Comments for Alex Gionis

For some reason, I cannot open the file containing your paper using the 
Open Office software that I have on my HC computer today.  This is supposed to
be an open-source equivalent for the Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, 
etc. programs, but there are some incompatibilities that crop up from 
time to time, and your paper apparently has some feature that is causing 
a problem, or there is some problem with that whole program today.
(It's actually an issue with the whole program as I'm finding out.)  
So I have to give you comments like this instead of being
able to insert them directly in the source file for the paper.  Sorry 
for the inconvenience.

In your first sentence, I don't think it's quite as strong as a "must."
The way our story-telling traditions have evolved, I think it's more
of an expection that main characters in epics should undergo some sort
of change.  Your thesis is an interesting one -- I can see that the 
panel discussion influenced your thinking a great deal, but that is OK.  

page 1, line 10 -- Iliad has only one "ell" (it comes from another name for the
city of Troy -- "Ilion" or "Ilium")

middle of page 2 -- You say "every good king is humble," and add that 
kings need to know when to show strength and when not to.  Aren't those
really two different things, though?  A truly humble person might never
show strength, and might not even have any strength to show.  Isn't
knowing  when to show strength and when not to show strength more like 
a form of wisdom? That wisdom can lead a good king to be humble in
some circumstances, but not in others when strength is called for.  
There's more going on here than your discussion would indicate.  And 
highlighting that might help you make your case better later on. 

The main comment I have is that while you suggest some good events in the
story that could indicate that Odysseus has changed back into the good king
and family man by the time he gets back to Ithaca, you haven't really analyzed 
why those episodes to indicate that what you are saying is true.  For example, 
Odysseus's use of the disguise as a beggar certainly sounds humble and he 
certainly looks humble in the disguise.   But couldn't this just be another 
instance of Odysseus's trickiness/craftiness (more or less exactly like the 
trick of the Trojan Horse back in the war)?  What is different here?  And can 
you square what you are saying with Odysseus's behavior when it comes time 
to win the contest to string his bow and then kill the suitors?  What about 
the very last scene at the end of Book 24?  Does that sound like Odysseus has
regained wisdom? 

To be clear, I am not saying you are necessarily wrong.  I just think you 
need to make better use of the evidence and interpret it in more detail to 
really make your case.

Your writing is generally good, although there are few places where the tone
sounds more like everyday speech than a formal paper.  I'm thinking of things
like the phrase "domestic mindset" on page 2, or "he lets it go" at the 
bottom of the page.  

Content/Evidence

B

Structure/Mechanics

B+