Chapter 21:
Odysseus
As Iliad is often compared to tragedy, Odyssey with comedy
Everyone else has
gotten home from Troy
Opens with MUSE:
sing me a man
Starts seven years after the end of the
Trojan War
Odysseus and his men (12 ships) is on the
island of Calypso
stuck here
for 7 years; a goddess who is in love with him
Odysseus' house: in Ithaca
Penelope is besieged by suitors
she
will marry one when she's done with the funeral shroud
His baby, Telemachus—all
grown up
Athena visits
Telemachus in disguise and tells him
Odysseus is still
alive
Athena convinces gods to let Odysseus get
home
they talk
to Calypso
lets
him leave, tearfully
Odysseus at the court of King Alcinous of Phaeacia
recounts
his adventures thus far—1/6 of the Odyssey
Books 9–12
Cicones—battle
Lotus eaters
Cyclopes
Polyphemus
(surely
a pre-existing folktale story)
Savages—non Greeks
·
they do not plant crops
·
no assembly
·
each family is alone
·
no boats
Kill some goats
Odysseus insists on
seeking out who lives in the cave
Rock in the door way
“Show us some Xenia”
“you've got to be crazy—we don’t respect the gods, we are
more powerful than them”
Smashes and sucks
down two men
They sharpen a giant stick
unaccustomed to wine
unmixed
“Nobody” is my name
Escape on the bellies of rams
in the morning
Taunts him, and reveals his real
name
“A prophecy told me one would
come—I expected bigger
I'm telling my dad,
Poseidon”
Escape
Island of
Aeolus—wind king
gives them
bag—don't open it
within sight of
Ithaca
his
greedy men open it
and
they are blown away
they must
be hated by the gods, I'm not helping any more
Laestrygonians
island of
cannibals
destroy
all his ships but his own
eat
the men like eels
Circe—(Medea's aunt)
Hermes protects Odysseus
Stay for a year
they must
cross Ocean to ask the help of Tiresias
·
Sirens
·
Scylla and Charybdis
·
and don't touch the Cattle of Helius
Encounter with Tiresias: Underworld
Sirens—stuff their ears with
wax
beautiful
song (the whole story of Troy?)
Scylla 2 3 4 and Charybdis—a rock and a sucky place
(she eats
six men)
Wash up on Island
of Helius
Odysseus reconnoiters—his men are
starving-eat some cattle
Helius
complains to Zeus
destroys
the ship
he
washes onshore of Calypso—alone
The Phaeacians hear these marvelous stories and resolve to help
Odysseus
Arrives in Ithaca in disguise
Eumaeus-his
swineherd
meets up
with Telemachus
learns
of suitors
eating
up food; sleeping with slaves
Arrives as a beggar
mocked
and reviled by suitors
Is recognized by his nurse, Euryclea
Penelope will
marry who ever can string Odysseus' bow, and shoot an arrow through 12 ax
handles
No one can—let the beggar try
does it;
prays to Apollo, and shoots the place up
Penelope
recognizes him through his description
of his bed (Book 23)
together at last!
In fulfillment of
prophecy by Tiresias, he takes an oar on his shoulder and walks inland
“is that a winnowing
fan?
Offer sacrifice to Poseidon
