Greek Mythology

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“Something Wonderful.”

What is an odyssey?

“The first MYTHEME in our odyssey plot involves getting there

(getting started, then getting through or over any hurdles, obstacles,

perils, or getting out of baited traps along the way), the second

MYTHEME involves getting what you went to get once you get there;

while the third MYTHEME involves getting away with it in spite of

the guards; and the fourth MYTHEME involves getting back where

you came from, again, as on the way out, getting past dangers, which

may be harder now because the prize you're bringing back makes

you more likely to get ripped off.” (van Sickle)

Slide 8

“Something Wonderful.”

“In such a story, we can notice, the traveler keeps coming up against

the unexpected; in other words, dangers and distractions keep

overtaking one. Now "over" plus "take" add up to what in the

languages derived from Latin gets called SURPRISE; while coming

upon or up against gets called ADVENTURE. So the odyssey we have

been defining turns out to be a classic plot of adventure and surprise.”

Now we can turn our attentions to Kubrick’s freaky future mindtrip:

Slide 9

2001: A Space Odyssey

Slide 10

2001: A Space Analogy

The movie is fraught with analogies to classical stories and themes

When you are watching the movie, see if you agree or disagree with

the following four parallels:

1. “The Dawn of Man” – the first scene in the movie.

The monkeys meet the monolith, and humanity is changed

forever – is it for good or ill?

The Monolith as Pandora’s Box?

Slide 11

2001: A Space Analogy

2. The Monolith as a futuristic Trojan Horse.

The scene on the moon when Dr. Floyd visits the Monolith

on the moon.

Leonard Wheat has drawn the following analogies to this

scene and the Horse:

a) The moon monolith scene takes place at the moon crater

Tycho. Kubrick evidently scoured the list of moon crater names

Tycho is a real crater name - and chose Tycho, the name that

most nearly resembled Troy. Both names are short, both begin

with T, and both contain the additional letters o and y.

Tycho symbolizes Troy.

Slide 12

2001: A Space Analogy

b. The moon monolith is inside the walls of a pit. The pit's walls are

the walls of Troy.

c. The astronauts in the pit, symbolizing the Trojans, curiously