Classic works directly related to Iliad and Odyssey

[swimmermom3]

What classic works can you think of that are related to the Iliad and the Odyssey?

 

My kids seem to enjoy "units" related to a classic work. We first did this using some materials online from an AP Literature teacher who combined Beowulf with a poem by contemporary British poet, U.A. Fanthorpe, and a 17th or 18th century painting. The idea is to study the original Great Book and then to study some of the works of literature, art, and music that have been inspired by that work.

 

Think the myth of Prometheus and then Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

 

Or my oldest son working backwards from a Metallica song to be inspired to read Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls on his own and studying Donne's poem of the same name in school.

 

The best results come from being able to tie to classic works together and then movies and popular music are just the icing on the cake, so to speak.

[nmoira]

Well, Ulysses, but that's probably a bit much. Some of the Sindbad stories have an Odyssey feel to them. John Barth's Tidewater Tales is woven around the Odyssey, but is long, and has some adult content. The Penelopiad is very good if you like dark humour (but not "classic"). I dont' recall anything inappropriate, but I read it about seven years ago.

 

O Brother, Where Are Thou? for icing. :D

 

Maybe Aeschylus and/or Troilus and Cressida?

[regentrude]

The Orestia (and many other Greek tragedies)

The Aeneid

Dante's Divine Comedy (he meets Odysseus in the Inferno)

Kazantzakis: Odyssey: A Modern Sequel

Tennyson: Ulysses

Margaret Atwood: Penelopiad

 

there are also tons of adaptations that are not exactly classics, but rather popular literature.

[Candid]

Well like nmoria, I do think, well Joyce wrote a little novel on the theme, but I do think that is a bit much.

 

For more comparative lit, you could try 1001 Tales and focus on the Voyages of Sinbad.

[Kfamily]

This is not literature or a classic, but I'm going to have my older dd read this book later this year while/after reading the Odyssey:

 

The Glorious Adventure by Richard Halliburton

 

http://www.amazon.co...ard halliburton

 

She read his Book of Marvels and really enjoyed it. I'm having her read it for geography.

[flyingiguana]

Lavinia (by Le Guin) is a retelling of the Aeneid.

[elegantlion]

How about Led Zeppelin's song Achilles Last Stand?

[amy58103]

Have you seen this: http://www.learner.org/resources/series212.html

 

Scroll down to the bottom of the page ... click on the title of the book you are interested in (i.e. The Odyssey) ... then click on Explore > Connections. Listed there should be several related books, movies, music, etc. There is loads of other information here. Could be a great resource for creating a "unit studies" in World Literature.

[Reya]

Leda and the Swan, too.

 

TONS of art.

[MAIMOM]

Have you seen this: http://www.learner.o.../series212.html

 

Scroll down to the bottom of the page ... click on the title of the book you are interested in (i.e. The Odyssey) ... then click on Explore > Connections. Listed there should be several related books, movies, music, etc. There is loads of other information here. Could be a great resource for creating a "unit studies" in World Literature.

 

:hurray: This looks good. We are reading Odyssey after Christmas. Thanks for the info

[flyingiguana]

Medea and Beloved and this:

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Medea-Family-Slavery-Child-Murder/dp/0809069547

 

But I'm not sure I'd want to do this with a teen. It's pretty upsetting.

Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida"

[mathwonk]

some parts of don quixote.

[PeterPan]

Sometimes when you look works up on wikipedia they'll give you lists of movies, other works that were inspired by them, etc.

[Laura Corin]

Calvin read the Penelopiad (the Odyssey from Penelope's point of view) by Margaret Atwood. He didn't feel it was her best book, but it's worth a thought.

 

Laura

[Candid]

Forgot: Goethe's Faust includes scenes with Helen of Troy. However, it is the second part which is more difficult. I've only read Goethe but you could check the Marlowe play for this.

[Corraleno]

Derek Walcott's epic poem Omeros (Greek for "Homer") includes a lot of references to both the Iliad & Odyssey. It's set in St. Lucia. Here's an excerpt:

 

Hector was buried near the sea he had loved once.

Not too far from the shallows where he fought Achille

for a tin and Helen. He did not hear the sea-almond’s

 

moan over the bay when Philoctete blew the shell,

nor the one drumbeat of a wave-thud, nor a sail

rattling to rest as its day’s work was over,

 

and its mate, gauging depth, bent over the gunwale,

then wearily sounding the fathoms with an oar,

the same rite his shipmates would repeat soon enough

 

when it was their turn to lie quiet as Hector,

lowering a pitch-pine canoe in the earth’s trough,

to sleep under the piled conchs, through every weather

 

on the violet-wreathed mound. Crouching for his friend to hear,

Achille whispered about their ancestral river,

and those things he would recognize when he got there,

 

his true home, forever and ever and ever,

forever, compère. Then Philoctete limped over

and rested his hand firmly on a shaking shoulder

 

to anchor his sorrow. Seven Seas and Helen

did not come nearer. Achille had carried an oar

to the church and propped it outside with the red tin.

 

Now his voice strengthened. He said: “Mate, this is your spear,â€

and laid the oar slowly, the same way he had placed

the parallel oars in the hull of the gommier

 

the day the African swift and its shadow raced.

And this was the prayer that Achille could not utter:

“The spear that I give you, my friend, is only wood.

 

Vexation is past. I know how well you treat her.

You never know my admiration, when you stood

crossing the sun at the bow of the long canoe

 

with the plates of your chest like a shield; I would say

any enemy so was a compliment. ’Cause no

African ever hurled his wide seine at the bay

 

by which he was born with such beauty. You hear me? Men

did not know you like me. All right. Sleep good. Good night.â€

Achille moved Philoctete’s hand, then he saw Helen

 

standing alone and veiled in the widowing light.

Then he reached down to the grave and lifted the tin

to her. Helen nodded. A wind blew out the sun.

 

You can read more on the Poetry Foundation website. Walcott also wrote a stage version of the Odyssey.

 

Jackie

[RootAnn]

How about Led Zeppelin's song Achilles Last Stand?

 

Along the same lines, there's Josh Garrels' Ulysses. (Not exactly great singing, IMO.)

DH suggests "

" by Cream.

[cschnee]

http://www.corndancer.com/tunes/tunes_db.html

 

This web site has a list of "Suggestions for Pairing Contemporary Music and Canonical Literature"