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The Odyssey

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Hello Crafty Wanderers,

You about to read one of the greatest epic poems ever written. It's the story of Odysseus and his attempt to return home to his wife and son. The poem is over 12,000 lines long and divided into 24 books.

One very basic thing that will help you in reading this poem is to remember that you are reading a poem, not a novel. Therefore, follow the punctuation of the poem not the end of the lines. If you pause at the end of each line just as if you were pausing at the end of a sentence, this poem will be very difficult to understand. It may take you a little time (if you haven't read a lot of poetry) to ignore where the lines end, but with some practice you'll get used to it and have a much better reading experience.

For example, if there is no period or comma at the end of line move to next line smoothly and keep reading until you reach a period.

There are lots and lots of names in this poem. Don't worry about remembering or knowing all of them. Your book has a good glossary in the back that gives a brief entry for most of the names if you're interested.

The principal characters in this poem are:

• Odysseus
• Penelope, Odysseus' wife
• Telemachos, the son of Odysseus and Penelope
• Athene, goddess, daughter of Zeus.
• Zeus, most powerful of the gods
• Poseidon, brother of Zeus, lord of the sea

There are many other characters, some of them famous (i.e. like the Cyclops and Sirens), that come and go throughout the poem.

Another helpful thing to do is to read a short synposis of what happens in the poem. For a very short one with illustrations go here. It explains, very briefly, what happens in each book. This would be a great thing to do particularly for those books that we are not reading so you know what has preceded them.

Regards,

Mr. Draeger

©2005-2012 Glen Draeger (all rights reserved)
Millstone Education: World Literature / http://www.millstoneeducation.com/worldLit