Sit in a group of four

1. Uh, make wise choices. This is the last unit from which you will earn grades. Sit in a group of four

2. What do you think? 1) You have been shipwrecked on an island. You meet a god/goddess who falls in love with you and wants you to stay with them forever. In return he/she will make you immortal. However, all you really want to do is get home and be with your family. What would you choose? Why? 2) Your husband/wife went off to war with a group of people, many of whom returned ten years later. Years go by and your husband/wife still hasn’t returned. A group of men/women, who all assume your husband/wife must be dead, start courting you, and have proposed. You can’t support yourself and your son on your own, but you haven’t given up hope that your husband/wife is still alive and will return. What do you do? 3) You are a young adult who lives with his mother. Your father, who left years ago to fight a war that has since ended, has been presumed dead. A large group of men have come courting for your mother and move into your house. Your mother doesn’t want to believe her husband is dead. She refuses to pick one of them, yet they will not leave your house, and they are eating all of your food and damaging your property. They are loud and rude to you. You want to get rid of them, but there is only one of you, and dozens of them. What can you do?

3. WHEN do we need heroes?

4. The Greek myths were first passed on by word of mouth, down through the violence of a dark age. • The two or three centuries beginning about 1125 BC were marked by strife and turmoil. The course of civilization was set back by centuries. • Later Greeks, looking back through the dim prism of the centuries of violence, spoke of a time when heroes walked the earth. These exceptional men and women fought monsters, performed superhuman feats, and consorted with the gods themselves. Greek mythology

5. As the time of the heroes gave way to the dim centuries of violence, ruins and abandoned dwellings lay scattered upon the land. The kingdoms that had seen the exploits sung about by bards like Homer now lay in shambles. • Some speculate that Dorian invaders from the north with iron weapons laid waste the Bronze Age culture. Others look to internal dissent, uprising and rebellion. Or perhaps some combination brought the era to an end. • One thing is certain — civilization had taken a giant backward step. Material culture and the life of the mind were reduced to a lower common denominator. • When the flame of learning and the aspiring spirit was kindled anew, people looked back across the time of darkness to what seemed a golden age. • Then it was, they thought, that a special breed of men and women had trod the earth—not quite gods but not quite human either. They made up stories about them, some based perhaps on faint recollections of real individuals. These were the heroes of Greek mythology.

6. The Trojan War was over(mid 1200s BC). The clever Greek Odysseus had tricked the enemy into bringing a colossal wooden horse within the walls of Troy. The Greeks had been laying siege to Troy for nine long years, but suddenly it looked like their whole army had departed, leaving the horse behind. • The Trojans had no idea that Greek soldiers were hidden inside, under the command of Odysseus. • That night, while the Trojans slept, Odysseus and his men emerged from the horse's belly. Opening the city gates, they admitted their comrades, who had snuck back in the dark. • Troy was sacked and the Trojans utterly vanquished. Now it was time for Odysseus and his fellow warriors to return to their kingdoms across the sea. Here begins the tale of The Odyssey, as sung by the blind minstrel Homer. • You better remember all that you learned in my class when you are in World Lit! ; ) Background: The Trojan War

7. The Ancient Greeks were polytheists and believed in a multitude of immortal deities. The greatest of these lived on the remote heights of Mount Olympus but were by no means aloof from the mortals below. • Their cities contained temples to honor the gods (little g). • The Olympian gods communicated with their subjects by omens and oracles. Oracles, spokespersons for the divine, answered questions often in riddles. • The gods decided the outcome of athletic contests and battles. They even took up arms themselves. • They aided or hindered the heroes in their quests.

8. Superhuman • During quest, goes through trials and tribulations in order to achieve his goal • On a quest for something of great value • Epic Hero • Of mixed divine and human birth • Villains try to keep the hero from his quest • Has a tragic flaw

9. Let’s meet our epic hero Odysseus