New Year, New Dreams
As I suppose comes with a new semester, I have had dreams about the first day two nights in the year. In these dreams (nightmares?) I remember a few things that I have planned to do on the first day but forget about those big things, like a new seating chart or going over the policies/procedures again (and emphasizing those that REALLY need some work). I have a running to do list that will never get done. Things I want to do before I have to return to work. I return on Monday, but thankfully students do not return until Thursday.

I have been thinking about how to approach teaching the Odyssey. My goals include giving the students a good overview of what the story is and a sense of what the story actually is (that it is an old story, written originally in Greek, translated many many times.) I also want to emphasize how current writers, tv writers, pop culture people use references from The Odyssey. So I collected the first stanza or so of the Odyssey from several versions. About 6 english, one Greek, and one French, just for fun. I want to introduce these all and have students look for similarities and differences in each version before we begin reading. I hope this will really cement the idea that this story wasn't written directly from someone's head into their textbook. If they think that, I will have certainly failed. Otherwise I think it will be going ok.

The Odyssey: Many Versions – all Book I

andra+ moi ennepe++, mousa, polutropon+, hos mala polla

planchthê, epei Troiês hieron ptoliethron epersen:

pollôn d' anthrôpôn iden astea kai noon egnô,

polla d' ho g' en pontôi pathen algea hon kata thumon,

5

arnumenos hên te psuchên kai noston hetairôn.

all' oud' hôs hetarous errusato, hiemenos per:

autôn gar spheterêisin atasthaliêisin olonto,
nêpioi, hoi kata bous Huperionos Êelioio
êsthion: autar ho toisin apheileto nostimon êmar.

10

tôn hamothen ge, thea, thugater Dios, eipe kai hêmin.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135:book=1:card=1

      The man, O Muse, inform, that many a way 

      Wound with his wisdom to his wished stay;

      That wandered wondrous far, when he the town

      Of sacred Troy had sack'd and shivered down;

      The cities of a world of nations,                                5

      With all their manners, minds, and fashions,

      He saw and knew; at sea felt many woes,

      Much care sustained, to save from overthrows

      Himself and friends in their retreat for home;

      But so their fates he could not overcome,                       10

      Though much he thirsted it. O men unwise,

      They perish'd by their own impieties,

      That in their hunger's rapine would not shun

      The oxen of the lofty-going Sun,

      Who therefore from their eyes the day bereft                    15

      Of safe return. These acts, in some part left,

      Tell us, as others, deified Seed of Jove.

http://www.bartleby.com/111/chapman14.html

Chapman, George, trans. (1559?–1634).

The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd,

Long exercised in woes, O Muse! resound;

Who, when his arms had wrought the destined fall

Of sacred Troy, and razed her heaven-built wall,

Wandering from clime to clime, observant stray'd,

Their manners noted, and their states survey'd,

On stormy seas unnumber'd toils he bore,

Safe with his friends to gain his natal shore:

Vain toils! their impious folly dared to prey

On herds devoted to the god of day;

The god vindictive doom'd them never more

(Ah, men unbless'd!) to touch that natal shore.

Oh, snatch some portion of these acts from fate,

Celestial Muse! and to our world relate.

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext02/dyssy11b.txt   Translated by Pope (1688-1744)

Tell me, Muse, of that man, so ready at need, who wandered

far and wide, after he had sacked the sacred citadel of

Troy, and many were the men whose towns he saw and whose

mind he learnt, yea, and many the woes he suffered in his

heart upon the deep, striving to win his own life and the

return of his company.  Nay, but even so he saved not his

company, though he desired it sore. For through the

blindness of their own hearts they perished, fools, who

devoured the oxen of Helios Hyperion: but the god took from

them their day of returning. Of these things, goddess,

daughter of Zeus, whencesoever thou hast heard thereof,

declare thou even unto us.

                  Butcher (1850-1910) and Lang (1844-1912)Translation 

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/dyssy08a.txt

Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and

wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities

did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and

customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea

while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home;

but do what he might he could not save his men, for they

perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of

the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever

reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, oh daughter

of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/dyssy10.txt

Translated by Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns

driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.

Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,

many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,

fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.

But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove—

the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all

the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun

and the Sungod blotted out the day of their return.

Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,

start from where you will—sing for our time too.

Robert Fagles translation © 1996

"Oh Goddess of Inspiration, help me sing of wily Odysseus, that master of schemes!" So Homer begins his epic, though the hero himself is still offstage.

http://www.mythweb.com/odyssey/book01s.html

Dis-moi, Muse, cet homme subtil qui erra si longtemps, après qu'il

eut renversé la citadelle sacrée de Troie Et il vit les cités de

peuples nombreux, et il connut leur esprit; et, dans son coeur, il

endura beaucoup de maux, sur la mer, pour sa propre vie et le

retour de ses compagnons Mais il ne les sauva point, contre son

désir; et ils périrent par leur impiété, les insensés! ayant mangé

les boeufs de Hèlios Hypérionade.   

        (French Version) Traduction Charles-René-Marie Leconte de L'Isle

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14286/14286-8.txt

- posted by Alicia @ 8:34 AM |

 
Melody ponders the meaning of life while looking out at the snow

- posted by Alicia @ 2:42 PM |

 
It's that time of year again...
I have one day. One HALF DAY of school left and I can feel myself getting sick. I will do everything in my power to be there tomorrow but I did leave my desk so that a sub could easily administer finals. I am thinking of going to buy a thermometer. I have two students out right now with fever/sore throat or the flu.

Otherwise, giving my first set of finals has gone well. I underestimated how lazy my students are and how poorly they would do on the final unless I spoonfed them. So I am looking at each class individually and curving accordingly.

In three days I wil be in Kansas. Yahooooo.
- posted by Alicia @ 4:44 PM |