Figure Of Speech In Homer's Odyssey

• Epithet: Term/phrased used to characterize the nature of a character, object, or event.

Ex. “sparkling-eyed Athena” (I.53)

• Extended Metaphor: Comparison between two unlike things continuing for more than one sentence.

Ex. “But I held on, dead set… waiting for her / to vomit my mast and keel back up again – / Oh how I ached for both! And back they came, late but at last, at just the hour a judge at court, / who settled the countless suits of brash young claimants, / rises, the day’s work down, and turns home for supper – that’s when the timbers reared back up from Charybdis.” (XII.471-477)

• Simile: Figure of speech showing two unlike things or concepts to be similar using “like” or “as.”

Ex. “What a fine thing it is / to listen to such a bard as we have here –

the man sings like a god.” (I.425-427)
• Epic Simile: Extends the comparison to expansive proportions.
Ex. “Just as an angler poised on a jutting rock / flings his treacherous bait in the offshore swell, whips his long rod – hook sheathed in an oxhorn lure – / and whisks up little fish he flips on the beach-break writhing, gasping out their lives…” (XII.271-275)
• Imagery: Words and phrases that create mental images using figurative language and the five senses.
Ex. “No man on earth could scale it, mount its crest, not even with twenty hands and twenty feet for climbing, the rock’s so smooth, like dressed and burnished stone.” (XII.86-88)
• Setting: Identify and establish time, place, and mood of events of the story. When it occurred, where it occurred, and what occurred.
Ex. “And down she swept from Olympus’ craggy peaks / and lit on Ithaca standing tall at Odysseus’ gates” (I.119-120)
• Personification: Attaching human traits and characteristics with inanimate objects, phenomena, or animals.
Ex. “My wits kept weaving, weaving cunning schemes – / life at stake, monstrous death staring us in the face –“ (IX.472-473)
• Hyperbole: Words and phrases that exaggerate and overemphasize statements to create a grandiose effect.
Ex. “godlike Polyphemus, towering over all the Cyclops’ clan in power.” (I.83-84)
• Pun: Used in manner to imply more than one meaning, or meanings of similar sounding words to create humor, irony, or wryness.
Ex. “‘Nobody? I’ll eat Nobody last of all his friends –“ (IX.412)
• Characterization: Process by which author introduces then describes a character directly or indirectly.
Ex. Zeus: “Now, how on earth could I forget Odysseus? Great Odysseus / who excels all men in wisdom, excels in offerings too / he gives the immortal gods who rule the vaulting skies? (I.77-80)
• Foil: Another character in the story who contrasts with main character to highlight one of their attributes.
Ex. Eurylochus: “Quick, cut and run with the rest of us here – / we can still escape the fatal day!” Odysseus instead chooses to be loyal and goes to save his crew from Circe. (I.297-298)
• Foreshadowing: Words or phrases that hints of future events without spoiling the story.
Ex. “If only that Odysseus sported with these suitors, / a blood wedding, a quick death would take the lot!” (I.307-308)
• Plot: Sequence of events and happenings that make up a story. There usually is a pattern or archetype it may follow.
Ex. “the man of twists and turns / driven time and again off course, once he had plundered / the hallowed heights of Troy. / Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, / many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, / fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.” (I.1-7)

Exposition: Introduces background information about events, settings, and characters to the audience.
Ex. “But one man alone… / his heart set on his wife and his return – / But then, when the wheeling seasons brought the year around, / that year spun out by the gods when he should reach home, / Ithaca – though not even there would he be free of trials, even among his loved ones – then every god took pity, all except Poseidon.” (I.15-23)
Inciting incident: Start of conflict.
Ex. “Hear me – / Poseidon, god of the sea-blue mane who rocks the earth! … Grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, / Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca / never reaches home. Or… let him come home late / and come a broken man – all shipmates lost, / alone in a stranger’s ship – / and let him find a world of pain at home!” (IX.585-595)
Rising action: Series of relevant events that serves to create interest, suspense, and tension leading up to the climax.
Ex. Ciccones, Lotus-eaters, Polyphemus, Laestragoninans, Circe, Underworld prophecy, Helios’ cattle (IX-XII)
Climax: Point at which the conflict or tension hits the highest point.
Ex. “I reached the crag of Scylla and dire Charybdis’ vortex / right when the dreadful whirlpool gulped the salt sea down. / But heaving myself aloft to clutch at the fig-tree’s height, / like a bat I clung to its trunk for dear life –“ (XII.464-467)
Turning point: Point where plot takes (possibly surprising) turn and things change.
Ex. Alcinous promises to take Odysseus home, “This stranger here, our guest – / I don’t know who he is, or whether he comes / he pleads for passage, he begs we guarantee it. / Let us press on and grant him escort. (VIII.29-35)
Falling action: Occurs after climax where things eventually reach a resolution.
Ex. “Ithaca…Heart racing, Odysseus that great exile filled with joy to hear / He stood on native ground at last” (XIII.285-287)
Resolution: Point where the conflict is resolved
Ex. “Start clearing away the bodies. / And once you’ve put the entire house in order, / and hack them with your swords, slash out all their lives – / blot out of their minds the joys of love they relished / under the suitors’ bodies” (XXII.462-470)

• Protagonist: Main character of a work of literature, theater, or cinema.
Ex. “Great Odysseus who excels all men in wisdom” (I.78-79)
• Antagonist: Character, group or other force that presents indirect or direct opposition against protagonist.
Ex. “It’s the Earth-Shaker, Poseidon, unappeased, forever fuming against him for the Cyclops whose giant eye he blinded” (I.81-83)
• Conflict: Expressing a resistance the protagonist finds in achieving his goals. The conflict may be internal with self or external with others, nature, or society.
Ex. Internal: Odysseus overcoming his temptations such as pride and curiosity. “I’ll go across with my own ship and crew / and probe the natives living over there.” (Curious about the Cyclops) (IX.193-194) External: Odysseus reaching home against the gods’ will (mainly Poseidon’s) and getting rid of the suitors. “You’ll come home late / and come a broken man – / and you will find a world of pain at home, / crude, arrogant men devouring all your goods, / courting your noble wife,” (XI.129-134)
• Hubris: Overly arrogant, possessing pride which is the greatest sin in ancient Greek.
Ex. “I called back with another burst of anger, ‘Cyclops – / if any man on the face of the Earth should ask you / who blinded you, shamed you so – say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca!” (IX.558-562)
• Empathy: Ability to recognize and understand feelings, thoughts, needs and behaviors of others.
Ex. “But my heart breaks for Odysseus, / that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long – / far from his loved ones still, he suffers torments / off on a wave-washed island rising at the center of the seas. /… But he, straining for no more than a glimpse of hearth-smoke drifting up from his own land,” (I.57-70)

Stages of the Journey

• Separation: Initiate adventures into the unknown in seek of something physical or spiritual.

Ex. Odysseus joins the Trojan War at the request of Agamemnon and Menelaus. After defeating the Trojans, the promise of not desecrating the gods’ temples was broken thus angering them. Odysseus was cursed by Poseidon for his hubris and was set off course launching him into many trials for atonement to return home.

• Transformation: Initiate faces series of progressively harder challenges forcing them to undergo a change in thinking or way of life.

Ex. Odysseus faces the Ciccones, Lotus-eaters, Polyphemus, Laestragoninans, Circe, Calypso forcing him to control his temptations of pride and curiosity in order to return home.

• Return: Initiate returns back to their world integrating what they gained from the journey into their life and may contribute their wisdom or knowledge to society.

Ex. Odysseus with the help of the Phaecians, navigates home to Ithaca. He disguises himself to find out who has been disloyal in his absence. Odysseus then creates a plan to get rid of all the suitors and traitorous people. After succeeding in his plan, he reconnects with Telemachus, Laertes, and

Penelope.