Your first assignment will be due on Monday, May 30, by 5 p.m., uploaded to Assignments on OWL.  It should be 1500 words long, double-spaced.  You may write on one of the topics below or, with my approval, on a topic of your choosing, as long as it is an analysis based on the text of the Odyssey.

Your paper will be evaluated on your engagement with the text, the clarity of your argument, and the effectiveness of your prose.  I am happy to comment on drafts, introductory paragraphs, outlines, or thesis statements provided I receive them in advance of the due date.

This is emphatically not meant to be a research paper, and I do not want you to consult outside sources to find answers to these questions.  This assignment is meant to give you more time with the text of the Odyssey.  I want you to make your own discoveries and to articulate your own ideas.

1. Why does Odysseus reject Calypsos offer?  (Or, for that matter, why does he turn down the chance to stay with Circe or Nausicaa)?  What does he choose instead, and why?  What are the implications of this choice?

2. What does a life well lived look like in the Odyssey?  What does it require?  How is it attained?  Does it look the same for everyone?  What temptations lead one away from this goal?

3. Odysseus adventures take place in a particular sequence, but Homer presents them in a different order, with an extended flashback.  What is the difference between real time and narrative time, and what are the effects of narrating the stages of Odysseuss journey out of order?

4. Trace the theme of eating, drinking, and host/guest behavior in the Odyssey.  How is it presented, in what variations, and to what artistic and rhetorical effect?