odysseus going through the island of the sirens. Odysseus wanted to be the only man who heard the songs of the sirens and survived. He plugged the ears of his sailors with wax and tied himself to the mast with open ears. Homer is the author, but it is unknown if there is only one homer due to several different accounts. The iliad (over a span of weeks) is about war (extols war) while the odyssey is about going home. There were other epics written to fill in the gaps that the iliad and the odyssey did not fill, usually about the returns of other heroes called the nostoi ( the returns in roman) Agamemnon was travelling with ajax the lesser. Menelaus did not leave with agamemnon due to a falling out. Left with nestor instead, who got home easily to paolos due to him being wise enough to know not to anger the gods.