Family Relationships in The Oddysey:
To a greater degree than its prequel, the Odyssey seems to give particular attention to family relationships. The ways in which parents, children, and spouses interact with and regard one another is explored through the narrative with several different outcomes. Think about the family situations in Ithaca, Mycenae, and Sparta, and about the relationships between the gods and their families within the Odyssey storyline. How can we read the marriage of Odysseus and Penelope? Menelaus and Helen? What is the importance of the relationship between fathers and sons? Household masters and servants? What values are conveyed about the noble household in Homer’s time in these interactions? What idea of justice is conveyed? Write an essay of 4-5 pages which explores one important family relationship and its outcome as it is portrayed in the Odyssey. You may, in addition to Homer, consider texts related to the narrative of the Odyssey in your essay, such as Aeschylus’ Oresteia, which dwells in the same territories and also speaks to this family-oriented dimension of Greek justice.