A bit about me...

About a year ago, I ordered a custom leather bracelet from www.etsy.com. I wanted it to express my love for travel and adventure and chose a phrase from On the Road..."The Road is Life." In the three previous years, I had moved to Colorado and lived by myself in a cabin on a river. After that, I traveled the US following a band, and ended up staying in Illinois with the most amazing group of people I've ever met. We bought a school bus and made plans for a summer on the road. I ended up having to move back to Missouri, and decided to settle down and go back to school. Soon after, I noticed that the words on my bracelet, once a statement of my wanderlust, didn't quite express what I had meant them to. When the bracelet is snapped around my wrist, it begs the question "Is life the road?" I now have to rely on myself more than ever and I have plenty of time read, contemplate, and learn more about myself. While my life isn't quite as exciting as it was, it's still a journey.

Monday, January 24, 2011

The Odyssey: Ch.1-4

Words I learned:

  • kine (p.1) - plural of cow
  • skill in birds (p.5)- After continued reading, the story of how Zeus sent out the pair of eagles to warn the suitors (p.13), kind of explains that birds are signs of things to come, and one might be skilled in reading them as one may read Tarot.  This site says it is the interpretation of the flight of birds   The Odyssey footnotes
  • wimple (p.7) - a cloth worn by married women to cover their hair and possibly show status.  It would make sense that Penelope was wearing one because she is both married and rich.

Phrases that jumped out at me:
  • "rover among men" (p.4)-  I like how it describes a traveler.
  • "skein of war was wound" (p.5) - comparing events in a lifetime to fibers being woven together to form a single thread.  Aren't there three mythological women who cut threads to kill people?  Maybe this phrase is referring to that.
  • "As he marked this in his mind, an awe came on his heart; he knew a god was with him." (p.7) - Sometimes you meet people that you seem to come into contact with at just the right time.  My current (and loose!)  spiritual belief is that everything on this earth, since it has energy, will respond to people's intentions and all this energy together makes up what some people would call God.  This phrase just reminds me of when something perfect happens and you suspect that something bigger than yourself is involved.
  • winged words - seems to be quite the argument Discussion of "winged words"
  • "The winds swelled out the belly of the sail" (p.18) - great figurative language
  • "When a man dies, how good it is to leave a son! (p.22) - The subject of children seems to be prevalent in my life right now.  Yesterday, I asked my dad, who has three daughters, if he was sad he hadn't had a son.  He said no in a way that didn't convince me.  I guess this is most people's thought on that prospect.
  • "Only because as guests we often had our food of strangers, are we here..." (p.29) - It's nice to be able to say that you have relied on the kindness of others.  It helps you to be kind yourself.
  • "Easily is his offspring known to whom the son of Kronos allots a boon in birth and marraige" (p.33) - I can't put my finger on the Bible verse this sounds like, but I seem to remember a verse promising good children to people who loved the Lord.
  • "shining feet" (p.34) - Everyone putting on sandals has shining feet.  Maybe because their rich and therefore able to be freshly showered?
  • "Are you so very helpless, stranger, and unnerved, or do you willingly give way, taking a pleasure in your pains?" (p.36) - Am I actually stuck in a terrible situation or do I thrive on the drama I get from it and stay?
  • "Coursing ships, which serve men for sea-horses..." (p.42) - ship=horse on the sea
  • "heart-eating anguish"(p.42) - good description
Other thoughts:

Athena, or her exit of a situation, is repeatedly described as bird-like.  On page seven, it is a sea-hawk.


Everyone seems to question if Telemachus is really Odysseus's son.  
  • "if you are indeed his child" (p.21)

Hospitality- Everyone that Telemachus visits is so good to him.  Food is always offered before anything is discussed, and it seems that everyone is always drunk and eating roasted meat.  Telemachus is a stranger to most hosts, but they treat him as family, giving him parting gifts and any transportation or other requests he voices.  This kind of reminds me of the couchsurfing website I'm a part of.  Anyone can sign up and offer their home for weary travelers, or get a free place to stay while traveling.  I love this idea so much.  There are so many generous people in the world, and this site gives them a way to connect and offer something as simple as a place to stay.  I have stayed with a couple in Memphis and a young women in Atlanta.  I hosted two young guys going to Arizona for a job.  They had college degrees, but worked as servers at whichever national park suited their fancy that season.  Couchsurfing is also a great way to meet people and have connections for later travels.
  • (p. 25) Nestor is appalled that a son of Odysseus would sleep on the deck of a ship and makes him stay in his house.
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