By Homer
Hi, I'm here again and as promised I will now talk about the Odyssey which I like best. For all of you who like greek gods, ciclops, monsters, sirens and lots of adventures I may say this is a book for you. The Odyssey is about the journey of Odysseus who tries to go home to Ithaca after the achaeans have won the Troy War and this is not a safe and short journey home.
The Troy War lasted 10 years and his return home will take another 10 years. So Odysseus was absent a lot of time and with no news about him in Ithaca almost all long assumed he died in the Trojan War. So every young guy who didn't went to the war thought, "Poor king, he left his only son and wife alone... Nothing to do with me. Let's marry the wife, become king of Ithaca and kill the son so I have all the gold, livestock and properties of Odysseus." And so Penelope was plagued by lots of suitors day and day again who make lots of parties and banquets in her house with her livestock. And for almost all the time Odysseus was gone ate his cows, pigs, sheep and goats and Penelope somehow managed not marrying anyone of them.
This story starts when the gods feeling pity of Odysseus, who is forced to stay in an island by the goddess nymph Calypso, sent Hermes to force her to let him leave. She even tell him where to get wood to make a boat for he was able to do one alone and gave him good wind to sail off.
Poseidon still angry against Odysseus -for reasons later known by the readers- makes a storm while he's sailing and causes a shipwreck. Odysseus manages to survive it with the help of Athena who advise him correctly without him noticing and manages to get to an island escaping the fury of Poseidon.
Odysseus actually gets to an island of people known for being gifted in the art of rowing and the leader of the island promised to return him home after hearing him out. Odysseus starts telling his story after departing Troy with his fellow companions back home to Ithaca. He narrates the time when they arrive to the island habitated by the Lotus Eaters and how he had to bind some of his people who ate the lotus.
Finally Odysseus and his crew arrive to an island. He left the ship in another little separate islet and with a small crew went to see if their inhabitants were good and nice people who fear the gods or bad monsters who like to eat people.
Odysseus and his crew find a cave/home and decide to stay, Odysseus forces them to stay for they are scared and they were right. It results that the owner was a ciclop named Polyphemus who was a bad monster who liked to eat people... but was good and nice to his rams. Odysseus asks the ciclop the hospitality which beggars seem to deserve only to see the ciclop laugh and ask if their were the only ones left or there were more. Odysseus -suspecting he was not asking innocently- lies saying they were the only survivors of a shipwreck. Therefore the ciclop suddenly grabs and eats one of his companions. Odysseus angrily threats he will be punished by Zeus, the god protector of beggars, but wasn't scared for he was Poseidon's son.
The problem was they couldn't escape because Polyphemus sealed the entrance with a giant rock every time he was in or outside the cave, he notices he only came out in the morning to let his rams graze outside and returned later and treated the rams good and all while he ate one of Odysseus's fellowmen at the end.
So Odysseus logically assumes they couldn't just kill the ciclop or they would be trapped inside so he plots a plan. He gives him a beverage so delicious that pleases the ciclop and makes him drowsy, the ciclops says, "Thank you, for that I shall eat you last mmm who?". He tricks him and says his name is Nobody. When the ciclop falls asleep, along with his comrades manages to make a stick with a sharp tip and blind the eye of the ciclop after strucking it with the tip while is red hot with the fire. They hide while the ciclop makes a ruckus calling his ciclop neighbors. They ask him something along the lines of, "Tell us if there's someone who with words or force has hurt you." Polyphemus replies, "Not with words but Nobody has with force hurt me." So the neighbors don't guess that Nobody is a name and replied that if he's sick he should beg to his father to help him and left.
Angry, Polyphemus tries to find them but being blind doesn't help him so he can't eat them anymore. In the morning he gets out of with his rams, Polyphemus uses his hands to ward off any possible person trying to leave and feels the rams' loin to be sure they're not riding them. Odysseus and his crewmen can't do anything but wait just to see him do the same in the evening. They wait until he sleeps and Odysseus makes another plan. He joins two rams and ties a man to the belly of the animals and does the same with all. Odysseus then hides below the biggest one and with only his hands stays hooked to the ram. The next morning, Polyphemus doesn't imagine the men to actually be hiding below the rams so he lets the rams go were they please. When they get far enough, Odysseus disengages and frees his men from the binding, steal his rams and run to the raft.
This is were Odysseus's pride ruins everything. He -against everyones will- starts mocking the ciclop, who though is now blind can hear perfectly well from where it's coming. They manage to escape the ciclop and again Odysseus not satisfied with the ciclop not knowing he tricked him reveals himself as Odysseus, son of Laertes, from Ithaca. Polyphemus then begs to Poseidon, his father, to avenge him and not let him get back to Ithaca but if the gods wish he returns then that he only manages to do so after suffering a lot and losing all his men to only find more problems back home.
And so Poseidon consents because he actually dared to blind his son.
Odysseus manages to get to the island of some good and nice people who fear the gods, Aeolus there gives him lots of things for no reason and a bag full of winds and sees them off. When they're about to reach Ithaca with the help of one of the winds inside the bag, suddenly one of his crewmen is struck with curiosity -hinted to be caused by Poseidon- and thinking the bag has gold, opens it, causing the winds to escape and return them to the island once again. Odysseus embarassed asks him to help him again but Aeolus suspects a god is angry against him and decides not to help him so to avoid the wrath of the god.
Resigned, they embark again only to unluckily get to the island were the giant blood-drinking Laestrygonians live. They destroy 11 out of the 12 ship and kill his men. Only Odysseus and his crew survive because they hid the ship in a cove far from the harbor.
And so after the misfortune they arrive to the island where the witch goddess Circe lives. Odysseus sents some men for reconnaisance and they find a palace where Circe invites them. Only one didn't enter not trusting the goddess and returns to the boat to tell Odysseus what he found. Circe actually turned the men who entered, ate the food and were then touched with a wand into pigs (which I suppose she wanted to eat). Odysseus then goes to rescue them alone because all his men are scared. Athena wanting to help him sends Hermes to tell him what to do to avoid being transformed into a pig and gain her support. He gives him a drug that renders ineffective the drug Circe uses on the food, he then tells him that after that he should take out his sword and pretend his going to attack her, and later when she asks her to sleep with her to make her promise she will not transform him.
Following his orders, Odysseus gains the love of the goddess who frees his men from the spell and invites all his crew to stay and feast in her house without fear. Odysseus goes for the rest of the crew and they stay in the palace for a year until he decides its time to leave. Circe advise them to go the the land of the dead and make a sacrifice to them to be able to seek the advise of Tiresias, a dead prophet, on how to get back home safely.
They do as she says and there Odysseus meets many dead people who tell lots of cool stories of how mostly Zeus scheme lots of ways to sleep with them and therefore who they gave birth to. He also meets with the ghosts of Achilles and Agamemnon, the latter reveals he was killed by his wife and lover when he returned home, and meets Heracles, who is an Olympian god and enjoys hunting spirits as a sport. Odysseus also meets the spirit of his mother who died in his absence and tells him about the suitors plaguing his house and consuming his wealth. Finally, he meets Tiresias who tells him that Poseidon hates him, shall not die old if he doesn't appease the god when returning home and that he and his crew will only arrive safely if they don't kill and eat the cattle of the sun god, Helios.
They return to Circe's island where she prepares and advises Odysseus about his journey back home where he first will travel through a siren infested sea and that he should put wax in his men's ears and, if he wants to hear them, be tied to the mast. Next he will have to decide whether to try pass through the goddess Caribdris or pass next to the home of the monster Scilla and provides them with food, drinks, clothes and other things.
Odysseus indeed makes his men tie him to the mast and blocks his crew's ears with wax. The sirens promise him knowledge (I thought they would be more voluptuous) and Odysseus is interested but his men, following his instructions strictly, don't untie him even when he pleas. Odysseus then has to choose whether to pass across Caribdris, who is a goddess at the bottom of the sea sucking and regurgitating the water therefore creating for the majority of the time a whirpool, where he may lose all the boat or pass next to the home of the vicious monster Scilla whom Circe forbids to fight as he will not win and will lose more men of his crew. Without telling his crew, he makes them venture next to Scilla, where she attacks and kidnaps 6 men to his frustration.
The ship continues its journey until they get stuck, near the island where the sun god Helios has his cattle, due to dead wind. At first, his men follow Odysseus's advice as he tells them Tiresias's warning; but as the food becomes scarce they grow reckless and -like always while Odysseus was sleeping- killed and ate Helios's cattle. The wind revives again and a resigned Odysseus prepares for the worst as he sets sail again with his crew. Meanwhile, an angry Helios goes and complains to Zeus, who deeming fair a punishment so they learn their lesson, creates a storm which destroys and kills all within the boat except Odysseus.
Poor Odysseus is then washed to the island of Calipso, where he is trapped and loved by the nymph for seven years.
Odysseus ends his tale and the pleased king fills his boat with more things as if he wants to get broke. Finally, they venture into the sea where the men known for their prowess with the rows manage to get to Ithaca by next morning. They leave all the things the king donated to him in a cavern as he deems it safer and the men leave him.
Athena then appears disguised in front of Odysseus and lies about her origins, Odysseus likewise invents another identity and a whole family tree and history for himself. Athena pleased with Odysseus, telling him that he may even be able to trick her if not for she is known as a trickster between gods, reveals herself. She suggests him not going in as Odysseus as the suitors will try to kill him.
Odysseus disguises as a beggar and enters the city where he meets a good shepherd who takes care of his cattle and invites him to his home. Odysseus while feigning being a beggar asks about the situation in his house and manages to make him invite him to the house. There the suitors mock him for being a beggar but doesn't retaliate as he knows he shall later take revenge. Penelope doesn't recognize him (who whould after 20 years without seeing him) but trying to be polite asks Odysseus's nanny and head housekeeper to provide him a bath and clothes. She recognizes a scar in Odysseus's foot and promises not to tell anyone as he insists but provides him with information of who has been loyal to him and who hadn't.
The suitors pressure Penelope to choose a husband, she decides that tomorrow she shall make a contest to decide it as his son, Telemachus, is old enough to inherit Odysseus's goods. Odysseus and Athena deem necessary the help of the shepherd and his son, so Odysseus reveals himself to them. They are astonished but believe him as Athena, who helped Telemachus in the past assured him of the return of his father. They hide the weapons in a separate chamber pretending they are going to clean them and Odysseus's nanny keeps off the maids.
Penelope brings an unstrung bow, arrows, a string and axes which she aligns in front of the target. She will marry the one who is able to arm the bow, shoot an arrow between the small opening made with the axes and hit the target. Penelope leaves to her chamber and the nanny and the rest lock the doors. The suitors eagerly try to string the bow but find it impossible until nobody is left. Finally the shepherd suggests the beggar tries but the suitors are scared that a beggar manages to marry the queen so they're against it. He manages to convince them that an old man like him only wants to try. He strings the bow easily, shoots through the axes and hits the target to the surprise of all. He then starts shooting the arrows against the suitors and with the help of his son and the shepherd, kills all. He then passes the unloyal maids and forces them to clean the mess he left and then hangs them in the backyard.
The nanny gets Penelope and announces her that Odysseus has come back. Odysseus unprovided with his beggar disguise presents to Penelope but she doesn't receive him with open arms so he gets angry. Penelope trying to test him tells him that she wants to sleep in different rooms but that he can remove the bed from her chamber. Odysseus angrily protests that's impossible for the base of the bed which he made is fixated to a tree. Penelope then happily welcomes his husband and begs for forgiveness for she was afraid that she was being lied to.
Odysseus sleeps with her wife and sadly tells her he has to leave again. The parents of the suitors will be angry against him and will attack him to avenge their sons and explains to her that Poseidon is angry against him and the only way to repent is to walk with a row until, someone dumb enough or who doesn't know the sea, asks him what it is.
The book ends and I get the feeling I wanted a more dramatic or heroic ending but I forgive Homer for writing such an amazing book. I wished he would had continued until Odysseus got Poseidon's forgiveness but I guess maybe he did, but the guys lost the writings.
Well, Merry Christmas!
Calypso
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| Goddess nymph Calypso wished that Odysseus became his immortal husband. |
Poseidon still angry against Odysseus -for reasons later known by the readers- makes a storm while he's sailing and causes a shipwreck. Odysseus manages to survive it with the help of Athena who advise him correctly without him noticing and manages to get to an island escaping the fury of Poseidon.
Odysseus actually gets to an island of people known for being gifted in the art of rowing and the leader of the island promised to return him home after hearing him out. Odysseus starts telling his story after departing Troy with his fellow companions back home to Ithaca. He narrates the time when they arrive to the island habitated by the Lotus Eaters and how he had to bind some of his people who ate the lotus.
Finally Odysseus and his crew arrive to an island. He left the ship in another little separate islet and with a small crew went to see if their inhabitants were good and nice people who fear the gods or bad monsters who like to eat people.
Polyphemus, the ciclop
 |
| As you can see. A headless man handles the stick. Probably a snack for the ciclop. |
The problem was they couldn't escape because Polyphemus sealed the entrance with a giant rock every time he was in or outside the cave, he notices he only came out in the morning to let his rams graze outside and returned later and treated the rams good and all while he ate one of Odysseus's fellowmen at the end.
So Odysseus logically assumes they couldn't just kill the ciclop or they would be trapped inside so he plots a plan. He gives him a beverage so delicious that pleases the ciclop and makes him drowsy, the ciclops says, "Thank you, for that I shall eat you last mmm who?". He tricks him and says his name is Nobody. When the ciclop falls asleep, along with his comrades manages to make a stick with a sharp tip and blind the eye of the ciclop after strucking it with the tip while is red hot with the fire. They hide while the ciclop makes a ruckus calling his ciclop neighbors. They ask him something along the lines of, "Tell us if there's someone who with words or force has hurt you." Polyphemus replies, "Not with words but Nobody has with force hurt me." So the neighbors don't guess that Nobody is a name and replied that if he's sick he should beg to his father to help him and left.
Angry, Polyphemus tries to find them but being blind doesn't help him so he can't eat them anymore. In the morning he gets out of with his rams, Polyphemus uses his hands to ward off any possible person trying to leave and feels the rams' loin to be sure they're not riding them. Odysseus and his crewmen can't do anything but wait just to see him do the same in the evening. They wait until he sleeps and Odysseus makes another plan. He joins two rams and ties a man to the belly of the animals and does the same with all. Odysseus then hides below the biggest one and with only his hands stays hooked to the ram. The next morning, Polyphemus doesn't imagine the men to actually be hiding below the rams so he lets the rams go were they please. When they get far enough, Odysseus disengages and frees his men from the binding, steal his rams and run to the raft.
This is were Odysseus's pride ruins everything. He -against everyones will- starts mocking the ciclop, who though is now blind can hear perfectly well from where it's coming. They manage to escape the ciclop and again Odysseus not satisfied with the ciclop not knowing he tricked him reveals himself as Odysseus, son of Laertes, from Ithaca. Polyphemus then begs to Poseidon, his father, to avenge him and not let him get back to Ithaca but if the gods wish he returns then that he only manages to do so after suffering a lot and losing all his men to only find more problems back home.
And so Poseidon consents because he actually dared to blind his son.
Aeolus and Circe
 |
| Circe with his drugged pets. Must be catnip for the lions and tigers. |
Resigned, they embark again only to unluckily get to the island were the giant blood-drinking Laestrygonians live. They destroy 11 out of the 12 ship and kill his men. Only Odysseus and his crew survive because they hid the ship in a cove far from the harbor.
And so after the misfortune they arrive to the island where the witch goddess Circe lives. Odysseus sents some men for reconnaisance and they find a palace where Circe invites them. Only one didn't enter not trusting the goddess and returns to the boat to tell Odysseus what he found. Circe actually turned the men who entered, ate the food and were then touched with a wand into pigs (which I suppose she wanted to eat). Odysseus then goes to rescue them alone because all his men are scared. Athena wanting to help him sends Hermes to tell him what to do to avoid being transformed into a pig and gain her support. He gives him a drug that renders ineffective the drug Circe uses on the food, he then tells him that after that he should take out his sword and pretend his going to attack her, and later when she asks her to sleep with her to make her promise she will not transform him.
Following his orders, Odysseus gains the love of the goddess who frees his men from the spell and invites all his crew to stay and feast in her house without fear. Odysseus goes for the rest of the crew and they stay in the palace for a year until he decides its time to leave. Circe advise them to go the the land of the dead and make a sacrifice to them to be able to seek the advise of Tiresias, a dead prophet, on how to get back home safely.
Tiresias and the land of dead
 |
| Tiresias was a girl for 7 years and in some versions a very renowned prostitute. |
They return to Circe's island where she prepares and advises Odysseus about his journey back home where he first will travel through a siren infested sea and that he should put wax in his men's ears and, if he wants to hear them, be tied to the mast. Next he will have to decide whether to try pass through the goddess Caribdris or pass next to the home of the monster Scilla and provides them with food, drinks, clothes and other things.
The sirens, Caribdris and Scilla, and Helios's cattle
 |
| You can see Odysseus was tempted by knowledge only. |
The ship continues its journey until they get stuck, near the island where the sun god Helios has his cattle, due to dead wind. At first, his men follow Odysseus's advice as he tells them Tiresias's warning; but as the food becomes scarce they grow reckless and -like always while Odysseus was sleeping- killed and ate Helios's cattle. The wind revives again and a resigned Odysseus prepares for the worst as he sets sail again with his crew. Meanwhile, an angry Helios goes and complains to Zeus, who deeming fair a punishment so they learn their lesson, creates a storm which destroys and kills all within the boat except Odysseus.
Poor Odysseus is then washed to the island of Calipso, where he is trapped and loved by the nymph for seven years.
Returning home
Athena then appears disguised in front of Odysseus and lies about her origins, Odysseus likewise invents another identity and a whole family tree and history for himself. Athena pleased with Odysseus, telling him that he may even be able to trick her if not for she is known as a trickster between gods, reveals herself. She suggests him not going in as Odysseus as the suitors will try to kill him.
Odysseus disguises as a beggar and enters the city where he meets a good shepherd who takes care of his cattle and invites him to his home. Odysseus while feigning being a beggar asks about the situation in his house and manages to make him invite him to the house. There the suitors mock him for being a beggar but doesn't retaliate as he knows he shall later take revenge. Penelope doesn't recognize him (who whould after 20 years without seeing him) but trying to be polite asks Odysseus's nanny and head housekeeper to provide him a bath and clothes. She recognizes a scar in Odysseus's foot and promises not to tell anyone as he insists but provides him with information of who has been loyal to him and who hadn't.
The suitors pressure Penelope to choose a husband, she decides that tomorrow she shall make a contest to decide it as his son, Telemachus, is old enough to inherit Odysseus's goods. Odysseus and Athena deem necessary the help of the shepherd and his son, so Odysseus reveals himself to them. They are astonished but believe him as Athena, who helped Telemachus in the past assured him of the return of his father. They hide the weapons in a separate chamber pretending they are going to clean them and Odysseus's nanny keeps off the maids.
The contest and death of suitors
The nanny gets Penelope and announces her that Odysseus has come back. Odysseus unprovided with his beggar disguise presents to Penelope but she doesn't receive him with open arms so he gets angry. Penelope trying to test him tells him that she wants to sleep in different rooms but that he can remove the bed from her chamber. Odysseus angrily protests that's impossible for the base of the bed which he made is fixated to a tree. Penelope then happily welcomes his husband and begs for forgiveness for she was afraid that she was being lied to.
Odysseus sleeps with her wife and sadly tells her he has to leave again. The parents of the suitors will be angry against him and will attack him to avenge their sons and explains to her that Poseidon is angry against him and the only way to repent is to walk with a row until, someone dumb enough or who doesn't know the sea, asks him what it is.
Zeus says: make peace or die
He leaves early in the morning with Telemachus and the shepherd to Laertes's house, Odysseus's father, who is happy to see him again as he thought he had died. The angry mob arrives and the four men armed with spears and armor confront them. Athena seeing this is getting out of control begs his father for help who with a thunder orders them to stop and make peace. Athena makes the spear in Odysseus's hand land and kill an angry parent who doesn't deem fair what Zeus orders. Resigned, Odysseus makes peace with the parents.The book ends and I get the feeling I wanted a more dramatic or heroic ending but I forgive Homer for writing such an amazing book. I wished he would had continued until Odysseus got Poseidon's forgiveness but I guess maybe he did, but the guys lost the writings.
Well, Merry Christmas!
Thank you (:
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