The Odyssey Odyssey: Recent Episodes
Tom Lee
Tom Lee retells the epic poem "The Odyssey" with diversions and excursions into the vast constellation of Greek myths surrounding the central story. The Odyssey describes a journey through time and against death, away from demons and towards home - if home is still there. Hear the story and the stories surrounding story while reflecting on how how humans have connected with this complicated hero for almost three thousand years.
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IN WHICH: We consider the implications of windbags, pompous and otherwise, as our hero begins to feel the full effects of the parting curse of the Cyclops.
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IN WHICH: Our hero seeks hospitality in The Wrong Cave. We meet everyone's favorite mythological monster: Polyphemus the Cyclops, whose appetites are as shocking as his social skills.
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IN WHICH: We hear the complete poem "The Lotos-eaters" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
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IN WHICH: Odysseus himself takes over the narrative and decides to begin at the beginning. He recounts the departure of his twelve ships with 600 men from the ruins of Troy to an audience that knows the ending: only one of them will survive.
A raid on the Cicones goes horribly wrong, and our hero and his trusted companions are blown wildly off course - almost as if they had gone up in a cyclone.
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IN WHICH: we delve into the life and stories of Hephaestus, the god of fire, bearer of culture, architect and blacksmith to the gods. The child of dysfunctional immortals, he struggles to find a home and a family.
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IN WHICH: Odysseus is entertained by the rhapsode Demodacus, who is inspired to tell our hero his own story. An athletic competition gives rise to tension, which another story dispels. The entertainment continues over roasted boar, where art and life collide in a third and final story.
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IN WHICH: Odysseus casts an epic gaze over the palace of King Alcinous and Queen Arete, who demonstrate their hospitality and provide our hero with hope.
VISUAL FOOTNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE CAN BE SEEN HERE
IN WHICH: We explore the lineage of King Alcinous, Odysseus's host, tracing his family line back to the notorious and ill-fated race of Giants.
IN WHICH: We return from an unexpected hiatus with a "party piece" - a performance of an excerpt from Alexander Pope's 1726 verse translation of The Odyssey, Book V.
IN WHICH: Odysseus is rescued by a young princess engaged in pursuits of domestic management. Athena returns him to a state of manly elegance, and the princess promises him a speedy return to his homeland on a magical ship.
IN WHICH: Odysseus uses guile and deceit to attain The Bow of Heracles from Philoctetes, the man he betrayed and abandoned ten years before.
Watch a video of "The Speckled Bull" - an Irish folktale descended from the myth of Heracles and Achelous HERE.
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IN WHICH: We recount the Roman story of the Achillead, detailing how the immortal nymph Thetis tried to protect her all-too-mortal son Achilles from the perils of the Trojan War and how "wily Odysseus" contrived to foil her schemes.
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IN WHICHwe explore the most repeated poetic line in all of the Odyssey and learn the tragic story of Eos, goddess of the dawn, who kindled the wrath of Aphrodite and was cursed ever after to a life of unrequited lust. Ouch.
Also, we delve into the misty past of the great citadel of Troy and learn how gods helped to create it, and to (almost) destroy it.
Notes, images and music for this episode can be FOUND HERE.E-mail Tom Lee HERE
IN WHICH we encounter our hero, Odysseus, as the coddled prisoner of the sea nymph Calypso in her island hermitage. Hermes, the reluctant ambassador of Zeus, liberates the captive, who flees directly into the path of a wrathful Poseidon.
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IN WHICH: We delve into what may be the least understood episode of the Trojan War: that horse. How could the Trojans be so foolish as to bring that horse into their city? Homer doesn't have much to say about it, but Vergil tells you how....
Footnotes and images for this episode are available here.Email Tom Lee here.
IN WHICH we considered what married life is like when a husband and wife are reunited after a ten-year long war waged over the wife's infidelity. Menelaus and Helen both remember their encounters with Odysseus, and we learn how the sea god Proteus can be tricked into telling all he knows.
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IN WHICH: We delve into the birth of Helen of Sparta, I mean Troy, one of the countless children of Zeus whose lives intersect in The Iliad and The Odyssey.
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IN WHICH: Telemachus and Mentor/Athena visit Old King Nestor in search of news of Odysseus. Nestor relates the chaotic departure of the Greeks from Troy after "Lesser" Ajax angered Athena.
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Life on a small island. Telemachus obeys Athena's command to call an assembly on Ithaca - the first since his father departed nineteen years ago. Athena intervenes in a series of disguises.
When plotting revenge, they say you should dig two graves: one for your victim, and one for yourself. In this episode, the curse of the House of Atreus is fulfilled in a rather horrifying "dinner for one." We encounter a future king and his future murderer.
A throwback to one of the foundational myths of Ancient Greece and the origins of the Trojan War. A prequal to "The Odyssey," of sorts.
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While Zeus considers who is to blame for the suffering of mortals, Athena sets the action of the epic in motion, taking on the first of her many disguises and inspiring Odysseus's son, Telemachus.
It's not just Poseidon who rules the sea. We explore the many gods of the ocean realm, their parents, their children, and what makes them angry.
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The Muses are the inspiration for all poetry, music, dance, theater, and science in Ancient Greece. A storyteller is well advised to pay them due respect, so we dedicate Episode One to them.
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Welcome! Here's a three-minute summary of the plan for this podcast.
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