The Odyssey Creative Project
Below are ideas for projects on The Odyssey. You may come up with your own idea based on your own strengths; however, you will have to identify a criteria for creation and evaluation.
You will hand this project in on Canvas as a URL, PDF or Word document, or Media File.
Remember that you will be graded on (in order of importance):
(a) the amount of knowledge your project presents and its integrity to the original epic. For all projects, you will need to illustrate your knowledge of the epic itself, Greek Mythology, Homer, the Epic form, and The Hero’s Journey for full points.
(b) the amount of creativity it presents, and – more importantly – its final appearance.
(c) the quality of writing it presents, both in terms of writing mechanics and writing conventions.
Mount Olympus Newspaper
Create a newspaper that the Gods might have read. You will need to include popular sections just like a real newspaper: sports, world news, local news, entertainment, comics, advice column, etc. Make sure that the contents of your newspaper reflect all your knowledge of Greek Mythology and The Odyssey.
Blog
Imagine if Odysseus had kept a blog. In these posts, Odysseus vividly describes life in war, life on the boat, and life during his many adventures. Write a blog of AT LEAST 6 entries, using the proper format. Each post should be at least one page in length.
Create a Board Game
Create a board game based on The Odyssey. You are the judge for this assignment; you make the rules. Your game must include a title, a board, game pieces, illustrations, and an instruction booklet to go with it. The game should be playable and relate to the story in more ways than just place-names and characters.
Travel Brochure
Create a cruise travel brochure based on Odysseus’ travels. This brochure should be colorful, creative, and written to entice travelers to spend their money on your cruise. Use lots of descriptive language that will encourage would-be cruisers to take your cruise!
Social Media Profile
Create a Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or subReddit for one of the characters in The Odyssey. Be sure to include significant relationships, posts, statuses, comments, etc. from other “friends’ and “followers.” There are plenty of blank templates available for free Online.
Sample Solution
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
