SECTION 112 Thursday 10-11 242 Dwinelle
kav.key torrentSECTION 113 Thursday 11-12 175 Barrows
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Dear Students of the Muses,
Homer's poetic account of Odysseus's descent to the Underworld obviously brought out your own poetic Muses, as you found evocative language and poignant terms to describe the plight of the shades in Hades. Below are some highlights of what you wrote, excerpted directly from your last assignment.
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"Existence in Hades is replete with pent-up frustration, misery, and grief", it is "listless and unhappy", "dark and dreary."
"Hades and his wife Persephone reign over countless drifting crowds of shadowy figures."
"Hades is a hapless existence, one marked by the curse of ignorance and the inability to remember or sense anything. The ghosts wander aimlessly, guided by the subtle directives of Hades and Persephone."
Hades is a "region for dreaming, speaking, and sleeping all at once."
The shades are "just a wisp of what used to be." They "do not understand thier own existence."
"Unless they can taste of the blood, they must remain such a dimished shadow of a person." "They seem to have no sorrows or many memories unless they ingest a part of life." They are "longing for the taste of life."
"The apparent diversity of these perished people is contrasted with the fact that they are all grouped together with no true remaining identity; they are all united under the one identity of the unliving."
"Odysseus' encounter with Achilles underscores the decision the demigod made in the Iliad regarding the glory of his deeds in life, enhanced only by the briefness of it."
(And on the Sirens:) "The Sirens were sweet-sounding hosts of death."
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