Welcome to our latest Rhetoric Becoming History Presentation about the Early Greeks, in the era of Homer.
Presenting Andromache from The Iliad (me), Odysseus (my son), and Penelope (my daughter) from The Odyssey.
Our costumes are based on research on the Ancient Greek Mycenaean culture.
While my son created his armour, I created all the other attire.
RECITATIONS FROM THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY
My recitation was of Andromache’s final heart wrenching words to her husband, Hector, who was doomed to death, found in The Iliad.
My daughter, who portrayed Penelope, recited her speech to Odysseus when he was disguised as a beggar, found in The Odyssey.
Then my son, who portrayed Odysseus disguised as a beggar, recited the scene of telling the swineherd about his interactions with Odysseus in the Trojan War, as found in The Odyssey.
JOURNEY OF ODYSSEUS GAME
Since our guest had no background knowledge of The Odyssey, I created a game to retrace the journey of Odysseus.
The goal is to fare better than Odysseus with all his twists and turns.
Each locale had representative objects to make the game fun!
BEGINNING THE GAME WITH A MAP
Since an adventurer should always start with a map, here are some gorgeous historic maps that were generously gifted to us.
Although I don’t think cartography was a big thing in 1200BC, they were a perfect bit of irony to throw at our guest, who would have no idea where to go to next on his journey, like Odysseus who never knew where he was.
With the scorecard laid on the table, my son brought a fish pen to keep score.
Designing the game and score sheet, I laid it on the table with the maps.
asked my son to get a pen for keeping score and he decided to get his fish pen!
Then my daughter dug some dice out of a boardgame box…because the adventures of Odysseus were a mixed bag of wit and fate.
WANDERING FROM ISLAND TO ISLAND
Like Odysseus who wandered from island to island while looking for home, our guest wandered throughout the house, looking for his next island assignment, retracing the journey of Odysseus.
The light green cards were the directions for our guest, with a brief synopsis of the events on the island.
Meanwhile the red cards contained lines from The Odyssey of how Odysseus used his wit to escape his dilemma, which my kids took turns reading.
By the end of the game, our guest had a basic idea of the storyline while having lots of fun.
After reading what happened to Odysseus on these cards, our guest rolled the dice to see how he would fare in the same situation.
ASSIGNED SHIPS WITH CREW
After a failed attempt at researching numbers of men in divisions, brigades, etc, my son decided he should start with 7 ships, with 100 men each.
At the beginning, our guest was thrilled, feeling invincible with this high number of crew members and ships.
{{{Little did he know…that rolling odds results in losing the number of men shown on the dice.}}}
Our guest wasn’t worried, because he had far more crew members than there were dots on the dice.
ISLAND OF THE LOTUS EATERS
At the Island of the Lotus Eaters, our guest learned that whenever he rolls evens throughout his journey, he gets to enjoy a Feast of Pistachios, equal to the number on the dice.
But he had to beware of the Lotus Flower.
{{{The flowers in the pistachio bowl are edible flowers posing as Lotus Flowers, full of a narcotic that lulls one to sleep, so that he will never want to go home.}}}
ISLAND OF THE CYCLOPS
At the next stop was the Island of the Cyclops, where Odysseus found cheese in a cave and started eating it, which resulted in an entrapment by the owner of the cave (and cheese), the dreaded Cyclop Polyphemus, who ate Odysseus’ men!
The prop for this was feta cheese from Greece.
As soon as our guest saw it his eyes lit up and he dug in before he even read the game card!
When we designed the game, I told the kids he would do that!
ISLAND OF AEOLUS
At the Island of Aeolus, Odysseus received a bag of winds as a gift, which Odysseus took, unopened, onto his ship.
Warning his men to never open that bag, Odysseus was almost home to Ithaca, when he fell asleep in his ship.
Unfortunately, his men opened this curious bag, which blew the ship far off course to no one knew where.
When our guest picked up the card, my son opened the bag, making wind noises while turning on the ceiling fan!
ISLAND OF THE LAESTRYGONIANS
At the Island of the Laestrygonians, our guest lost all his ships like Odysseus, except the one he was on.
This time there was no opportunity to feast.
He rolled one die and multiplied that number by 10 to see how many men he lost!
He only lost half his crew.
ISLAND OF AEAEA
At the Island of Aeaea, Circe turned Odysseus’ men into swine.
Therefore, Hermes gave Odysseus herbs (represented in the bowl) for protection.
KINGDOM OF THE DEAD
Journeying to the Kingdom of the Dead, our guest went down towards the basement…where we refused to follow him!
ISLAND OF THE SIRENS
At the Island of the Sirens, the red and green game cards were placed next to a charging cell phone.
STRAIT OF MESSINA
Venturing through the Strait (narrow passageway of water) of Messina, the 3-fanged, six headed monster Scylla and the horrific whirlpool Charybdis threatened all who entered.
For this reading of the red and green game cards, each was placed on an opposing knee wall in the dining room to represent Scylla and Charybdis.
HELIOS’ ISLAND OF THRINACIA
At the Island of Thrinacia, longhorn cattle were forbidden to be eaten.
{{{After all those years of living in Texas, I don’t have a single representation of longhorn cattle. So, I used the next best thing, bluebonnets! Longhorn cattle graze near bluebonnet fields every spring in Texas! In hindsight, the kids and I should have also done the “Hook ’em Horns” sign while singing the University of Texas Longhorn fight song while our guest read the game card.}}}
Because Odysseus’ men ate Longhorn Cattle, Odysseus lost his entire crew, like our guest.
This time he rolled the die to see how many days he floated on the broken remains of his ship.
ISLAND OF OGYGIA
At the Island of Ogygia, we went to Calypso’s lush island, which was lush, represented by lots of plants.
After seven years there, Calypso built Odysseus a ship, which was later destroyed, so Odysseus floated at sea until he came to the island of Phaeacia, where he spent his first night inside olive bushes.
{{{Olives are located just out of range of this photo.}}}
ISLAND OF PHAECIA
After Odysseus woke up, he went to the palace.
{{{Here is the 2011 Colonial Williamsburg calendar with a picture of the Governor’s Palace!}}}
Since there was lots of feasting here, our guest feasted no matter which number he rolled.
ISLAND OF ITHACA – BEGGAR DISGUISE
Finally, our guest reached Ithaca!
I wrote on the card, “At long last you are home, sweet home! NOT!”
There were suitors to contend with.
Athena disguised Odysseus as a beggar, adding wrinkles to his face.
Our guest rolled the dice to see how many wrinkles he got.
Nearby is the moisturizing cream!
ISLAND OF ITHACA: SWINEHERD’S HUT
Then he went to the swineherd’s hut, where he got to feast.
ISLAND OF ITHACA: TOWN
This represented the town gate.
On the way to town, Odysseus met Melanthius, the rude goat herd.
Odysseus held back on his anger, saving it for his advantage.
Likewise, an advantage game card to be used later was given to our guest.
ISLAND OF ITHACA: PALACE BOW AND ARROWS
Next was the archery contest…represented by meat skewers.
ISLAND OF ITHACA: PALACE SLAUGHTER
And finally, the slaughter…
Congratulations! You are now able to enter the main feast!
MAIN FEAST OF ODYSSEUS
Since The Iliad and The Odyssey are filled with many feasts, the Main Feast followed the Pistachio Feast.
This place setting was designed by my son using various things I had in the kitchen and hutch.
The blue glass beads on the napkin holder represent the sea glass made by the Phoenicians, a Mediterranean culture that harvested the rich color purple from seashells.
So, my son put representative sea shells at each place setting.
To the right in the white ramekin, I mixed seasonings topped with olive oil for dipping bread at each place setting.
The drink in the goblet was sparkling pomegranate juice.
At this end of the table we had the following from left to right: In the long tray from the bottom to top there were herbed pomegranate seeds full of juice, an assortment of Greek olives, and herbed Greek Feta Cheese.
Continuing to the right…roasted herbed and seasoned almonds, Baklava, and Lotus Flower Gourmet Salad.
At this end from left to right we had skewered marinated and roasted pork, beggar’s purses (we made them from phyllo dough from Greece and gourmet herbed mushroom sauté), herbed salad dressing, roasted bacon wrapped figs with goat cheese (on a long narrow Greek style boat serving dish), and rosemary bread.
During a feast there would be stories and entertainment from a singing bard around a fire.
Thus, we settled by the fireplace to listen to the kids read their literary analysis papers on The Odyssey.
For more photos check my Flicker set.
COMMENTS FROM MY OLD BLOG
Rebecca January 17, 2011 at 4:17 PM – Wow!!!! Another splendid feast and celebration. The costumes turned out great – three cheers to Miss C and Master B for the tremendous efforts they put into theirs! That feast looks AMAZING, and I can’t believe the amount of time you all obviously put into the journey game. Those clues were so clever and I love the way you describe your guest’s reactions to them! What fun you all had! PS – I especially liked the pistachio bowl… 😉
Dawn January 18, 2011 at 2:33 AM – Wow! Awesome! I think this is one of the coolest celebrations you have done. What a wonderful education you are giving your children. Blessings, Dawn
Pam January 23, 2011 at 7:26 PM – What a fun game idea!! Sounds like your guest loved it, and you loved watching him play. 🙂 Love the costumes, and the feast looks amazing! Wonderful job!!
