text: how did athena impact the odessey?   oh, wow are you lucky.i'm way good at that book. here's one of the lectures i have. e-mail me at n00b_school_bus@yahoo.com if you need more.   lecture on november 3, 2005   odysseus is about 45 – 55 years old. the beggar appears to be 65 – 75 years old. he is ugly, poor, sickly thin and has loose saggy skin. odysseus is disguised as the beggar so people don’t recognize him. athena helps with the disguise.  odysseus’ dog recognizes him. beggar looks older than odysseus; he is extremely ugly. odysseus’ disguise is to fool the suitors so they don’t recognize him. he doesn’t want ithaca to recognize him. he wants to know if they are loyal. the dog recognizes him, even with him away because of his scent. dog= symbol of ithaca. he was a great dog before odysseus left, and then he “fell apart” when odysseus went to war”. odysseus trained the dog. after odysseus left, nobody was latched on to the dog, even though he has such a great potential. the dog got old and is dying. it’s literally laying on its own feces whist dying. it symbolizes ithaca going to crap. ithaca’s potential has never been realized. they could have been great but nobody seized the opportunity to govern the city. although the dog dies, there is hope. the city can be restored. even though the dog dies, ithaca won’t because odysseus is there.  ithaca is ruled by sparta. people who were loyal to odysseus remained loyal. the suitors must die.  penelope wanted to unstring a bow to see if anyone of the suitors could restring it. she knew that the only person able to do that was odysseus. 70 year old ugly beggar asked for the bow. penelope and her maid made the axe shooter (see picture). she (penelope) is repulsed by the young men suitors so much that she would be just as happy to marry the old beggar. one young suitor is drinking wine and starts laughing and odysseus (disguised as the beggar) as he inspects the bow. odysseus effortlessly strings the bow. the young suitors think he’s crazy and are shocked.  odysseus drops on one knee and shoots…the arrow goes through all 12 axe handle hooks.  antinous tries to, and does, beat telemachus. odysseus tells telemachus to keep his head and turns back in to odysseus in his 45 year old form. the suitors are yelling at odysseus, saying that he is going to die but they realize they have no weapons. odysseus: “you dared bid for my wife while i was still alive”.  this is where they start to get afraid. “their eyes flickered looking for some hutch or hide away from death”. odysseus tries to and does kill everyone. the gods are protecting him and homer shows the gods don’t want the suitors to live.  the plot= a guy trying to get back to his wife. courage, determination, fighting thru the odds= traits of odysseus. the suitors are very arrogant, which is why they don’t be hospitable to the guest, which is really odysseus in disguise.  calypso isn’t a good example of positive hospitality because she doesn’t willing let him leave when he wants to. he lands with the phaeacian’s and it is a good example of hospitality because he (the king) gives odysseus every thing he needs to move on. cyclops is a negative example of good hospitality. he eats all their food, drinks all their wine, and then progresses to eat them. polyphemus tried to stop them from leaving. circes isn’t hospitable. she tricks them and turns them into animals. she tricks them but making them stay there for three years. the sun god is bad hospitality on odysseus’ men’s’ part because they were greedy with the cows because they could have eaten anything else. a positive example of hospitality- amaeus (swine herder) odysseus gets whatever he needs and isn’t asked for his name. the best example of negative hospitality is at odysseus’ palace because odysseus’ wife and son can’t kick them out and there’s too many of the suitors for the weak people to force out. it’s the law that they have to put up 