Summarize The Odyssey (5 sentences minimum). Highlight the most important items (who/what/when/where/how/why).

Answer and Explanation:

The Odyssey is one of two famous epic poems from Greece to attribute Homer. The story follows the Greek hero Odysseus, who is the king of Ithaca. It details his journey home after the Trojan War. The largest plot device is the time after the war itself. The war lasted ten years, and Odysseus's journey lasts for ten more years, and he encounters many struggles while all of his crewmates are killed.

1) Beowulf as a loyal, deserving assistant possesses great Germanic heroic attributes as pride, loyalty and courtesy. He explores his heroism through three difficult phases with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. His reputation for bravery is enhanced when he defeats Grendel and Grendel’s bother with courage and establishes himself as a hero.

2) The recurring use of alliteration in Beowulf enhances the imagery and rhythm in the poem.

Alliteration is a literary device, repetition of the consonants in row, sound stressing syllable of a phrase. In Beowulf narrator engages the listener by the use of alliteration.

Example: “ Marshes, and made his home in hell,” in “The Wrath of Grendel”, describes and creates the image of Grendel’s home as frightening, horrible and a hellish place. Such description creates a sense of fear among listeners.

3) The magnitude of the Beowulf hero's battle with the dragon is increased because Beowulf is not as young as he once was. Beowulf’s transition between his two phases of life- youth and age, separated by fifty years, gradually is dictated by the Germanic heroic code.