It's a Classical Life

Welcome back to It's a Classical Life. If you popped by last week then you know that this week I am sharing Part Two of Life Lessons from Homer's Odyssey. You can read Part One here if you missed it. Dear Paula at Vince Review  sent me a message saying she appreciated the homey tips I included. Funny, when I wrote the article I considered them life lessons, but I suppose they did relate a lot to homemaking as well! I guess in my mind, life and home go hand in hand. If one area isn't working, then it's likely that the other area won't be either. Anyway, let's move on to the next 8 lessons from Homer's The Odyssey.    9. Be self-sufficient "...in the ancient world, the survival of any household depends on its ability to feed itself. Anyone who threatens the economic self-sufficiency of a family is, in the long term, threatening its very survival." ( Introduction; Peter Jones ).  This quote is still so pertinent today! We can even replace "hous...

  One of the earliest examples of epic poetry, the story of Odysseus and his return from the Trojan War, is a true classic. The more I read it, the more I am able to see so many pertinent lessons on how to live life well. I read through the whole thing in 2020 however I find it so poignant that I continue to flick through it and read passages for inspiration. I have a notebook and pen handy as I read, ready to make notes and today I want to share some of the life lessons that I have come across with you. If you are not familiar with the book, there is a comprehensive overview of each book (or section)  here . As there is so much to cover, I have split this post into two seperate posts. This week we will be covering the first eight life lessons.  The first four books of The Odyssey do not have Odysseus in them, rather the story begins in his palace in Ithaca with his son Telemachus and his wife Penelope. These are the life lessons that I've appreciated throughout the poem....

I was never a big poetry fan until recently. During my year 12 exams we studied poems such as The Flea by John Donne and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan . At the time, I didn't think much of them - perhaps when we have to study something it becomes a chore. And yet when I read those poems today I love them!  Poetry gives people the opportunity to express themselves in the most creative ways. The techniques available to poets, including the use of simile and metaphor, personification, sound devices and symbolism are all perfect ways in which to express oneself. Some poems are simple in their meaning and their words, others can take a bit longer to figure out. Some techniques, such as enjambment and alliteration, may be less easy for you to identify (without having studied these techniques per se), but they play a necessary and beautiful role in the sound and the flow of the poem. Most poems are best read aloud, and it is my encouragemen...

As I write this, 170 vulnerable Australians are on flight from the UK to Darwin as part of a 'mercy flight' by the Australian government. These people are elderly, have health problems or are new mothers who were forced to have their babies overseas. They have been waiting for more than eight months to come home and many of them have bumped off other flights and forced to wait. I cannot imagine how they must be feeling, knowing that they are finally on their way home. To the safety and security of knowing that once there, everything will be alright. We feel so much safer on our 'own turf' so to speak, even if the sense of security is false. Being home gives us a feeling of security that cannot be shaken. I'm not saying that we must be in our own country of origin to feel 'at home'; that feeling can come from anywhere, no matter how many times we may have moved. I'm referring to that place that we consider in our hearts, to be home. As I finished reading ...