Book VII of The Odyssey

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  • Created by: naustin
  • Created on: 18-02-18 12:52
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  • Book 7 of The Odyssey
    • Themes
      • Oikos
        • Alcinous' palace has 50 maids employed, silver and gold dogs made by Hephaestus, very impressive gardens and large flowering orchards/ vineyards and 2 divine springs (gifts from the gods).
      • Xenia
        • Alcinous sits Odysseus in his favourite son's chair, gets a maid to wash his hands and feet and offers him a feast.
        • Odysseus flatters Nausicaa which in turn flatters his host
          • Depicted in this book as very wiley
      • Honouring the gods
        • Libations poured to Hermes and Zeus
        • Odysseus is treated well as the Phaecians fear he may be a god.
    • Characters
      • Eurymedusa
        • Slave girl who was a prize for Alcinous who lights a fire
      • Arete
        • Wife and niece of king Alcinous, descendant of Poseidon and related to giants popular, wise, known to settle men's disputes
          • Notices that Odysseus wears robes that she has made - shows how she is perceptive
          • "She dissolves quarrels, even among men, when she favors them."
      • Alcinous
        • King of Phaecia
          • Sleeps in same bed as his wife which would have been strange in Greek times and shows how he truly loves and respects her.
          • "Alcinous of the hallowed strength"
          • An example of good xenia
            • "set him in a shining chair, displacing for this powerful Laodamas, his son, who had been sitting next him and who was the one he loved most."
      • Odysseus
        • Depicted in this book as very wiley
      • Athene
        • "Athene with kind thought for Odysseus drifted a deep mist about him"
        • "Athene met him, in the likeness of a young girl, a little maid, carrying a pitcher"
    • Devices
      • Disguise
        • Athene covers Odysseus in a mist of invisibility to hide him from the xenophobic Phaecians.
        • Athene appears to Odysseus as a little girl in order to give him directions to the palace.

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