World Literature
Wednesday November 2
Thursday November 3
Journal Prompt
O Have you ever been to a funeral/memorial
service? How did it make you feel and why?
O If you have never been to a funeral, what are
your expectations for one? Do you think you
would find it important to go or would you
rather grieve/honor a loved one another way
Today’s Objectives
O To analyze the descent stage of the hero’s
journey for Odysseus
O 2 Pre-Reading strategies
O Make a personal connection to literature
O Practice close reading by examining a
specific section of the text to summarizing
before reading the text as a whole
Book 10?
O Odysseus leaves the land of the Kyklopes
O Divine assistance: He is given a bag of wind to
help him sail on, but his shipmates become
jealous and tear it open, causing a storm.
O Land of Giants: more of his men are eaten,
Odysseus’s ship alone escapes
O Meets up with beautiful witch/goddess
Circe/Kirke-after unpleasantness, he becomes
her lover and hangs around for a year
O Finally they leave, but Kirke advises them they
must go through Hades, the realm of the dead to
get home
Groups
Group 1 Lines
54-90 (p1867)
Elpenor-a crew
member who
died on Kirke’s
island
Group 2
Lines 100-179
(p 188-190)
Teireisias
Theban
prophet
foretells future
for Odysseys
Group 3
Lines 94-99;
170-255
(P187, 190192)
Antikleia
Odysseus’
mother
Group 4
Alkinoos (not
dead but back
to the present
on Phaikiaia)
386-449 (p
195-197)
Group 5
Agamemnon
449-546 (p
197-200)
On wives
Group 6
Achilles
On war and his
son,
Neoptolemus
547-642
(p. 200-203)
Group 7
648-716
(p 203-4)
Other images
of the dead:
Aiax, Orion,
Tityos
Group 8
694-716
(P 204-5)
Tantalos and
Sisyphus
PreReading: In your groups
O Together, read your assigned lines.
O Determine what is learned in the conversation
with the dead
O do they ask anything of Odysseus?
O Do they give him information?
O Do they give him advice/prediction?
O Choose people to read each character’s lines
(Odysseus is narrator of both his and the dead)
O Those who do not read will summarize the
important points for the class
Book 11: A Gathering of
Shades
O Odysseus must journey to Hades to seek
advice from Tiresias, a dead prophet. Much
of this section is plot
O Consider what information Odysseus gets
from the inhabitants of Hades
O Odyssey Hero’s Journey Illustrations are
available at the front if you want to do one
today
Evaluate the strategy:
O How did thinking and talking about your own
experiences with funerals help you in
understanding Odysseus as meets the
dead?
O Compare today’s reading with previous days
where Mrs. deVidal read aloud. Did you
understand more/less/the same?
O Which strategy do you think helped you the
most.