The Practice Paper's Odyssey passage question was 'Explain what makes Passage B an epic piece of writing'. The passage was Odyssey 23.224–245:
‘But now you have faithfully described the secret of our bed, which no one ever saw but
you and I and one maid, Actoris, who was my father’s gift when first I came to you, and was
the keeper of our bedroom door. You have convinced my unbelieving heart.’
Her words stirred a great longing for tears in Odysseus’ heart, and he wept as he held
his dear and loyal wife in his arms. It was like the moment when the blissful land is seen by
struggling sailors, whose fine ship Poseidon has battered with wind and wave and smashed
on the high seas. A few swim safely to the mainland out of the foaming surf, their bodies caked
with brine; and blissfully they tread on solid land, saved from disaster. It was bliss like that for
Penelope to see her husband once again. Her white arms round his neck never quite let go.
Rosy-fingered Dawn would have found them still weeping, had not Athene of the flashing eyes
had other ideas. She held the night lingering at the western horizon and in the East at Ocean’s
Stream she kept golden-throned Dawn waiting and would not let her yoke the nimble steeds
who bring us light, Lampus and Phaethon, the colts that draw the chariot of Day. (Rieu's translation).
Here are the mark scheme's suggestions:
(1) There is a simile ('reverse': Penelope, who stayed on land, is like a sailor seeing land, but it is her sailor husband who has now reached home). [Also, the simile is 'extended'. -- ed. ]
(2) Gods are involved.
(3) There are stock epithets (i.e. there are adjectives that are routinely used with certain nouns, e.g. 'rosy-fingered Dawn', 'white arms', 'of the flashing eyes', 'swift-footed Achilles', 'devout Aeneas', etc.).
(4) There are supernatural happenings.
Of these, only (3) is more or less ubiquitous in Homer (and much less so in Virgil). There are plenty of similes in the Iliad and Aeneid, but we need more features of epic for consideration.
Here follow several epic aspects evident in the Odyssey passage that could be illustrated from several other passages.
(a) The narrative concerns one larger than life figure: here, Odysseus; maybe Penelope too... gasp!
(b) This is the climax of the narrative (a.k.a. its telos, Aristarchus on Odyssey 23.296) that all else either works towards or follows: here, the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope (followed by the 'lame', 'late' and 'spurious' book 24); in the Iliad, Achilles avenges Patroclus by killing and the 5th act brings closure in burying Patroclus with funeral games and in returning Hector for due burial; in the Aeneid, Aeneas... kills Turnus, and then? For epic as a genre that has a clear climax of crisis and resolution or, as Aristotle put it (Poetics 1459a): epic 'should centre upon a single action, whole and complete, and having a beginning, middle, and an end, so that like a single complete organism the poem may produce its own special kind of pleasure' (section 23).
(c) There is a fascination with the constitution and manufacture of intricate and ornate objects. Here, the design of the bed, known only to Odysseus (its maker) and his wife Penelope, has just been discussed. Instances of ecphrasis, such as the Shield of Achilles (Iliad 18) and the Shield of Aeneas (Aeneid 8) are the prime examples (also in the Aeneid: the doors of the Temple of Juno at Carthage in book 1, the Cretan design on doors on the Temple of Apollo at Cumae, home of the Sibyl in book 6, and, of course, the baldric of Pallas in book 10). Consider too the fascination with pieces of armour (need I say 'boars' tusk helmet' in Iliad 10?) and weapons.
(d) There is a whole mythology and cosmology behind an event as regular as the break of dawn. To my mind, some of Vergil's best moments are his elaborate descriptions of sunset and day-break. I think particularly of those in Aeneid 2 and 11. Homer, beside 'rosy-fingered Dawn' and 'golden-throned Dawn', has 'saffron-robed Dawn' (Iliad 19.1), etc.
(e) This is a recognition scene. One character finally realises that a long-lost friend of relative has been in front of them (perhaps even for some while). Recognition scenes are more of a feature of the Odyssey (indeed, the 20 marker that followed this passage concerned recognition scenes in the Odyssey), but you could consider the point in Aeneid 6 at which Aeneas sees, or thinks he sees, Dido (again with an elaborate simile). Or, consider the moment at which Achilles comes face to face with Priam (Iliad 24), an occasion for a convoluted simile, in which Priam is likened to a murderer....
(f) 'would have'. The Iliad in particular is full of consideration about what would have happened, if a deity (Athene in this Odyssey passage) had not intervened. There are points at which Achilles 'would have sacked Troy, but...'.
‘But now you have faithfully described the secret of our bed, which no one ever saw but
you and I and one maid, Actoris, who was my father’s gift when first I came to you, and was
the keeper of our bedroom door. You have convinced my unbelieving heart.’
Her words stirred a great longing for tears in Odysseus’ heart, and he wept as he held
his dear and loyal wife in his arms. It was like the moment when the blissful land is seen by
struggling sailors, whose fine ship Poseidon has battered with wind and wave and smashed
on the high seas. A few swim safely to the mainland out of the foaming surf, their bodies caked
with brine; and blissfully they tread on solid land, saved from disaster. It was bliss like that for
Penelope to see her husband once again. Her white arms round his neck never quite let go.
Rosy-fingered Dawn would have found them still weeping, had not Athene of the flashing eyes
had other ideas. She held the night lingering at the western horizon and in the East at Ocean’s
Stream she kept golden-throned Dawn waiting and would not let her yoke the nimble steeds
who bring us light, Lampus and Phaethon, the colts that draw the chariot of Day. (Rieu's translation).
Here are the mark scheme's suggestions:
(1) There is a simile ('reverse': Penelope, who stayed on land, is like a sailor seeing land, but it is her sailor husband who has now reached home). [Also, the simile is 'extended'. -- ed. ]
(2) Gods are involved.
(3) There are stock epithets (i.e. there are adjectives that are routinely used with certain nouns, e.g. 'rosy-fingered Dawn', 'white arms', 'of the flashing eyes', 'swift-footed Achilles', 'devout Aeneas', etc.).
(4) There are supernatural happenings.
Of these, only (3) is more or less ubiquitous in Homer (and much less so in Virgil). There are plenty of similes in the Iliad and Aeneid, but we need more features of epic for consideration.
Here follow several epic aspects evident in the Odyssey passage that could be illustrated from several other passages.
(a) The narrative concerns one larger than life figure: here, Odysseus; maybe Penelope too... gasp!
(b) This is the climax of the narrative (a.k.a. its telos, Aristarchus on Odyssey 23.296) that all else either works towards or follows: here, the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope (followed by the 'lame', 'late' and 'spurious' book 24); in the Iliad, Achilles avenges Patroclus by killing and the 5th act brings closure in burying Patroclus with funeral games and in returning Hector for due burial; in the Aeneid, Aeneas... kills Turnus, and then? For epic as a genre that has a clear climax of crisis and resolution or, as Aristotle put it (Poetics 1459a): epic 'should centre upon a single action, whole and complete, and having a beginning, middle, and an end, so that like a single complete organism the poem may produce its own special kind of pleasure' (section 23).
(c) There is a fascination with the constitution and manufacture of intricate and ornate objects. Here, the design of the bed, known only to Odysseus (its maker) and his wife Penelope, has just been discussed. Instances of ecphrasis, such as the Shield of Achilles (Iliad 18) and the Shield of Aeneas (Aeneid 8) are the prime examples (also in the Aeneid: the doors of the Temple of Juno at Carthage in book 1, the Cretan design on doors on the Temple of Apollo at Cumae, home of the Sibyl in book 6, and, of course, the baldric of Pallas in book 10). Consider too the fascination with pieces of armour (need I say 'boars' tusk helmet' in Iliad 10?) and weapons.
(d) There is a whole mythology and cosmology behind an event as regular as the break of dawn. To my mind, some of Vergil's best moments are his elaborate descriptions of sunset and day-break. I think particularly of those in Aeneid 2 and 11. Homer, beside 'rosy-fingered Dawn' and 'golden-throned Dawn', has 'saffron-robed Dawn' (Iliad 19.1), etc.
(e) This is a recognition scene. One character finally realises that a long-lost friend of relative has been in front of them (perhaps even for some while). Recognition scenes are more of a feature of the Odyssey (indeed, the 20 marker that followed this passage concerned recognition scenes in the Odyssey), but you could consider the point in Aeneid 6 at which Aeneas sees, or thinks he sees, Dido (again with an elaborate simile). Or, consider the moment at which Achilles comes face to face with Priam (Iliad 24), an occasion for a convoluted simile, in which Priam is likened to a murderer....
(f) 'would have'. The Iliad in particular is full of consideration about what would have happened, if a deity (Athene in this Odyssey passage) had not intervened. There are points at which Achilles 'would have sacked Troy, but...'.
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