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My
Original Assumptions
How Wrong I Was
Plot Summary
I thought it was going to be horrible! I was supposed to read the Odyssey in 7th grade, but I got so bored and confused by the second book that I just never finished it. My Latin class read the Aeneid last year, which I thought was interesting only because it talked about the history of the Republic (in book VI when he meets the people waiting to be born again). I only included it in my project because it's (along with the Iliad) the earliest surviving source in Greek, so I figured it would probably paint the clearest image of life before the Greek Dark Ages, and because so many other works are influenced by it.
When I was in Mexico I decided to get a head start on this project and picked up the Odyssey because I thought it would make a good jumping off point. I love books like The Lord of The Rings with cool creatures and magic. By the time I finished the first book I was hooked: the Odyssey has all the elements of a great novel; I couldn't put it down. Odysseus himself isn't a great hero (all he's got is brains and Athena's protection, I prefer hero's like Achilles, check out the Iliad page to find out about him!), but the people he meets are awesome, and I love watching him find a way out of every tight spot! In short, even though the Odyssey influenced everything written after it and is the earliest source about the Trojan war, I liked it because it was fun to read, not because of the reasons that I decided to read it for.
A good site I found: Ancient History Sourcebook
Questions, comments, suggestions?
E-mail me:
lzlatic04@sidwell.edu
Last Updated: September 5, 2003
*The background image is a view of the Mediterranean Sea*