Everything you need to know to read Homer's "Odyssey" - Jill Dash
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- čas přidán 29. 01. 2017
- View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/everything-you-need-to-know-to-read-homer-s-odyssey-jill-dash
An encounter with a man-eating giant. A sorceress who turns men into pigs. A long-lost king taking back his throne. On their own, any of these make great stories. But each is just one episode in the "Odyssey," a 12,000-line poem spanning years of ancient Greek history and legend. So how do we make sense of this massive text? Jill Dash shares everything you need to know to read Homer's "Odyssey.”
Lesson by Jill Dash, animation by David Price.
Here in Greece, in 7th grade the Odyssey is a subject like maths, geogrphy etc. To be honest , in my opinion it is the most enjoyable and fun subject of all !
You guys read it in the original Homeric language? Then all of Greeks should know Ancient greek, which is not the case.
that sounds amazing omg
Same thing in Italy- in 6th and 9th grade we have a subject called “Epica” in which we study the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid
Same in Lebanon- we had "L'histoire de Mediterran" History of the Mediterranean 6th-9th grade. Ancient Greece was huge part of our projects, same with Roman, and Crusades.
@@epycadventures ur rlly lucky then, in my school, we’ve only taken about the history (briefly) of the caliphate till the ottomans. But then again, in outer schll we start taking history at 7th grade, and last ya (7th grade) was my first time taking history class, so we might just take them later on. I rlly hope lol
how would Odysseus react if someone told him how small the Mediterranean Sea really was?
Lol
😂
it may be a small body of saltwater, but the influence the region of the mediterranean-middle east has had on the world is beyond measure
I know this is a cliché but this is really an underrated comment!
*alex thelizardking* Who said that Odysseus considered the Mediterranean to be that large? He spent most of his 10-years trip as a guest/prisoner in nymph Calypso and in witch Circe (at least 7+1 years).
That moment when you realize that nothing you'll ever write will be remembered 2800 years from now.
yea, cause the worlds gonna end way before that
Mine will be. It's a revitalization of a classic
That's False.
well im reading this 3 years from when you wrote it so thats a start
EasternSharqii what? Where’s your evidence for this lol? Books have survived several thousand years, they’ll survive much longer
After the ruins of Troy were discovered, the descriptions turned out to be amazingly accurate. It makes me wonder just how much of the rest of the stories were historically accurate.
Shawn Ravenfire Christ.Scary to think this all happened.
Shawn Ravenfire Troy was never found. Schliemann the architects claimed it was but the dates don’t match up nor was he a great architect which is shown by his excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum which weren’t well preserved because he was lazy. He claimed a lot of things and that he found stuff but suddenly it went “missing”. It could of happened but if you’ve ever read the illiad I seriously doubt it.
i feel like the “gods” in greek mythology were important people maybe once and just oversimplified into gods that have powers because they were very noble people or something
Even the walls that are fabled to be built by the gods are intact. *the sloping walls
So in the Ancient Greece, I could just get in a house and they would treat me like a guest?
Ricardo MRV They had to, if they didn't want the Gods to punish them
So in that time period, there was no need for hotel for example?
Actually the guest exchanges gifts and becomes usually a friend with the person who welcomes him/her.
There were not hotels, nor anything like that, so they should be hospitalized by the owners of the houses they runned into
Captain Alpha If the guest didnt have anything on him at the time he usually return after some years to pay back, or helped in every way needed those who once helped them
I love Greek culture, mythology, and history. Wish I were from there and wish I could go there. I am actually named after the goddess Persephone.
Persephone that’s such a beautiful name
Beautiful name indeed.
Nice to meet you dr of Demeter :) I hope you don’t actually have to marry hades haha
One of the few greek godess with a happy marriage
I’m named after the philosopher Aristotle. Ancient Greece is so cool to me.
i would recommend ancient Greek to start with.
Turun Ambartanen nah
exactly, i am now confused.. 'm starting my historical journey from greek civilization.
Turun Ambartanen actually even if you learn ancient Greek you will most probably impossible to understand it because it is quite old ancient Greek and it is not usually taught anywhere.
Sofia Sarigiannidi That is just bs
yup, i am translating parts of the odyssey in school right now and its very similar to the ancient greek you get taught, ignoring some differences like for example missing contractions or some changed word endings - but it is definitely understandable
The Iliad is not the story of the Trojan war! It is a story set during the Trojan war. It assumes the listener (reader) already knows the story of the Trojan war and it is just about Achilles dealing with the death of his friend during the siege of Troy.
Henry Davies True, he told 51 days of the 10 years of war
*boyfriend
Its not, but translated, it does literally mean ‘Story of Troy’ and is based during the Trojan war, which does have an impact on many of the storylines. It’s not wrong to call it that.
I heard an interesting theory from the channel OverlySarcasticProductions that the Iliad isn’t a story of the Trojan war, but of Achilles’ rage, because it (almost) starts with Achilles getting angry that Agamemnon took Briseis, and ends (once again, roughly) with Achilles controlling his anger and letting Priam take Hector’s body. I thought that idea was really cool.
Sophie Layden In the original text, the first word is actually ‘rage’ referencing the rage of Achilles. It’s not really a theory as it’s in almost every study of the Iliad there is, but you’re absolutely right about it!
I live in greece and in my school We do the oddysey as a lesson
So i live in russia and in my school We do the odyssey as an exam
Margarita Babovnikova well, we take exams for every lesson we take, so..
And it used to be a final but now finals are just core subjects
Κατερίνα Ρ. lesson is a a period of learning or teaching that 45-120 minutes long
Margarita Babovnikova then subject it is. Those terms stand for the same thing in greek, I forgot it changes when it comes to english 😅
Even today, good hospitality and giving gifts is a big part of visiting someone’s home or celebrations. We take that stuff super seriously.
That's Christmas with family and friends we known. Greeks did it with strangers.
Today, we are brainwashed with the horror movies of letting a stranger in your house will get you killed. So we all believe everyone is out to get us. No way we will let a stranger into our home! No matter how well dressed and well behaved they may be.
I'll just play Super Mario Odyssey when it's released.
that seems like a safer option than reading.
I never realized that I could become the HEHEHE I AM A SUPAHSTAR WARRIA of TED-Ed.
Yoshi, Wart United You technically are a Supahstar warria.
i guess
I doubt people understand this refence
I'm Greek. So proud of my history.
Same here, my friend. Greece has a majestic history
Theodore Andreou
such a shame what's going on now. Hopefully it gets better
Theodore Andreou ωπ Ελλάδαααα
Theodore Andreou Για σ ελληνα!
Theodore Andreou dude, you have an amazing culture!
I had the chance and visited Homer's school on the island of Ithaki a few months ago. It was so peaceful and inspiring to walk amongst the ruins in which great minds shared knowledge. I can't wait to go back and spend more time.
I'd like to see an in-depth analysis of H.P. Lovecraft's works.
Jaquan1254 Ooh! That'd be amazing on this channel!!
Now there is one!
Overrated
I literally just finished reading The odyssey about a month ago
hard but nice book to read good job..
LOL what was that, 9th grade english? or 10th grade? and if i remember correctly we only had to read less than half of the epic, which doesn't count as reading it.
PinkShoesAreSnazzy AP English 12. idependent reading assignment for semester 1
Me too... And tomorrow I've got a test about it... what a coincidence
Blackout Gaming me too, but now I have to read Richard the III
I am from greece.We do it for 1 year as a lesson.Yes,it has lots of things that you must explain to understand it well,but you can finish it easily with a teacher next to you.
There are several approaches; fictional, historical, social, psychological, metaphysical all of them worth figuring out!!! Love it.
One very small correction. The Illiad is not about the Trojan War. It's about Achilleus' rage, which takes place and occurs due to the Trojan War. We learn about the end of the war from other poets.
Subjective
1. you need to know how to read
2. that's it, you can read the Odyssey
exactly.
okay, im gonna start
you can read it, but understanding it is a whole other challenge
Umm...yes now you can read it but you can't understand it. You obviously haven't read it but ok
If they don't know how to read, your comment isn't helpful
We read the odyssey last year in my second year of high school. It is beautiful.
Do the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Journey to the west or some Asian story please
檀 杏斗 can you tell me about the ancient east epics?
I would cry for a series covering south asian stuff.
Yes
Some day I’d love to read those! The Dreams of the Red Chamber one, too!
@@sayantanpaul626 hey watch this czcams.com/video/KvwpF_aMgBA/video.html for info on Mahabharata . It's far larger than that tho but this gives a jist .
Who else has to do this for online school
Lauren Mutch me
Lauren Mutch I was never that lucky, my school didn't believe in classics, I had to discover Homer for myself, gentle encouragement to my daughter inspired her to delve more deeply into the subject to the point where she graduated from university as a classical scholar, leaving in her wake an enormously proud father. She is now at teacher training college with the hope of inspiring others in the same subject.
me
me
How did u know?!
Anyone else here before they start showing this in classrooms?
Brajany ✋️
Brajany Lucky
I wasn't
“It helps to have some background before jumping in” tell that to my Freshman English teacher who assigned this immediately without explanation.
Never in my life have i been this fascinated by a narrator before!! Hope u r having a good day ma'am, you and your soothing voice ❤️
The animation in these videos is always so nifty and inventive.
the odyssey had a purpose
Spread Outism outside the fandom, Hero
@@sashagornostay2188 im doing my best 🫡
Love the graphics and the breakdown of the story. We just got done reading the majority of the story before we had to return the book to the library.
As I have just finished reading this work. My random thoughts, in the context of this video, are these:
*It is oft said, but barely half true to say that Odysseus' troubled path home was because he blinded the cyclops, Polyphemus. While it is true that Poseidon, his dad, raised storms a number of times, he only knew the name of the perpetrator, because Polyphemus told him. Odysseus initially told Polyphemus that his name was "Noman", but rashly and advised otherwise by his own men, blurted out his real name, after having escaped, just boast to, and taunt, the now very angry Polythemus. Were it not for that, Poseidon would not have known whom to assail. Mistake #1. Then only in the next chapter, Aeolus sends his ships by favorable wind, to within sight of Ithaca, by wrapping all the unfavorable winds in bags. But Odysseus men let them out of the bag at which they were all sent back off into the sea. Mistake #2. It is more correct to say that Odysseus own boastful arrogance caused his troubles, rather than the blinding of Polyphemus per se.
*"Xenia" may well have been contemporaneously considered a wise hedge against insulting gods in human form, but sometimes such tales are just grand stories of convenience, masking a more practical reason. In this case, consider that Greece is a large area with a vast number of islands and only partially connected city states. I think anyone can readily see that travelling around Greece, would have presented significant problems remaining fed and provisioned, especially when there was alot of sailing involved. I take the whole idea of Xenia as a pragmatic sense of mutual benefit dressed up with this story about not offending gods.
*while the story is highly entertaining (though the latter chapters do drag somewhat) if I ponder what is the overall purpose and message of the work, in the context of the time, I would say it is "Don't touch my stuff while I'm gone". Kings of city states leaving on military adventures seems was common enough, and absenting yourself and your armed followers, is an obvious risk of overthrow. What better way to terrorise those who remain into leaving the queen, the wealth, and the position of ruler, alone, other than by a/ enshrining in tradition that you are likely to turn up unexpectedly and kill them all, and b/ that the gods really won't be on their side? Most readers here will know Agamemnon's fate when he returned. All, up have concluded that to be the main theme and purpose: no matter how long I am gone, fear me and my return. I could even be 20 years....
*Lastly, my suggestion for reading it: *every time you read a reference to any other character from mythology, look them up. Easily done if you use a Kindle or Kindle app. That will ultimately furnish you with a good idea about greek mythology's most important stories. All the more if you read The Iliad first, as did I, and apply the same strategy.
*Before you start (alas, I did not), write a list of all the pantheon, including both their greek and latin names. The version I read used them both, randomly! Note particularly that Pallas, Minerva and Athena are the same goddess.
That's helpful advice, thank you. Especially the parts about some God's being known by different names.
which version did you read??
A version that has Latin and Greek versions of the gods at random is a terrible idea that insights unnecessary confusion. That’s awful haha
Wow, I appreciate all of the knowledge and research that you've done for us!
I would love to see you give this treatment to 'the curious incident of the dog in the night-time'. The way the book is written alone will make for some great visuals.
A lot of this applies to the Mahbharata and Ramayana --- which are longer and far more wide spread than Homer's epics. Would appreciate a video on them.
"At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa.". Yes, a video precis sounds like a good option....
Nah, I think Illiad and Odyssey is more widespread even if people didn't read all of those books they at least know about the trojan war. Popular media made that famous.
@@Mystic_Moon28 the existence of the Iliad and The Odyssey is definitely fairly well-known in western culture but you will be hard pushed to find anyone in personal life who had read either or had any idea about the story lines. Likewise the Trojan war... some know of it, and the story about the horse, but that is it.
@@alexanderSydneyOz yeah but I've never heard of these supposedly more widespread works mentioned
This book is amazing tbh.
I don't read much but I've always loved this one.
The Sirens are half birds, not mermaids.
Yeah I think the difference between sirens and harpies are that sirens are beautiful bird women who sing enchanting songs of wisdom to lure sailors to their death; harpies are ugly bird women who steal food and eat some people.
Abc Abc The I read on an Italian newspaper that syrens became half fishes in Naples (which has been Greek for some centuries). Clearly a syren that is half bird is more similar to a harpy
The original Sirens from Greek mythology are indeed half human and half bird. But through time the adaptation of sirens changes, in the middle ages, sirens commonly believed as half human and half fish.
i love when you make videos about books and novels. im sad when there are just 9 video about books
This is the best narrator I've ever heard. Phenomenal Cheers
I would love to watch a modern remake of the Odyssey right now
this is like one piece but with an ending
I’ve read the Iliad and the Odyssey around 4 times in the past three years (I had a phrase where I loved Ancient Greek history). And every single time I get confused by the wording.
We had to read The Odyssey last year and I hated it at first but now I regret slacking off on that project, it's such a wonderful story
In Italy in 9th grade we have to read homer’s poems and in 10th grade the Aeneid... I love the them :)
sam here in Greece. But wee have to start learning homeric greek in grade 7... 😭 😭
I'm curious. Which epic do people prefer, the _Iliad_ or the _Odyssey_?
***** So you like them both just as much?
Juan Pablo Mina definitely illiad, it was a different experience to read it and I believe anyone can enjoy it if they're a bit patient or somewhat not a mainstream media kid
SoleNero21 I agree with you. The _Odyssey_ is good, don't get me wrong, but the _Iliad_ is just so much better... Alas, it's not for everyone. I have a reader friend who just couldn't get into it. We've both read _A Song of Ice and Fire_ and _The Accursed Kings_, but he just couldn't read Homer.
Juan Pablo Mina I prefer the Iliad, I am from Greece and here the Odyssey is a subject in 7th grade and the Iliad in 8th grade... So because I know both "stories" I can say that the Illiad is sooo much more interesting and has suspense....
Alexa Dimitriadou How come you study the sequel before?
Homer: Bruh I’m real I-
Ulyyses is a shortened and more comprehensible version. It sums it up well.
I'm reading it in 4th grade, and it is AMAZING. By far one of the best books in my opinion. After I finish it, I'm reading Ulysses.
Yeah, sure
Ulysses is the same guy, just the latin name the Romans gave him. Actually Lisboa(Lisbon) is according to legend named after Ulysses, the name has changed through time, but it used to be Olissipo and before that unsure, but maybe Odysipolis??? Last one is a wiiild guess.
My first week of uni we were expected to read the oddessy in a week (we didn’t even have summer reading lists) it was brutal
we have to read it for grade 9 in homeric greek in Greece.. save me 😭 😭 😭 😭
Great book. I loved it.
funny thing is my English class started the Odyssey a week ago so this is pretty useful
Great video! Perfect timing too--I'm currently reading The Odyssey for my Epic class 😊
Can you help me?
It's interesting that your illustrations would picture the Trojan Horse when referencing The Iliad, when The Iliad does not encompass that event.
originalhgc I know lol xD
there is an incredible musical based on the odyssey!
its still a wip, but i love it very much.
(its called epic the musical and it's being written by jorge herrans if you're interested)
that musical is the whole reason i'm watching this video
Thanks for making this like a week after we finished reading it ;-;
I'm reading this right now :O what a surprise
I don't now why I kept laughing at 3:38
no cluue
Oooh I never caught that Odysseus was the constant guest, while Penelope was a constant hostess. Interesting.
We had to read the Odyssey and do an exam for classic culture, so it's cool to see this after
I would suggest getting someone who knows something about the Odyssey to write the script for such a talk. What we have here are scraps of fact in a framework of misconception about the poem and the poet.
Just a few examples.
Homer - to give the poet a name - thinks he is telling listener about how a clever man managed to get home. The poem starts at the beginning of the story - on Calypso's island - and recounts how he made it to an island where he received help. There he recited the story of his wanderings which is not what the story is about. The wanderings are a background to the man which illustrate his cleverness. The man gets home, finds his kingdom about to be taken over, and, with the help of his son and a few people loyal to him, how he manages to regain his rightful place. Aristotle gives roughly the same summary.
The Iliad is not about the Trojan War. It is about an event which cover approximately six ekes in the 10th year of the war. There was a quarrel between the chief commander of the Greek forces and one of the sub-commanders. Because of the quarrel, the offended person withdraws from the fighting - and the Greeks begin to lose heavily - but is persuaded to return to battle after his close friend is killed. He kills the man who killed his friend and humiliates the man's family - the king of Troy - by not allowing the body to be buried properly. The killed man's father comes to the Greek man, and begs him to return the body, The Greek man does so, covered with shame at his behaviour. After this, he makes his peace with the commander and the two of them discuss why it is that people who should know better behave so stupidly and shamefully. One incident. Six weeks in the 10th year. No mention of why the war started, or how it is expected to end. A powerful story of irrational behaviour and the mystery of why this behaviour appears.
And I could go on. This video is just silly.
Oh my English class read this last year! Too bad I didn't see this when we read it. Great video though!
Thank you! This was really helpful
Literally took a test on it today. Could've used this last night
나는 호메로스의 오디세이아를 읽고 있습니다.
호메로스 보러 왔는데, 한글 자막이 멋집니다.
전문가가 번역하셨나봅니다.
영상도 설명도 매우 멋집니다.
감사합니다.
I am reading Homer's Odyssey.
I came to see Homer, and the Korean subtitles are great.
It must have been translated by an expert.
The video and explanation are very nice.
Thank you.
Greeks own the greatest civilization in the world and they are so cool people I have many Greek friends they are great
"made for listeners rather than readers" agree, got more out of this in the Claire Danes audio book than when I read in uni
Read this amazing epos thanks to you. Thank you!!
Dude this would have been sooo useful about a week ago
It is interesting how gods disguised as humans wandering the earth repeats a lot in European and Indo-Arian myth. Like Odin the Wanderer was very similar in the north, we had people here in the north who were like Irish travelers (tatter) and would ask to sleep in your barn, and courtesy would be to let them because they could be Odin in disguise.
Great job! My students said that this video SLAYS!
The first Shonen ever written
Exellent decision manager 🗣️🗣️
⏰️⏰️⏰️⏰️
They didn't just welcome guests because they feared they might be gods in disguise. Zeus was also the protector of beggars and visitors, so they were obligated to offer a beggar what they asked for and welcome strangers into their house, in fear that Zeus might punish them or send them bad luck. Xenia (Ξενία, it means friendship in ancient greek) was passed down from generation to generation, meaning the bond of the host and the visitor would be passed down to their children.
Actually Rhapsodes comes from the Greek verb rhapto which means to mend, so the oral poets are not the rhapsodes but Aedi, the rhapsodes were the ones who used to basically triscribed the oral poems
I loved this book.
I just feel Indian Mythology infact is as detailed and profound as Greek mythology. But surprised that internationally under rated. I would love to Research on the underlying reasons for this. And if you are reading this and you just Believe in the joy of stories,do check out Indian myths while I go on to explore Greek for now😍🥰
Its because the West is Best...lol I kid, but it's probably just the global influence of the Western World in...well...the West.
Personally prefer the Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid, but the Odyssee is great
No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy
this is for my school
As a Greek I can positively say that homer was a real person and the alphabet was a thing then . The Odyssey was composed during the 8th century b.c but refers to the 12th . There are written scripts in the Greek dialect they spoke back then . Get better info .
YES and I was just reading the intro to the Fagles version of the Odyssey in english and it was contradicting some of the things in this video. this video sucks!
So these guys were Dungeons and Dragonsing up in this bitch in 8000 bc? OG.
I love this narrator!!
Awesome. Thank you!
Actually rhapsodes did actually read the things they were singing, it was the aoidoi that just sang the poems
Weren't the rapsodes the one "stringing songs together"?
Useful and entertaining video. Thanks! One minor correction: mnemonic isn't pronounced 'numonic' (1:40)
1:36
I read The Odyssey last semester... It was by far the roughest part of the whole semester.
You should do a war book like all quiet on the western front or Oedipus Rex is pretty cool
These videos always present one interpretation as factual. Sometimes this is fine, but when you try and apply it to something like the work of Homer, it falls flat and just seems poorly researched.
please do Mahabharata
War & Peace next please!
*Great* , outstanding narrator
Fufufu Penelope really enjoyed her hosting career 👌
I'm so glad you can leave voice messages as comments now!!!
▶ 🔘──────── 00:13
bruh
not even close
Why did video not uploaded when I needed it the most!!!!!
Epics were originally meant to be read aloud to listeners? Well that explains why I love professionally voiced audiobooks so much more than reading text when it comes to fiction and historical/mythological perspectives.
You are probably not going to believe this but I (a 15y old boy) have translated and read 1/4 of the Odyssee already. Its quite hard tbh. Btw I am Dutch
Hendrik van den Broek wait what? from the original text?
Κατερίνα Ρ. yeah I'll send a picture
gyazo.com/39236fe2df538aea8e303232af163d2f
yes this is how we do it as well to learn ancient greek here,we get the ancient greek text,and the words that need to be translated like your picture we learn them and after a random day we will have to translate the text from ancient greek to modern greek and read the text, at the same age, it is hard but everybody can do it...
sooo.... do you want a cookie now?
I hear that french fries were originally made in Greece.
haha do you get it
Historians have found ancient document of greeks boiling some kind of vegetable called "γεωμηλο" in olive oil,so...
lol jk,at least as far as I know...
Homini Lupus no don't get it
ApollonasX γεομηλο was the first name they gave it when it arrived in greece at the 20th centoury by Ioannis Kapodistrias.
At the first he gave it for free to them but they thought that it wasnt good because he gaved it free,so he put guards near them,then the people stelled them. And this is how potatoes became famous to Greece !!!
+ApollonasX
I almost fell for that; you know, there are many Greeks that believe that sort of shit. So, good one :)
In fact, the word "γεώμηλο" is a direct translation of the French word "pomme de terre", which in modern French translates to "earth apple", yet in old French it would translate to "earth fruit".
The construction of this word probably occured 100-200 years ago, when philologists tried to "cleanse" the Greek language from foreign influences, in a desperate attempt to rid the modern Greek, "Ρωμιός", from their evident Turkish, Slavic and French (to mention a few) linguistic and cultural heritage and create a unified and "pure" Greek nation.
+Μαρια Δαρειωτακη
That's a myth. Kapodistrias never actually did that... although it is a cool story and it has him, indeed, that introduced potatos to Greece. By the way, I sincerely doubt this happened in the 20th century, since Kapodistrias was murdered in 1831 ;)
Hey ted ed,why don't you make a video on Mahabharata which is longer than Iliad and Odyssey combined?
I am now reading this book
Me reading the book in the 9th grade not knowing any of this information-
this is so strangely similar to hinduism. where the king of devas is Indra who happens to be the deva of rain and lighting. and how hindu ancien5 texts are all poetries like the Gita to be recited. and how we hindus have a saying 'athithi devo bhava' meaning 'guests are God' being hindus too like what she said, offered hospitality to whomever that came to their door.
you mean aryans ?
whom hindus think to be their ancestors ?
That is so cool. I never knew that.
Make the hole books like this please