Chart and discuss Telemachus’ transition from boyhood to manhood over the course of the Odyssey.

For your first paper, write an essay that clearly and thoroughly addresses one of the prompts listed below:

Chart and discuss Telemachus’ transition from boyhood to manhood over the course of the Odyssey.

Chart and discuss Odysseus’ slow, non-linear transformation over the course of his journey from Troy to Ithaca.

Discuss the role of Mentor in the text of the Odyssey and the Odyssey itself as a kind of Mentor.

Compare and contrast the kinds of Xenia (and its opposite) practiced by the various characters and cultures that Odysseus encounters on his journey from Troy to Ithaca.

Analyze the state of Menelaus and Helen’s marriage while Telemachus is their guest in the Odyssey.

Discuss the various manifestations throughout the Odyssey of Zeus’ pronouncement in Book 1 that humans suffer because of their witlessness—i.e., greed, excessive pride, folly, and so forth.

Discuss how the non-linear organization of the Odyssey contributes to the narrative, serves the audience, and develops the character Odysseus.

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Essay Guidelines, Requirements, and Advice

Essays must be double-spaced, appear in Times New Roman 12-pt font, and have 1” margins on all sides. Essays must also have a specific title.

Essays must have at least 800 words, with an introduction, a conclusion, and several well-developed body paragraphs.

Do not use any secondary sources as you work on your essays. Resist the urge to “Google” your topic. An essay that includes plagiarism from sources will receive a ZERO.

Essays must have a clear thesis statement at the end of the introduction paragraph. Also, body paragraphs should focus on only one main idea, which should be explicitly stated in the first sentence of the paragraph (topic sentence). The rest of each body paragraph should contain explanation and illustration of that main idea.

Use specific evidence from the text to support all of your assertions/claims, including quotations and paraphrases, but do not lose your own voice by stuffing in too many quotations. Accordingly, you should avoid overly long quotations. Nevertheless, you should present enough evidence to prove any assertion/claim made is well supported by the text(s), and make sure to explain how the evidence you present logically supports your interpretation.

To support and develop your ideas, logically and grammatically integrate short quotations into your own sentences: no quotation should be standing alone in an essay: i.e., no dropped quotations.
For citation purposes, place the line number(s) in parentheses after each quotation, paraphrase, or summary in your paper—for example, (23.132-134) for lines 132 through 134 of Book 23. [Note: the order of punctuation for a quotation is closing quotation marks, then parenthetical, then period.] Also, remember to use a slash ( / ) to indicate line breaks in the text when quoting more than one line of the poem and to put four or more full lines of text in long quotation format.