BOOK XXIV

WARRIO

RS, FAREW

ELL

BY :

EM

MA

BL O

SF E

L DS

SETTING

• The Underworld It’s called Hades after Hades the god of the underworld

• Laertes Farm, Ithaca• Takes place in the garden

PLOT

• Hermes brings the souls of the suitors into Hades

• Odysseus goes to see his dad

• Laertes doesn’t recognize his son at first but after seeing his scar, he knows it’s Odysseus

• The parents of all the suitors hold an assembly to decide how to avenge the deaths of their children

• They create a small army and try to take revenge on Odysseus

• Athena is disguised as Mentor and stops all the violence

• Antinous’s father is the only one killed

• Athena makes the suitors parents forget about the deaths of their children so they will recognize Odysseus as their king

CHARACTERS AND THEIR ROLE IN THIS BOOK

• The Suitors: They all argued about who had the better death and why. One of the suitors, Amphimedon blamed their deaths on Penelope

• Odysseus: He meets with his father, Laertes, and tells him a story about the fruit trees that he gave him when he was younger

• Laertes: He is overjoyed to see his son again, he cried when Odysseus revealed himself

• Rumor: The goddess who spread news through the town that there was a massacre at Odysseus’ palace

• Halitherses: He is an old prophet, he tells all the suitors parents that their children deserved to die

• The Suitors parents: They wanted revenge on Odysseus so they created a small army

• Eupithes: Father of Antinous, the only person killed in the small army

• Athena: Stopped the violence of the small army as Mentor, and wiped the memories of the suitors parents to make them believe Odysseus is their leader

MAIN IDEAS

• One of the main ideas in this book is the reconciliation between father and son. Laertes has grieved over Odysseus being gone for so long, that when he realized that Odysseus had returned he was so overjoyed.

• Another main idea, is the idea that the suitors are just as bad in the afterlife as they are in their real life. They don’t blame their deaths on themselves, they just blame it on Penelope, and even after they all decide to blame it on her, they still have to argue over who was killed in the better way.

• You can also see by the way that the suitors parents acts, where the suitors developed their personalities from. Instead of realizing their children were wrong, they just decide to try to kill the person who was in charge of their murder.

CLOSE READING

Read pages 454-455 lines 327-384

While reading:

• Keep an eye out for literary devices and be prepared to talk about them with the class

• Understand the theme of reconciliation between Laertes and Odysseus

• Be prepared to answer this question: Does this scene fit the rest of the rest of Book XXIV?

ANALYSIS

“The suitors are warned first by the old man Halitherses and later by the prophet Theoclymenus of what will happen if they persist in their wooing of Penelope.”

This relates to my book because it shows how careless the suitors are. In my book they complain that it is all Penelope’s fault that they died, but it is really their own faults, because they didn’t listen to the people who warned them about their deaths.

Lloyd-Jones, Hugh. "The Odyssey as Moral Fable." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. <http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE34&SID=&iPin=BMPHom23&SingleRecord=True>.

ANALYSIS

“But in this case, violence is the application of a learned skill, man's inner aptitude developing through mastery exercised over the object—over the external raw material. And all this, related in the past, evoked like a distant outside, becomes the very core of the present tense of recognition.”

This connects to my book because the suitors parents turn to violence after they get news their children were murdered. Athena came to the rescue to rid their minds of the memories of violence. In this case it was through their acts of violence that they unconditionally came to recognize Odysseus as king.

Starobinski, Jean. "The Inside and the Outside." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 8 Dec. 2013 <http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&WID=17730&SID=5&iPin=BGTBJTO047&SingleRecord=True>.

ANY QUESTIONS?