Reading Notes: Homer's Odyssey, Part A
Homer's Odyssey, translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004).
Odysseus's wits:
I love how Odysseus isn't a super powerful character, at least not compared to the cyclops. He knows when he is outmatched and uses his wits, rather than pure strength, to defeat the enemy. The cyclops even calls him "a puny good-for-nothing weakling". A lot of Greek mythology has the hero simply overwhelm their opponent or win by favor of the gods, but I enjoy the myths which involve some sort of cleverness on the protagonist's part. I don't know too much about The Iliad, but since that was a war story I feel that The Odyssey will slow the pace down a little bit and be a little bit more clever. After all, Odysseus is running around with just a small group of men after 11/12 of his boats get sunk.
Eurylochus:
I think a cool change to make here would be to have Eurylochus stay behind on accident. Instead of him not trusting the Circe, have him be super excited to meet Circe. Then, he has to tie his shoe or something and the rest of the group leaves him behind. I don't know how to change it from here, but that was a quick idea that I had at first read. This can be how my next note, about the miscommunication, can start off, as I think it will paint Eurylochus as the type of character to be a little bit of an airhead, which sets the tone for the rest of what I want to do.
Turning into pigs:
What if Circe was just a nice, hospitable lady who didn't turn anybody into pigs or another animal. Maybe Eurylochus just got confused and went back to the ship with misinformation. Then, when Odysseus and the rest of the gang show up they barge in and see a completely normal setting. Circe would probably be pretty upset with that. Maybe Eurylochus hears something that can be a double entendre. Circe could say "I'm going to turn all of you into pigs", which can mean what she actually did in the story or she's just going to feed them a lot. As of now, I think this is the story I'm going to try to implement.
Odysseus's wits:
I love how Odysseus isn't a super powerful character, at least not compared to the cyclops. He knows when he is outmatched and uses his wits, rather than pure strength, to defeat the enemy. The cyclops even calls him "a puny good-for-nothing weakling". A lot of Greek mythology has the hero simply overwhelm their opponent or win by favor of the gods, but I enjoy the myths which involve some sort of cleverness on the protagonist's part. I don't know too much about The Iliad, but since that was a war story I feel that The Odyssey will slow the pace down a little bit and be a little bit more clever. After all, Odysseus is running around with just a small group of men after 11/12 of his boats get sunk.
Eurylochus:
I think a cool change to make here would be to have Eurylochus stay behind on accident. Instead of him not trusting the Circe, have him be super excited to meet Circe. Then, he has to tie his shoe or something and the rest of the group leaves him behind. I don't know how to change it from here, but that was a quick idea that I had at first read. This can be how my next note, about the miscommunication, can start off, as I think it will paint Eurylochus as the type of character to be a little bit of an airhead, which sets the tone for the rest of what I want to do.
Turning into pigs:
What if Circe was just a nice, hospitable lady who didn't turn anybody into pigs or another animal. Maybe Eurylochus just got confused and went back to the ship with misinformation. Then, when Odysseus and the rest of the gang show up they barge in and see a completely normal setting. Circe would probably be pretty upset with that. Maybe Eurylochus hears something that can be a double entendre. Circe could say "I'm going to turn all of you into pigs", which can mean what she actually did in the story or she's just going to feed them a lot. As of now, I think this is the story I'm going to try to implement.
Bacon in Greece. Source: Flickr
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