Essay 1-Trips to Underworld (Aeneid and Odyssey)

Differences

• Description/Geography
• O-We get very little description of Homer’s Hades in the Odyssey as Odysseus doesn’t even enter it. All we learn about is that King Minos is a judge.
• A-In the Aeneid, on the other hand, we are overcome with description as he is guided by the Sybyl of Apollo. We learn about the River Tartarus with its “boiling whirlpools which belches sand and slime”. ( a big fortress where people are punished) and the Fields of Mourning as well as the Fields of Elysium (seen as a paradise where people play sport and music where poets and patriots end up) with descriptions of why people had ended up there e.g. “souls of infants who had lost their share of sweetness of life on its very threshold/raised their innocent hands against themselves. Also description of Cerebus (3-headed dog).
• There is also a lot of description in both epics about certain people who are punished in the underworld. In the Odyssey, Sisiphus who tricked the god of death has to constantly push a rock uphill whereas in the Aeneid Tityos has his reforming liver eaten by a vulture.
• Philosophy
• O-The most we find out here is that Achilles does not want to be there when he says that he would “rather slave on earth for another man than rule down here over the breathless dead”.
• A-Here we find out a lot more such as where a person’s soul goes when he dies, what bad people are punished for and how rebirth comes about. We learn about the River Lethe where people forget before they are reincarnated. We learn that is people are not buried they must wait 100 years.
• Communication with Dead
• O-They come up to him, can only talk if they drink the blood.
• A-he goes down to them and can communicate with them all.

Similarities

• Tasks performed to get in
• O-Here he has to dig a trench, pour offerings to dead with honey, milk, wine, promise to sacrifice a barren heifer once in Ithaca, sacrifice a lamb and a black ewe, order men to flaw sheep as soon as dead come up.
• A-Aeneas, on the other hand, must first pluck a golden bough from a tree to present to Charon as well as burying his dead comrade Misenus.
• Elpanor vs Dido
• O-Odysseus comes into contact with his dead comrade, Elpenor, who has yet to be buried after he drunkenly fell of the roof at Circe.
• A-Here Aeneas meets his former lover Dido who simply ignores him when they meet and goes off with her husband which leaves Aeneas hurt. He also meets a dead comrade who is yet to be buried Palinarus.
• Members of Family
• O-He meets his dead mother Anticleia and tries to hold her three times but can’t.
• A-Aeneas meets his dead father Anchises and tries to grab him three times but he can’t.
• Literary Device
• For both of the epics it acts as the halfway mark of the story.
• In both, the heroes receive some important advice/prophecies. Odysseus receives information from Teiresias about getting home and “winnowing fan” and that he must not harm Helios’ cattle otherwise he will end up a broken man as well as sacrificing to Poseidon. Whereas Aeneas receives the prophecy of Rome from his father.
• Finally, we see a change in their characters after this point. Both of them change in their own way. Odysseus becomes a better leader which is shown when he doesn’t retaliate after attacks from Suitors and Aeneas become a lot more sure of himself and even more devoted to his mission.

Essay 2-Compare Medb and Penelope

Similarities

• Strong Position

1. oPenelope is the Queen of Ithaca.
2. oMedb is the Queen of Connacht. Ailill “I never heard of a province run by a woman except this one”.

• Perseverance

1. oPenelope managers to cope without Odysseus for 20 years and doesn’t give in to marrying a suitor.
2. oMedb shows her strength in the way that she wishes to prove herself on the battlefield and also prove herself equal to her husband. She never gives up no matter how many men Cu Chulainn kills.

• Cunning

1. oAntinious says of Penelope “she has misguided the Suitors for nearly four years”. Uses schemes to avoid marrying them e.g Laertes’ shroud, sending letters to the Suitors, Odysseus’ bed etc.
2. oMedb convinces men to fight for her even though they may not want to. She compliments them, gets them drunk, offers them Finnabair and even “her own friendly thighs”. She also sends handmaids to lament upon CuChulainn so that they can upon up his wounds and she gives a false offer of peace to find him.

Differences

• Way of life

1. oPenelope is domesticated. She lives in her palace in Ithaca and does not move from their throughout the epic.
2. oMedb is constantly on the move as she goes from Connacht to Ulster.

• Medb stronger than Penelope

1. oPenelope lacks the natural character to remove the Suitors and gets ordered around by Telemachus
2. oMedb stands up to her husband, makes all the decisions including invading Ulster in the first place. She also constantly motivates her army and gets into the thick of the battle.

• Moral Character

1. oPenelope is a very pure woman-never angry, rude and doesn’t cheat on Odysseus.
2. oMedb is vain when she tries to get the Galeóin killed and she cheats on Ailill with Fergus as well as offering her “friendly thighs”.