The major assignment for this week is to compose a 900-word essay comparing The Odyssey with either The Song of Roland or Dante's Inferno. In this paper you will write an in-depth analysis using your own ideas and excerpts from the epic poems in the form of quotes, paraphrase, or summary.

Although nearly two thousand years separate The Odyssey and Dante's Inferno, both works are epic poems that:

• Explore the relationship between humanity and the divine. Employ journey as a metaphor for maturation.
• Reveal and teach cultural values about leadership.
• Caution audiences about the appeal of temptation.
• Contemplate the nature of immortality.
• Compare and contrast how one of these topics is developed in The Odyssey and Dante's Inferno.