Odyssey an article “Land and Sacrifice…” Vidal-Naquet

Odyssey an article “Land and Sacrifice…” Vidal-Naquet 

Write a 3-4 page essay (10-12 point font, 1” margins, 1.5 line spacing) based on the following topic. Remember to include an introductory paragraph that signposts the main points your essay will make. DO NOT simply repeat the language of the prompt in this opening paragraph–i.e. “First I will discuss (cut and paste from the prompt)…Then I will discuss (cut and paste from the prompt).” You must indicate the main points you will make in response to the prompt. Towards the beginning of his article, “Land and Sacrifice…” Vidal-Naquet states, “Arable land, cooking, sacrifice, and sexual and family life within the oikos [household]–even, at one extreme, political life–form a complex, no element of which can be separated from the others. These are the terms that define man’s estate, in between the age of gold and allelophagia, cannibalism.” In response to the framework put forward by Vidal-Naquet, FIRST describe how tthe various “peoples” encountered by Odysseus (the Lotus Eaters, the Cyclopes, the Lastrygonians, the inhabitants of the island of Aeolus, the Phaeacians) differ from “normal” Greek practices in terms of how (and if) they have agricultural labor, what they eat, and if/how they marry. SECOND, consider how women might (or might not) fit into the category of the “human” (Greek), specifically with respect to the stereotypes regarding women in the ancient Greek evidence analyzed by Anne Carson. How are they described (what sorts of adjectives to describe what kinds of qualities)? In terms of intelligence and self-control in her interactions with Odysseus, how does Nausicaa challenge this stereotype? How, in turn, does Penelope both seem to adhere to and challenge this stereotype? If we turn this around to consider male characters, how do the suitors seem to be closer to the stereotype of female rather than male qualities and behavior (again, using Carson)? Consider Odysseus himself–discuss several specific instances in which he shows idealized masculine qualities (as analyzed in Carson), and also several instances in which he seems to violate these qualities. THIRD, discuss who thus far in the House of Quartio has shown the greater intelligence and self-control (the dry, the bounded, the rational, etc), Cornelia or Quartio himself? Support your discussion throughout with specific references to the Odyssey and Carson’s article