The Adventures of Ulysses: book blog 3

After Ulysses and company defeated the Trojans, they set sail for Ithaca bearing the treasures of Troy. While they were putting everything on the ship Ulysses asks for a song to be played and sung, he wished for a merry song. And so the crew started singing a song that asked Poseidon for a safe journey home. Once they started sailing back everything was smooth sailing until they saw a small dark cloud directly over the ship. It put slight unease on Ulysses and a few of the other crew members, but everyone else didn't notice it. The cloud gradually grew and as it grew more of the crew started to get nervous about if they had offended Poseidon or not. Pretty soon the cloud had stretched across the sky and the sun was no longer visible. Ulysses gave the orders to pull up the sails and switch to oars, but they were too late, the storm had started before they were able to complete the safety protocols. During the storm seventy two men were thrown off of the fleet of ships. Ulysses and company make it to a mysterious island in the south, they see smoke rising from the island and hope that people are there.

This part of the book is very slow moving, and the story seems a bit choppy here, like they were trying to rush the story along. I don't know why the author couldn't have just written a few paragraphs about the storm, I honestly feel that including all of the detail about it was unnecessary. But that's just my opinion.

Mid-Summer's Night Dream Question # 4

In Mid-Summer's Night Dream the females seem to have significantly less freedoms than the males. They are treated as property to the 'man of the house' and have to do as the males say, as stated in the Athenian laws. The women also seem to not have the ability to choose their husbands while they remain in Athens, their husbands are chosen for them by their parents or their parents have to approve of the marriage to allow the daughter to marry. This is proven when Egeus stated that Hermia was to marry Demetrius against her will simply because her father stated that they were to be married. It was obvious that she didn't love Demetrius but she did love Lysander, and she begged her father to allow her to marry Lysander. They even went to Theseus, the ruler of Athens and the wisest person around, to help them solve the problem of the marriage. Theseus stated that she could either marry Demetrius or become a nun. This proves that women had no choice about who they could marry and it also shows the restricted rights that women had.

In today's society women have more freedom than the women in Shakespearean times. Women are allowed to choose who they can marry and date, and women are treated as people, not property. But there is still gender inequality, women are paid less to do the same jobs as men, and in some cases women aren't even allowed to do the same job. Often, men still think that they are superior to women and try to establish their ideas firmly into the minds of those around them. Many times workplaces take into account the gender of the person that wishes to apply for the job and shifts their thoughts of hiring the person according to whether they are male or female. No, it is not fair. No, it is not right. Yes, it does happen. Even some people's thoughts of women make it sound like men are superior. Some people think that women are weak, frail beings, when the reality is that women and men are quite similar in stature, except for the fact that men are taller and some look tougher than women. Males and females should be considered equal, and in some cases they are. But thankfully women are no longer considered property like in Mid-Summer's Night Dream.

The Adventures of Ulysses: book blog 2

Ten years after Ulysses defeated the boar he became the king of Ithaca and obtained a wife. Some of his friends who are rulers of nearby countries have sought him out to seek help. The wife of one of them had been stolen. At first he politely refused to attend the war that was about to start between them and Troy, but after the war had been put into perspective for Ulysses, he agreed to fight. The war continued for ten years until Ulysses finally had the idea to build a giant hollow horse to give to the Trojans as a 'white flag' of surrender. Once the Trojans found the horse, they brought it back to their guarded country and celebrated their victory. Once the Trojans fell asleep, Ulysses and his men left the hollow horse and attacked all of the Trojans by surprise. All of the male descendants of the previous king of Troy were slaughtered, as well as most of everyone else. Ulsses, his soldiers, and his friends looted Troy and proceeded to leave to return to Ithaca.

Reading this part of the story and about this made me wonder why they would go on this journey and fight for ten years to get back someone who was most likely deceased. After the battle was over the story never said that they got the wife back, only that the Ithicans had won the war against the Trojans. I am rather confused about this part in the story.

The Adventures of Ulysses: Blog 1

The book starts off telling a small bit about the Gods and Goddesses in Greek mythology it also tells of the heroes, namely the mighty king of Ithaca, Ulysses. When the tale begins it speaks of a twelve year old Ulysses that it boar hunting. The book mentions his red hair, firm build, and king-like posture. Ulysses is mentioned to be sitting by a small lake, watching a menacing boar while his weapon rests on the other side of the body of water. When the creature rushes to attack him, he quickly jumps into the shallow lake and wades across to get his weapon. On his way across the boar slashes Ulyses' leg with his tusk, just above the knee. Ulysses, now bleeding quite a bit, threw his tunic at the furious boar to buy a little time to grab his spear. A battle rages for a short time period between Ulysses and the boar. Once the battle is over, Ulysses was crowned victor and then he brought the boar back to the city for food and as a trophy. His uncle, cousins, and grandfather were there to prove that Ulysses had truly slain the boar, they were hiding in the bushes while he fought though.

The beginning of the book seems simple enough, Ulysses is the prince of Ithaca, he was far from home so that he could visit  the rest of his family and go boar hunting. What I don't understand is why their family would be so far apart. His cousins and uncle live in Athens but he and his father live in Ithaca. It just seems odd to me.