Lesson 1.9 · Unit 1 · RL.9-10.9, RL.9-10.2
One form, two value systems
Standard RL.9-10.9 asks students to analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material, and more broadly to read texts against each other. This lesson gives a method and applies it to the two epics in this unit.
- A comparison needs a basis, which is a single feature both texts possess and use differently.
- The strongest basis for comparing epics is the value system, since the form is largely shared and the values are not.
- Organize by idea, not by text, so each paragraph holds both poems rather than one.
- Similarities of form are the setup, not the argument, and an essay that lists shared conventions has not started yet.
- Ask what each culture was afraid of, since an epic's values usually answer a specific danger.
- The Odyssey fears the traveler's vulnerability; Beowulf fears the dissolution of the band.
- Endings are the best evidence, because a poem's last hundred lines usually state what it thinks survives.
- A comparative conclusion must be a claim, not an observation that both poems are epics.
Where students lose marks: writing two summaries with a transition between them. If a paragraph could be deleted without affecting the discussion of the other poem, the essay is not a comparison.
The texts. The Odyssey in Butler's 1900 translation and Beowulf in Gummere's 1910 translation. Both public domain.
Step one: choose a basis. Both poems end by stating what survives a hero. That is one feature both possess and treat differently, which is what a basis has to be.
Step two: establish the Odyssey's answer. Odysseus reaches home, kills the suitors, is recognized by his wife, is reconciled with his father, and the poem ends with Athena imposing peace between him and the dead men's families. What survives is the household, restored and at peace.
Step three: establish Beowulf's answer. Beowulf kills the dragon and dies. His retainers flee. A barrow is built on a headland so that sailors can see it. A woman sings a lament predicting invasion, slavery and slaughter. What survives is a mound and a prediction of ruin.
Step four: state the difference precisely. One poem ends with a continuation and the other with a terminus. Odysseus's line goes on; Beowulf leaves no heir and his people are told they are finished.
Step five: connect the difference to the values. Xenia protects individuals moving through a world of separate households, so the Odyssey can end by restoring one household. The comitatus binds a band to one man, so when that man dies with no successor the whole structure has nothing to attach to.
Step six: ask what each culture feared. The Odyssey fears the traveler's vulnerability: the man far from home with no protector. Beowulf fears the dissolution of the band: the moment the retainers run. Each poem's central value is an answer to its own specific fear.
Step seven: test the claim against a counter-example. The Odyssey's ending requires divine intervention to stop a feud, which suggests its system is also fragile. That strengthens the comparison rather than weakening it, because it shows both poems know their answers are provisional.
Step eight: write the comparative claim. "Both epics end by naming what outlasts a hero, but the Odyssey names a restored household and Beowulf names a barrow and a prophecy of ruin, because a value system built on obligations between households can be repaired while one built on loyalty to a single man cannot survive him." That is one sentence containing both texts, the shared feature, the difference, and its cause.
Questions 1 to 5 are recall. Questions 6 to 10 ask for reasoning.
- What does a comparison need to be a comparison?
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A basis: one feature both texts possess and use differently
- How should a comparative essay be organized?
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By idea, so every paragraph holds both texts
- How does the Odyssey end?
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With the household restored and Athena imposing peace
- How does Beowulf end?
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With a barrow on a headland and a lament predicting invasion and slaughter
- Name each poem's organizing value.
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Xenia in the Odyssey, comitatus in Beowulf
- Why are shared conventions a weak basis for comparison?
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Because both poems are epics and therefore share invocation, epithet, catalog and the rest by definition. Listing them establishes only that the genre label is correct, which nobody disputes. A comparison needs a feature the two texts treat differently, and with epics the values are where the difference lives because the form largely does not vary. They are shared by definition, so listing them proves nothing
- State the difference between the two endings precisely.
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One is a continuation and the other a terminus. Odysseus reaches home, is recognized, is reconciled with his father and leaves a son; the line goes on. Beowulf dies childless, his retainers flee, and a woman predicts invasion and slavery for his people. The Odyssey ends by restoring something and Beowulf ends by announcing that nothing can be restored. Continuation against terminus
- Explain how each ending follows from its poem's value system.
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Xenia protects individuals moving between separate households, so a world organized that way can be repaired one household at a time, which is exactly what the Odyssey's ending does. The comitatus binds a band to one man, so when that man dies without a successor the structure has nothing left to attach to. The endings are not arbitrary; each follows from what the poem said held people together. A repairable system can restore a household; a system built on one man cannot survive him
- What did each culture fear, and how does the poem answer it?
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The Odyssey fears the traveler's vulnerability, the man far from home with no protector, and answers it with an obligation enforced by Zeus that any host owes any stranger. Beowulf fears the dissolution of the band, the moment the retainers run, and answers it with gifts, oaths and the shame of the survivor. Each central value is a response to a specific danger. Vulnerability of the traveler against dissolution of the band
- Write a comparative claim and name its parts.
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"Both epics end by naming what outlasts a hero, but the Odyssey names a restored household and Beowulf names a barrow and a prophecy of ruin, because a value system built on obligations between households can be repaired while one built on loyalty to a single man cannot survive him." It names both texts, the shared feature, the precise difference and the cause of the difference. Both texts, shared feature, difference, and its cause