odyssey english 9
book 1 summary:
takes place 10 years after the trojan war and odysseus is still not home unlike all the other greek heros.
odysseus is stuck on ogygia island with the goddess/nymph calypso who had fell inlove with him and refuses to let him go.
telemachus, his son, hasn’t seen odysseus since he was an infant and thinks he’s dead. penelope, telemachus is cowardly and has no power.
odysseus’ wife, is being bombarded with suitors who are trying to take over the kingdom.
athena, with the consent of zeus after a bit of convincing and debate, flies down to ithaca and takes the disguse of mentes. mentes is odysseus’ friend. athena does this so she can give advice to telemachus on how to bring odysseus back.
athena tells telemachus that he must go to pylos and sparta to hear news about his father and telemachus must banish the suitors from his house. athena also tells him if odysseus is dead then telemachus must kill the suitors
telemachus agrees and sees his mother upset in the suitors quarters. a court bard is telling a tale about the suffering of the trojan war. telemachus tells his mom to go back to her room and he will deal with the suitors.
when telemachus tells the suitors that he is holding an assembly tomorrow in which he is kicking them out, antinous and eurymachus, the two most promising suitors, ask him who was the visitor. telemachus, who thought mentes was a goddess in disguse, just says his father’s old friend.
book 1 study questions:
telemachus is a unconfident boy who is the son of odysseus
ithaca is being overrun by suitors who are trying to become the next rulers
an example of xenia is when telemachus invites mentes (athena) into his house and offers hospitality even though he didn’t know who he was
penelope is odysseus’ wife, she is quiet and seemingly quite distraught by odysseus leaving (never did for any other chapter lmao)
book 2 summary:
aegyptius, a wise ithacian elder, praised telemachus for stepping in his father’s shoes and holding an assembly.
telemachus then gives a passionate speech on how the loss of his father and his father’s home as hurt him dearly. he vents about the suitors being disrespectful to him and penelope. telemachus runs off the stage, crying.
antinous blames penelope, revealing that she was undoing her weaving every night so she didn’t have to pick a suitor.
antinous suggests she should go back to icarius but telemachus refused and called upon the gods to punish the suitors. eagles fly above them and halitheses, a soothsayer, says it was a message that odysseus will return home. the suitors laugh at his foolishness and the assembly ends.
telemachus prepares for his trip and athena visits him again as mentes and reassures him he will be okay but thre will be a lot of hardships.
telemachus refused to tell any house servants in fear that his mother will know and become even more upset. telemachus only tells one servent, eurycleia. eurycleia is the house nurse and begs him not to go to sea like his father but telemachus reassures her that he has a god on his side.
book 3 summary :
telemachus reaches pylos with athena in disguise as mentor.
the first thing is sees is an impressive religious ritual in which dozens of bulls were sacrificed for posiedon. athena encourages him to go see nestor, the king and ask him about odysseus.
he eventually meets nestor but he doesn’t have information.
he then reveals that in troy agamemnon and menelaus, two greek brothers who led the adventure had fought. menelaus went home immediately, while agamemnon waited a day and continued sacrificing on try. nestor went with menelaus and odysseus stayed with agamemnon. he hopes athena treats telemachus well.
nestor adds that he heard the suitors took over his house back home and that he hopes telemachus can take back control.
nestor then talks about agamemnon and his fate. agamemnon ends up getting killed by his wife who gets killed by his son.
nestor sends his own son pisistratus along to accompany telemachus to sparta.
athena reveals that she’s a goddess infront of all of pylos and stays behind to protect telemachus
book 4 summary:
telemachus reaches sparta and the king and queen, menelaus and helen, meet telemachus and pisistratus. they recognize telemachus quickly because he looked so similar to odysseus.
they all feast and the king and queen began to tell tales of the trojan war. helen recalls how odysseus dressed as a beggar to infiltrate the city walls and menelaus recalls odysseus’ plan with the trojan hourse. odysseus secured victory for the greeks.
menelaus also reveals that odysseus was infact alive but was stuck with calypso.
after more stories telemachus and pisistratus return to pylos to go back to ithacia. the suitors hear that telemachus is coming back and planned to attack him. penelope is told about this paln from medon, a herald, and becomes incredibly worried.
athena takes the form as penelope’s sister, iphthime, and reassures her, saying that a goddess will protect telemachus.
book 5 summary:
all the gods gather at mount olympus except for posedion who still is super salty about his ugly cyclops baby. the gods discuss odysseus’ fate.
athena convinces zeus to help odysseus. hermes is sent to calypso and he tells her that odysseus must go home.
calypso becomes incredibly upset and comments on how male gods can have as many mortal relationships as they want but women gods were always frowned upon.
calypso ends up allowing odysseus to go home and lets odysseus go.
odysseus spots sheceria, an island of the phaeacians, the next place he has to go to. then poseidon tries to set odysseus back and kill him.
athena protects him and gives him a protective veil as he is tossed back and forth in the middle of the sea. eventually he is allowed to swim in the ocean and he makes it to the island with a wrecked ship.
he is commanded by Ino to throw the protective veil into the ocean. odysseus agrees and walks inland to rest in the forest.
book 6 summary:
athena appears in a phaeacian princess nausicca’s dream, disguised as her friend. she tells the princess to go to the river to wash her clothes to appear more attractive to the men.
the next morning nausicaa goes to the river and she dries her clothes by the river.
odysseus wakes up and sees him. with no clothes on he begs for help but doesn’t say who he was. nausicaa cleans him up and with athena making odysseus look more handsome, nausicaa immediately falls inlove with him.
nausicaa gives directions to go to the palace and gave him advice on how to approach the queen, arete.
he prays to athena and then starts heading towards the palace.
book 7 summary:
on the way to the palace, odysseus meets a young girl who is athena in disguise. athena gives him advice and guides him to the palace.
she puts a protective mist around odysseus to keep him safe. the phaeacians are nice but xenophobic.
once athena brings odysseus to the palace she leaves to go back to her city, athens.
once odysseus enters the palace he sees a festival of honor for poseidon. when he sees the queen he immediately begs for help, the mist gone. the king thought he was a traveler who happened to be a god but odysseus explains he is merely mortal without completely revealing his identity.
(he does this because he is “cursed” by the gods so he doesn’t want to scare people off yk.)
the queen realizes he is wearing her daughters clothes and they talk more. odysseus talks about his hardships. the king and queen were very impressed and offered their daughter for marriage.
book 8 summary:
the next day the king, alcinous calls for an assembly of his counselors.
athena spreads the word of a godlike vistor coming so everyone would be more inclined to support odysseus. alcinous offers to provide a ship for odysseus to sail home. everyone agrees and then the celebration begins.
a blind bard named demodocus (homer) sings about odysseus and achilles during the trojan war and their constant quarrels. everyone was interested except for odysseus who was literally crying. the king notices and quickly begins the games.
boxing, wrestling, racing, and discus were apart of the games. odysseus, who was offered to play, declined because he was feeling emo. a younger athlete, broadsea, insults him which ends up making a heat argument. the king, alcinous, breaks it up and they go and eat again.
demodocus perfoms about ares and aphrodite and how they were caught together or smth i forgot. everyone gives odysseus gifts to take home. odysseus asks demodocus to sing of the trojan horse and the sack of troy, he ends up breaking down again.
alcinous again notices and stops the music. he asks odysseus at last to tell him who he is, where he is from, and where he is going.
character descriptions:
athena: grey eyed, sparkly eyed goddess
telemachus: poor boy or whatever
uhh idk pooks