Language Arts 9 assignment
Due Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Mrs. Marston

The Odyssey by Homer

Choose one. Writing assignments must be handwritten and may be illustrated.
1. Write: a story about a journey using some of the following words: Characters: Muse, spirit that inspires a poet wanderer
shipmates a king of the gods Lord Helios, the sun god Zeus
Actions: weathering competing harassing; devastating contending
taking goods by force being harried plundering surviving
Settings: stronghold, well-fortified place townlands Troy; site of Trojan War the sea     
Themes: bravery carelessness valor recklessness
Include 3 events that happen during the journey - one, dangerous; one, surprising; and one, an opportunity.

2. Write and Illustrate: a summary of the opening lines of The Odyssey.
Include the following images: Muse sacked sacred city of Troy black ships at sea cattle Helios, the sun god cave
queenly nymph, Calypso Poseidon Mt. Olympus with Zeus and many gods
In your summary, explain the following:
Who is “the much-traveled man”?
Odysseus’s struggle to get home.
Odysseus is responsible for sacking Troy.
Odysseus wants to reach home and to bring his shipmates home.
Why his shipmates did not make it home.
Where Odysseus is at the beginning of the story.

3. Write: (in response to To Be A Hero)
1. 3 sentences describing the character, Odysseus.
2. What happened at the beginning, the middle and the end
3. A description of the setting.
4. The ways Odysseus was tested.
Illustrate the story: war as a thunderstorm family - father, wife, baby son
farm on rocky island high walled city donkey and ox harnessed together, pulling plow ship arriving puppy in front pocket of apron farmer spitting gravel and sowing salt baby in front of plow wooden horse fleet of twelve fine ships

Writing tips:
Make the paragraph the unit of composition Use the active voice.
Put the statements in positive form. Use definite, specific, concrete language.
Omit needless words. Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
Express coordinate ideas in similar form. Keep related words together.
In summaries, keep to one tense. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.