Let the Journey Begin!

Tomorrow we will begin our journey back in time, three thousand years or so, to the story of the ancient Greeks and the roots of the oral tradition of storytelling. We'll read an excerpt from Edith Hamilton's Mythology to find the cause of the Trojan War, so that we can meet our great hero Odysseus and follow his journey home at the end of the war, which is the story of the Odyssey.

If you click on this link about the Odyssey, it will take you to a related site from the University of Pennsylvania. This site has pronunciations of the characters and an interactive map of Odysseus's journey. Try it!

As you we read about classical backgrounds to literature (mythology), we can discover common themes and plotlines found in later literature - even cliches we use in our everyday language. I think it's also fascinating how archealogists have uncovered proof of the existence of places and events included in some of the ancient epic poetry.

Although some of the stories are just plain entertaining to hear or read, it is amazing to me that some may also have some thread of truth, though they are thousands of years old.