CLASS 40 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Tiresias, Odysseus, Scheria
Document Summary
Theme of paradise and death: sex goddesses offer paradise. Recurring folk tale motifs, doublet scenes: xenia. Odysseus" loss of self, symbolic death, road to recovery: initiation structure. Barbarian vs. civilized world: proper/improper eating. Paradise is a place where you realize the symbiotic wish of reunion with mother: symbiotic relationship. World at the dawn of life, no desire, no need or pain. Undifferentiated bliss; earth and sky were one, pre-civilized. Alcinoos" garden full of fruit (paradise: paradise described in terms of food, no work to get food. Phaiacians as ferrymen travel swiftly across the sea, enshrouded by cloud and mist : ferrymen of death. Odysseus falls asleep on the phaiacians" boat: sleep like death, poseidon is angry at the phaiacians for helping odysseus. Temporal dislocation- odysseus telling stories on scheria. Before getting his ferry ride, odysseus relates his previous journeys to the. Phaiacians: stories have folk tale elements, deal with fantastical creatures. Doublets: sex goddeses calypso, sirens, and circe.
