74 pages • 2 hours read
Madeline MillerA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.
ACTIVITY: “Villains Reclaimed”
Choose an antagonistic monster from The Odyssey (e.g., the Cyclopes, Scylla, Charybdis, the Sirens, or the Lotus Eaters) and reimagine their story. Think critically about this antagonist’s motivations for attacking or working against Odysseus and other Greek heroes. What might have led them to this point?
Then, write a short paragraph explaining this background or new character arc and present it to the class.
Some additional questions to consider include:
Teaching Suggestion: Encourage students to think creatively about the monster’s origin story by comparing and contrasting Miller’s version of Circe with the traditional Circe seen in The Odyssey. You can also provide this list of monsters for students.
Paired Text Extension:
Compare and contrast another monster’s story between the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey and the
By Madeline Miller
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