PSE Greek

• The odyssey, classical epic poem, began as oral tradition, written down 8th century BCE by Homer. Demonstrates values highly idolised by the Greeks. Constructed common set of values that expressed Greeks ideas about themselves. Spelled out fixed model of heroism, and represented the good life. In ancient culture there was no religious script, they expressed societal beliefs and codes of conduct through word of mouth. Homer revolutionised culture by writing down oral traditional, and standardised their way of life
• "Captains and counsellors of the Phaeacians ... in the morning we will summon a fuller gathering of the elders to entertain our visitor here and to sacrifice to the gods. We will then take up the matter of his passage so as to ensure him without trouble or anxiety the happiness of a speedy return to his country under our escort, however far away it is" - Phaeacian King
• "Meanwhile they are eating me out of house and home. And they will very soon destroy me too" - Telemachus
• "Oh my friends, it's Nobody's treachery, not violence, that is doing me to death" - Polyphemus
• "Cyclops, if anyone ever asks you how you came by your blindness, tell him your eye was put out by Odysseus, sacker of cities, the son of Laertes, who lived in Ithaca." - Odysseus
• "I took all my men in turn and plugged their ears with it. They then bound me hand and foot, standing me up my the step of the ships mast and then lashing me to the mast itself." - Odysseus
• "However, when they had rowed past the sirens and we could no longer hear their sound and the words of their song, my good companions were quick to clear their ears of the wax I had used to stop them..." - Odysseus
• "Charybdis was beggining to suck the salt water down. But as she did so, I swung myself up to the great fig-tree, on which I got a tight grip and clung like a bat." - Odysseus
• "As a minstrel skilled at the lyre and in song easily stretches a string round a new leather strap, fixing the twisted sheep-gut at both ends, so he strung the great bow without effort or haste." - Odysseus
• "Odysseus took aim and shot him in the neck. The point passed clean through his tender throat."
• "'You dogs!' he cried, 'You never though to see me back from Troy. So you fleeced my household; you raped my maids; you courted my wife behind my back though I was alive -with no more fear of the gods in heaven than of the human vengeance that might come." - Odysseus
• "So did Odysseus' party chase the Suitors headlong through the hall and back then down. Ghastly screams rose up as men's heads were smashed in, and the whole floor ran with blood"