WEEK 06 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. extension of quiz and orientation  

a. Penelope's weaving

In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence and is eventually reunited with him.
Her name has traditionally been associated with marital faithfulness, and so it was with the Greeks and Romans, but some recent feminist readings offer a more ambiguous interpretation.

On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful serving women, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.

b. Telemachus

 Telemachus is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central character in Homer's Odyssey. The first four books of the Odyssey focus on Telemachus' journeys in search of news about his father, who has yet to return home from the Trojan War, and are traditionally given the title the Telemachy.

c. Argos

In Homer's Odyssey, Argos is Odysseus' faithful and old dog.

d. Siren

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous yet beautiful creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Odysseus, advised by Circe, plugged the crew's ears with wax and ordered them to bind him on the mast of the ship. He also told them that no matter how much he begged, they should not untie him. When they passed near the Sirens' island, Odysseus started begging his shipmates to let him go, but none heard him; instead, they tied him even more. After they passed, Odysseus let them know that they were now in safe waters.

e. Lotus

 
In Greek mythology the lotus-eaters, also referred to as the lotophagi or lotophaguses or lotophages, were a race of people living on an island dominated by lotus plants. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were narcotic, causing the people to sleep in peaceful apathy.
In the Odyssey IX, Odysseus tells how adverse north winds blew him and his men off course as they were rounding Cape Malea, the southernmost tip of the Peloponnesus, headed westwards for Ithaca. And the right side of the picture was illustrated that Odysseus removing his men from the company of the lotus-eaters.

f.  Cassandra (prophetess)

Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy.
A common version of her story is that Apollo gave her the power of prophecy in order to seduce her, but when she refused, he spat into her mouth cursing her never to be believed. In an alternative version, she fell asleep in a temple, and snakes licked (or whispered in) her ears so that she was able to hear the future. Snakes as a source of knowledge is a recurring theme in Greek mythology, although sometimes the snake brings understanding of the language of animals rather than an ability to know the future. Cassandra is a figure of epic tradition and of tragedy.

2.Other stories

 a. Argos → mission

On November 4, 1979, Iranian activists storm the United States embassy in Tehran in retaliation for President Jimmy Carter giving the Shah asylum in the U.S. during the Iranian Revolution. More than 50 of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, but six avoid capture and hide in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor. With the escapees' situation kept secret, the U.S. State Department begins to explore options for exfiltrating them from Iran. Tony Mendez, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency exfiltration specialist, is brought in for consultation. He criticizes the proposals, but is at a loss when asked for an alternative. While on the phone with his son, he is inspired by watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes and begins plans for creating a cover story for the escapees: that they are Canadian filmmakers who happened to be in Iran scouting exotic locations for a similar science-fiction film.

c. Zeus, Io, Hera

Argus was Hera's servant. His great service to the Olympian pantheon was to slay the chthonic serpent-legged monster Echidna as she slept in her cave. Hera's defining task for Argus was to guard the white heifer Io from Zeus, keeping her chained to the sacred olive tree at the Argive Heraion. She charged him to "Tether this cow safely to an olive-tree at Nemea". Hera knew that the heifer was in reality Io, one of the many nymphs Zeus was coupling with to establish a new order. To free Io, Zeus had Argus slain by Hermes. The messenger of the Olympian gods, disguised as a shepherd, first put all of Argus' eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew him by hitting him with a stone, the first stain of bloodshed among the new generation of gods.The sacrifice of Argus liberated Io and allowed her to wander the earth, although tormented by a gadfly sent by Hera. According to Ovid, to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in a peacock's tail.

d. lotus → temptation

In the movie Percy Jackson , three main characters go to the Lotus Hotel and Casino. While inside it, it seems like time never passes and nobody wants to leave. It was created by the Lotus-eaters so that anyone entering would never want to leave because of all the addictive games, food (in the case of the movie), and other activities, combined with the unlimited money on plastic cards. The hotel causes those inside never to age, while time goes on at a seemingly accelerated rate outside. In the movie, the cause of staying is eating "Lotus Flowers" while in the book, they stay there because of the games.