You are making me wish I were still reading the Odyssey! The structure of the story really is quite complex—one of the big surprises for me when I read it. Bookmarking your series because I plan on reading it again this winter.
Your study question (#1) about identity stirred something in me. My work with revealing and helping others reveal Blueprint helps identify all the different "players" on our (identity) teams.
And depending on the context of your life, different players need to be on the court while others may need to take a backseat.
Sometimes, you may find that you have one or more players in the game a bit too long and sometimes not enough.
Learning to utilize all your players in harmony with each other at the right time, place, and with the right people is an incredibly valuable and fulfilling endeavor.
It's about adapting to different circumstances while maintaining authenticity and integrity.
We can indeed be ourselves while showing up differently depending on the context of our situation.
Book 8 is the best example yet of why I like the Odyssey more the Iliad. For reasons that are unclear to me, the themes in the Odyssey just seem more modern and relatable.
I took Odysseus's decision not to disclose his identity as being based on a combination of humility and caution. When the games begin, he could have revealed his identity and athletic prowess with rightful swagger, but he opts to allow his actions speak for his abilities and otherwise not declare who he is. Similar character development has been replicated to the delight of readers and audiences countless times through the ages: The tall dark stranger comes to town, gradually revealing himself to possess strength and skills far beyond the obvious or expected. We who are raised on the Western canon like our heroes to be humble and mysterious. Maybe we have Homer to thank for this.
Odysseus's reaction to the bards songs about the Trojan war are highly-charged passages indicating the trauma of not only the war itself and the losses he has experienced, but also Odysseus's deep yearning for home. I think Matthew definitely hit the nail on the head in comparing Odysseus's reaction to modern-day PTSD. Perhaps the military and VA should provide a course on the Iliad, so our soldiers who suffer trauma would understand that even Greek heroes grieved mightily over what war had done to them, without diminishing one whit their hero status.
This week I cannot help but be struck by Homer's use of appearance (from grand structures, games, clothing, and emotion) in my broad strokes of consideration. You mention layers of meaning in every scene, and this is applicable to the human as well. What plays on the surface, what gurgles beneath.
There exist the public persona and the private individual. I cannot help but wonder if the division between the two are as wide as it feels in the current day. Where is the realism, but maybe more to the query is at what point is the ability to find one’s own individual heroism just a fabrication but not a truth. Mental gymnastics that over time is a falseness that obliterates purposefulness and integrity of not just the self but community.
This leads me to wonder what do the bards of today record as an oral tradition of this time? What are the truths of the stories being told and will they stand as accurate in the long term or maybe a study of slow fabrication. A beginning point that other stories will be built upon and can function as an education of the path of falseness or the human created obstacles of a period of time.
I wish that I would later hear the stories of our present day.
You are making me wish I were still reading the Odyssey! The structure of the story really is quite complex—one of the big surprises for me when I read it. Bookmarking your series because I plan on reading it again this winter.
Your study question (#1) about identity stirred something in me. My work with revealing and helping others reveal Blueprint helps identify all the different "players" on our (identity) teams.
And depending on the context of your life, different players need to be on the court while others may need to take a backseat.
Sometimes, you may find that you have one or more players in the game a bit too long and sometimes not enough.
Learning to utilize all your players in harmony with each other at the right time, place, and with the right people is an incredibly valuable and fulfilling endeavor.
It's about adapting to different circumstances while maintaining authenticity and integrity.
We can indeed be ourselves while showing up differently depending on the context of our situation.
What do you think?
-Jenks
Book 8 is the best example yet of why I like the Odyssey more the Iliad. For reasons that are unclear to me, the themes in the Odyssey just seem more modern and relatable.
I took Odysseus's decision not to disclose his identity as being based on a combination of humility and caution. When the games begin, he could have revealed his identity and athletic prowess with rightful swagger, but he opts to allow his actions speak for his abilities and otherwise not declare who he is. Similar character development has been replicated to the delight of readers and audiences countless times through the ages: The tall dark stranger comes to town, gradually revealing himself to possess strength and skills far beyond the obvious or expected. We who are raised on the Western canon like our heroes to be humble and mysterious. Maybe we have Homer to thank for this.
Odysseus's reaction to the bards songs about the Trojan war are highly-charged passages indicating the trauma of not only the war itself and the losses he has experienced, but also Odysseus's deep yearning for home. I think Matthew definitely hit the nail on the head in comparing Odysseus's reaction to modern-day PTSD. Perhaps the military and VA should provide a course on the Iliad, so our soldiers who suffer trauma would understand that even Greek heroes grieved mightily over what war had done to them, without diminishing one whit their hero status.
This week I cannot help but be struck by Homer's use of appearance (from grand structures, games, clothing, and emotion) in my broad strokes of consideration. You mention layers of meaning in every scene, and this is applicable to the human as well. What plays on the surface, what gurgles beneath.
There exist the public persona and the private individual. I cannot help but wonder if the division between the two are as wide as it feels in the current day. Where is the realism, but maybe more to the query is at what point is the ability to find one’s own individual heroism just a fabrication but not a truth. Mental gymnastics that over time is a falseness that obliterates purposefulness and integrity of not just the self but community.
This leads me to wonder what do the bards of today record as an oral tradition of this time? What are the truths of the stories being told and will they stand as accurate in the long term or maybe a study of slow fabrication. A beginning point that other stories will be built upon and can function as an education of the path of falseness or the human created obstacles of a period of time.
I wish that I would later hear the stories of our present day.