Week 2 Blog Post
Brandon Nathasingh
Blog Post 2 FWS
Blog Post 2 FWS
This week in class we read books 18-24 of The Odyssey and expanded on the book’s definition
of an athlete, discussed the social responsibilities of being an athlete, and
experience the fear of some of the characters.
In book 18, Odysseus further express his superiority over
those who challenge him, but he does it in an interesting way: “Leave blows alone, do not press me too hard, or
you may make me angry so that, old as I am, I may give you a bloody chest and
mouth. Then I could have peace, and still more of it tomorrow, for I do not
think you will make your way back here a second time to the house of Odysseus,
son of Laertes” He is disguised as a beggar which makes his actions
surprising. If you denied a homeless person a donation and they lashed out at
you, that would not pass over well with you and Odysseus received the same
reaction. This shows both the superiority human instinct as well as the superiority
instinct of the athlete.
Being an athlete in the
public eye has social respsonbilities today as well as it did in the setting of
The Odyssey. These responsibilities
sometimes make it hard for athletes such as Odysseus to have private lives,
which took a toll on Odysseus and his partner. She relays her frustration in
book 23: “She spoke, and still more roused in him the passion for weeping. He
wept as he held his lovely wife, whose thoughts were virtuous. And as when the
land appears welcome to men who are swimming, after Poseidon has smashed their
strong-built ship on the open water, pounding it with the weight of wind and
the heavy seas, and only a few escape the gray water landward by swimming, with
a thick scurf of salt coated upon them, and gladly they set foot on the shore,
escaping the evil; so welcome was her husband to her as she looked upon him,
and she could not let him go from the embrace of her white arms.”
In book 20, Penelope appears scared or weak because of those
who have higher power than her (Artemis) and appears to be having nightmares: “So I wish that they who have their homes on
Olympus would make me vanish, or sweet-haired Artemis strike me, so that I
could meet the Odysseus I long for, even under the hateful earth, and not have
to please the mind of an inferior husband. Yet the evil is endurable, when one
cries through the days, with heart constantly troubled, yet still is taken by
sleep in the nights; for sleep is oblivion of all things, both good and evil,
when it has shrouded the eyelids. But now the god has sent the evil dreams
thronging upon me. For on this very night there was one who lay by me, like him
as he was when he went with the army, so that my own heart was happy. I thought
it was no dream, but a waking vision.” Penelope may be feeling this way because
of the social stature of the athlete in the setting of The Odyssey. They are looked up to by everyone and she wants to
make sure that she is getting all the love that she thinks she deserves.
Your point comparing Odysseus's life with those of current public figures is an interesting view on the story. While the toll that Odysseus's absence took on his life if thoroughly detailed, I had not considered the fact that it was still possible in today's society. This makes his twenty year absence seem more like traveling during a season, or while filming a movie, and makes the story significantly more relatable.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you compared the life of a famous athlete such as Odysseus to modern day athletes. I think it is a very interesting point to explain how this may effect one's private life. We see today, in the NBA for instance, players are on the road a lot and do not have much time to be with there families. This parallel between Odysseus and the present day athlete shows the difficulties that have persisted over time with being an athlete.
ReplyDeleteI found your post interesting because of how you talked the social responsibilities of athletes in ancient Greece. If you were an athlete in ancient Greece, you were always noble and high up in the social world. I would argue that in todays society, this is not always the case.
ReplyDelete