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Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

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Chapter 1 -- Greek Mythology<br />

Odyssey (c. 855 BC)<br />

Author Homer Joel/Ethan Cohen<br />

Protagonist Odysseus Everett Ulysses McGill<br />

Setting<br />

Opening<br />

Characters<br />

<strong>Rivers</strong><br />

Mythical Mediterranean,<br />

Mythical times<br />

Tell me, O muse, <strong>of</strong> that<br />

ingenious hero who travelled<br />

far and wide after he had<br />

sacked the famous town <strong>of</strong><br />

Troy.<br />

Mississippi, 1920s<br />

DRAFT 1122//66//22001122<br />

Sing in me, and through me tell<br />

the story <strong>of</strong> that man skilled in<br />

all the ways <strong>of</strong> contending a<br />

wanderer, harried for years on<br />

end.<br />

Lotus Eaters Baptists<br />

Cyclops Bible salesman<br />

Sirens Washerwomen<br />

Acheron<br />

Cocytus<br />

Styx<br />

Lethe<br />

Pyriphlegethon<br />

A river is involved at either end<br />

-- the baptism and the flooding.<br />

We'll make similar Odyssean comparisons in chapters to come. One can't keep a good story<br />

down.<br />

As enduring as the saga's hero are the deities <strong>of</strong> the world<br />

through which he journeyed. To the right are several <strong>of</strong> the<br />

many Greek gods, along with their Romanized names. Though<br />

we today may be only vaguely familiar with the particular<br />

legends, the gods <strong>of</strong> Homer live on in our common references.<br />

In addition to committing to written form the even-then ancient<br />

mythology, Homer draws upon cultural memories <strong>of</strong> Bronze Age<br />

seamen who sailed to where the “Ocean River” flows.<br />

Oceanus, the Ocean River<br />

Greek Roman<br />

Aphrodite Venus<br />

Apollo Apollo<br />

Ares Mars<br />

Hermes Mercury<br />

Poseidon Neptune<br />

Zeus Jupiter<br />

Eros Cupid<br />

Heracles Hercules<br />

Atlas Atlas<br />

Cronus Saturn<br />

Hades Pluto<br />

Oceanus was both a god and a water body. As the former, Oceanus was the eldest <strong>of</strong> the twelve<br />

Titans (the race from which sprung humans), Oceanus did not join the dispossessed Titans<br />

against the Olympians, but instead withdrew from the struggle doomed by Zeus’ thunderbolts.<br />

With his sister Tethys, Oceanus fathered some three dozen gods, 3000 rivers and 3000 ocean<br />

nymphs.<br />

Uppddaatteess aatt hhttttpp::////www. .uunnm. .eedduu//~rrhheeggggeenn//UnnddeerrggrroouunnddRi ivveerrss. .hhttml l<br />

2

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