Book VII is titled "The Welcome of Alcinous." It sounds a lot better than the fighting we talked about in the Iliad, doesn't it? Way less blood. Nausicaa arrives at home and Odysseus walks through the town in a cloud of mist (provided by his guardian goddess, Athena) so the townspeople don't see him. Athena, if you've noticed she likes to get dressed up a lot, disguises herself as a small girl and talks to Odysseus. She tells him about Phaeacta and its rulers. The queen is Arete and the king is Alcinous. Remember that Odysseus is supposed to talk to the queen because she's in charge. They get to the palace and Athena removes the mist as Odysseus throws himself at Queen Arete's knees. It's pretty awkward for everyone and silence ensues until the king's oracle tells the king he hasn't been very hospitable to the beggar. Everyone then fusses over Odysseus and says there will be a feast in honor of him tomorrow. The king slyly asks if he's a god. Odysseus says no, but asks the king for ships to get home. Everyone seems pretty good with this except the queen. She's eyeing him and realizing that he's wearing clothes her daughter made. Knowing it's probably not best to lie, he tells the queen the whole story from Calypso to Nausicaa without revealing he's Odysseus. If you recall from the Iliad, Odysseus has a way with words and everyone is wowed by him. King Alcinous offers up Nausicaa's hand in marriage, but says it's okay if he just wants to go home. Odysseus says he better head back home and the king tells him that he will provide men to row the ships for him. What nice people! Then Odysseus heads to bed.
Book VIII is titled "The Stay in Phaeacta." The next day, Athena disguises herself again and tells the townspeople that a stranger has arrived and about the feast Alcinous is going to have for him. Athena then makes Odysseus look even more attractive and instills in him a desire to win any challenge put before him. At the feast, the king calls in his blind bard (kind of like Homer) and he recites a story about a fight between Odysseus and Achilles before the Trojan War started. Odysseus cries while he hears the story about himself, but hides his tears; only King Alcinous notices. The king then says there should be some sporting games so Odysseus can go home and brag about how athletic Alcinous's people are. Men play and the poet tells us who won (who cares, Odysseus isn't playing yet). Finally, the prince challenges Odysseus to play. Odysseus declines at first, until some guy says he doesn't look very athletic. Odysseus proceeds to throw a discus farther than anyone else and challenges the rest of the men. Alcinous decides to diffuse the situation with his blind bard telling more stories. After that, dancers come to entertain Odysseus. Later, Odysseus asks the bard to tell a story of himself and he starts to cry. The king then asks Odysseus to tell his story. This is where it becomes epic (haha, punny).
Book IX, "The Story Told to Alcinous--the Cyclops," starts off with Odysseus saying, "Yeah, I'm Odysseus." He begins his tale from the time they left Troy. He's going to be telling about travels of the past ten years; it's going to be long, my friends. He talks about Ithaca and how he was held captive by Calypso. He says that he never actually loved her, he was just pretending. He then tells the story about his life between Troy and Calypso. He tells about how he and his man landed near a town and plundered it. They killed the men and enslaved the women. Odysseus tries to get his men back to the ships but they are revolting because they are so hungry. Many Ithacans die plundering the city. A storm is sent and they wait 10 days before they leave. They then land on the island of the Lotus-Eaters. The island seems great until three of Odysseus's men eat the lotus flowers and forget absolutely everything and want to stay on the island for the rest of their lives. Odysseus rounds up his men, including the ones who ate the flowers, and sets sail again. They then land on the island of uncivilized Cyclopes. The Cyclopes have no idea how to do anything with the land; all they do is tend to sheep. Odysseus's men find a Cyclops's cave and they want to steal the things inside. Odysseus says no and that they should treat the Cyclopes like humans. They will wait and be gracious guests. The Cyclops comes back but doesn't want to be very hospitable. He puts a boulder over the entrance and asks Odysseus where they landed their ship. He says they didn't land one; they've been shipwrecked by Poseidon (FORESHADOWING). The Cyclops then proceeds to eat two of Odysseus's men then falls asleep. While the Cyclops is asleep, Odysseus pulls out his sword to kill him, but realizes that they can't move the boulder without the strength of the Cyclops. In the morning, the Cyclops eats more the Odysseus's men. During the day, Odysseus comes up with a plan and they sharpen a pole while the Cyclops is gone. When he returns, Odysseus offers him wine, telling him that his name is Noman. The Cyclops gets drunk and passes out. The men then stab him in the eye, blinding him. The Cyclops goes on a rampage and causes the other Cyclopes to ask him (we find out his name is Polyphemus, which we've heard his name before) who has tricked him and he keeps yelling, "Noman tricked me!" The other Cyclopes think that means Polyphemus is alone. They say make a prayer to his father Poseidon and all will be well. Polyphemus then takes the sharpened pole out of his eye then goes to sleep. Odysseus comes up with the second part of the plan and he ties his men and himself under Polyphemus's rams. Polyphemus lets them out, thinking that they are his rams. The men escape to the ship, but Odysseus can't help but taunt Polyphemus. The men all tell Odysseus to quit it, but he's on a roll. He then tells Polyphemus his name, his lineage, and where he's from. Polyphemus then tells Poseidon this and asks for help. Poseidon says Odysseus won't get home and if he does, he will lose all the men on his way back. The ship is then carried to sea as Polyphemus throws boulders at them.
Book X is titled "Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, and Circe." Odysseus and his men land on the island of Aeolia, where Aeolus, god of the winds, lives. Aeolus asks Odysseus who they are and he tells them. Aeolus then asks to tell him about the Trojan War. They stay there for a month. When they leave, Aeolus gives Odysseus a bag of winds to carry them back home. They sail for nine days. Odysseus doesn't tell the men what's in the bag and they're curious (if you've seen the movie Seven, I always think of Brad Pitt yelling, "What's in the box?!). They decide to open it, thinking there might be treasure in it. Nope. Not treasure. The winds are released while Odysseus is asleep and blows them back to where they were nine days previously. Odysseus is distraught and rows back to Aeolus to ask for more winds. Aeolus realizes Odysseus must be cursed by the gods and refuses to help. The men go back to sailing, and in six days they land at the citadel of Lamos, Telepylus in Laestrygonia. When they arrive, Antiphates greets them, and ends up eating one of Odysseus's men. They quickly leave after that. They then arrive to the island of Aeaea, where Circe lives. Oh, Circe. Odysseus, a little smarter than last time, sends dozens of men to go searching the hall of Circe. She greets them kindly and everyone follows her except Eurylochus. He watches as Circe turns the men into pigs. Yes, the ones that oink. On the way to the men, Odysseus is greeted by Hermes. Hermes tells Odysseus of a plant called moly that will help protect him from turning into a pig. He then has to fight Circe from forcing him into a cage. When she breaks down, he has to agree to have sex with her if she vows to not do any magic on him. He follows all of Hermes instructions, down to the very last one. Circe then turns Odyssey's men back to men and invites them to stay, which they do...for a year. After a year, one of the men tells Odysseus he would rather enjoy returning home. He asks Circe for help to get home and says he won't be able to get to Ithaca until he talks to the blind prophet Teiresias. One problem, he's dead. Odysseus has to go the Underworld. The next day, they're on their way and Circe has disappeared, leaving animals to sacrifice so they can get into the Underworld.
Book XI is "The Land of the Dead." Odysseus and his men get to the Underworld, and after a few run-ins with people he knows, including his mother, Odysseus finds Teiresias. Teiresias drinks the blood of Odysseus's sacrifice and then speaks to him. He tells him not to eat the cattle at Thrinacian and that Odysseus will be the only man to survive the trip home. Teiresias says that when he gets home, he has to deal with the suitors in a pretty bloody fashion. When that's done, he has to make a sacrifice to Poseidon. Odysseus says great, but why is Mom here? Can I talk to her? Teiresias says yes, if she drinks the blood of your sacrifice. She does, and then tells him about the problems in Ithaca and how Telemachus has grown, Penelope is still loyal, and she, herself, died of loneliness. When she leaves, there are more dead people who want to talk to Odysseus. He makes them stand in line and talks to them. He first talks to some princesses. In the middle of the story, King Alcinous can't believe he actually talked to ghosts and Queen Arete decides when they send Odysseus off, it will be grand. They ask if Odysseus saw any of his Achaean friends while in the Underworld, and he sure did. Some of them were Achilles, Agamemnon, and big Ajax. Odysseus commends Achilles on being so honored and glorified while he lived that he assumes being dead is fun. Achilles says no, it's pretty terrible. He then sees some other cool people like Minos and Hercules. If you want to hear their backstories, read the text. He then leaves the Underworld after all the dead people drink the rest of his sacrifices.
Book XII is titled "The Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, and the Cattle of the Sun." The men then return to the island with Circe. She feeds them and gives them directions (and has sex with Odysseus). She tells them how to avoid the sirens. The Sirens will lure them in with their beautiful voices then kill him. She tells Odysseus no man has heard the call of the Sirens and lived to tell the tale. She says that they should plug their ears and tie themselves to the mast so they don't jump overboard and swim to the sirens. She then gives him two routes home. One is through Rovers, which are moving rocks and no ship can get through. The second option isn't much better. It has the Scylla, which is a sea monster with six heads that eats men, and Charybdis which is a whirlpool monster that sucks in and vomits the sea three times a day. Circe tells Odysseus that he should hug the cliff of Scylla to avoid Charybdis and sacrifice six men instead of losing the whole crew. He should also go threw as quickly as possible to make the monsters less angry. Last thing, she tells him not to kill any cattle or else he'll lose his whole crew. The next day, they set sail with a little help from Circe's winds. They first encounter the Sirens and Odysseus puts beeswax in his ears. The text has the full Siren song, but essentially they promise immortal knowledge in a sexy, sexy way. Once they make it safely away from the Sirens, they see Scylla and Charybdis and the men lose their oars because they are so frightened. Odysseus tries to encourage them by pulling out his sword and attacking Scylla, but then remembers he should go quickly through there. He does so, but loses six men. They go past the island of the Sun and Odysseus wants to sail by, but has been warned not to. They land and the men convince Odysseus to rest. Odysseus agrees but says not to touch the cattle. They try to leave in the morning, but a storm comes. It rains for an entire month, forcing the men to stay on the island. One day, as Odysseus is off praying, Eurylochus convinces the rest of the men to kill the biggest cow and eat it. Who doesn't want juicy steak? The Sun was furious and asked Zeus to avenge his cow. As the men set sail the next day, Zeus struck the ship with a lightning bolt and killed everyone but Odysseus. The bolt sent the ship back to Scylla and Charybdis and the only reason Odysseus survives is because he hold onto a tree-like thing on an island above Charybdis. Once she spits his ship back up, he gets a piece of wood and floats on it (kind of like Rose and Jack in the Titanic). The gods help him row past Scylla and Odysseus floats for nine days. After that, he lands on the island with Calypso and the rest is history. He's finally done with his epic tale.
Next post should be fun! Visualizing these books can provide a good time for you and students.
Cassy
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