Letter assignment: required elements

The assignment is to write two letters, each one very close to 500 words long. They can be related to each other or completely separate.

I've learned from how I formulated the first opportunity to do this assignment. I think you can do even more and will enjoy it more if you do. So I want to revise this assignment a bit.

1) 500 words per letter (NOT 250 as in the first opportunity)

2) the 'point' of the letter needs to be complex and deep. I want to see you go beyond something like "a love letter from Aigisthus to Clytaemnestra" or "Machaon the Greek doctor talks to a modern surgeon": add to that analysis, deeper thoughts, wrinkles, real thought about the characters, the situation, the motivations, the possibilities to change it up, research on other literature, parallels to other situations in the epic, art or other visual elements, etc. Basically, use your creativity and imagination more to add complexity and then do more work to back that up from the primary sources. Dig in, do some real work, and show it off.

For instance, someone wrote as their first letter a situation where Odysseus was the one who put Thersites up to complaining in the assembly, and then betrayed Thersites when Thersites actually did complain: that was a really good thing to come up with. I liked that a lot. I want more: go beyond it. Maybe add research about Thersites outside of Iliad. Maybe draw parallels with how Agamemnon did that crazy move where he said he had a dream and wanted to leave Troy to 'test' the army, maybe make it part of a larger picture of Odysseus' rivalry with Ajax. Maybe develop the character of Thersites more: give him a plausible background, a family, an ideology, etc.

When a movie adapts a book, people always complain about decisions the adapters make, because they wanted the movie to stay 'true' to how they see the book: I want you to take that attitude, that of the person who really has opinions about the book and wants to see those developed, then develop them yourself: keep it true to the book AS YOU SEE IT, and be opinionated with evidence to back up your opinions.

Maybe have Penelope recognize Odysseus right off the bat, but be playing her own game: is he still the man she married? Does she maybe not want the man she married any more, but wants to see if he's developed? Or maybe she knows right away that he is NOT Odysseus, but doesn't want any of the suitors and wants to set this stranger up to become Odysseus (even thought he really is Odysseus). There are many 'games' you can play, wrinkles you can add that could be true to what is in HOmer but change it up behind the scenes, make it interesting.

I.e. I'm hoping to unleash your creative geniuses and see some real depth here, because I saw promise the first time, and I want it more developed this time.