The Odyssey Part I Notes

The Odyssey Part I

Homer's Invocation

Homer begins with an invocation, a prayer to the Muse, asking for help in telling the story.
The singer hints at the story's ending.
The Muse is asked to tell the tale of a man skilled in contending, a wanderer, harried for years after plundering Troy.
The man saw towns, learned about distant men, and weathered bitter nights at sea, striving to save his life and bring shipmates home.
However, his efforts were futile due to the recklessness of his shipmates, children and fools, who killed and feasted on the cattle of Lord Helios, the Sun.
Helios, in turn, took away their return, sunrise.
The Muse is asked to recount these adventures, starting when all others who faced death in battle or at sea had returned, while the hero still longed for home and wife, held captive by Calypso.
Calypso, a nymph, immortal and beautiful, desired him for her own.
After long years, when the time arrived for his return, trials and dangers still awaited him, even in Ithaca near his loved ones.
All gods pitied Odysseus except Poseidon, who raged against him until he reached his own land.

Part One: The Wanderings

Calypso, the Sweet Nymph

Books 1-4 focus on Odysseus's son, Telemachus, searching for his father, who never returned from the Trojan War (missing in action).
In Book 5, Odysseus is introduced as a prisoner of the goddess Calypso.
He has spent ten years trying to get home, seven of them as Calypso's captive.
Athena supports Odysseus and begs Zeus to help him; Zeus agrees and sends Hermes to order Odysseus's release.
Calypso is not evil, but her seductive charms and promises of immortality threaten to keep Odysseus from his wife, Penelope.

Hermes's Journey to Calypso's Island

Hermes prepares for his journey by tying on his ambrosial, golden sandals that carry him over water and land with the wind's speed.
He takes his wand to charm people to sleep or wake them.
Hermes flies from Pieria down to sea level, skimming the swell like a gull catching fish.
He reaches Calypso's island and steps up to her cave.

Calypso's Abode

A great fire blazes on her hearth, scenting the shores with cedar and thyme smoke.
Calypso sings in her sweet voice while weaving on her loom, passing her golden shuttle to and fro.
A deep wood surrounds the cave, with summer leaves of alder, black poplar, and pungent cypress.
Various birds rest there, including horned owls, falcons, and long-tongued cormorants.
A vine with purple clusters grows around the cave, and four springs create channels through violets and parsley.

Hermes and Calypso

Even a god would be delighted by this place, and Hermes is no exception.
Calypso recognizes Hermes instantly, as immortal gods know one another despite seeming strangers.
Odysseus is seen sitting apart, groaning with eyes wet, scanning the sea horizon.

Calypso's Reluctant Release

Hermes tells Calypso she must give up Odysseus.
Calypso informs Odysseus that he need not grieve anymore, as she will help him go home.
Calypso claims the idea to free Odysseus is her own to deceive Odysseus, despite Zeus ordering it.
She promises a raft and provisions for a safe journey home, if the gods wish it.

Odysseus's Choice

Calypso leads Odysseus to her cave, where she provides victuals and drink of men.
She questions Odysseus's desire to return home after years with her, offering immortality and a beautiful home.
She asks if mortals can compare with goddesses in grace and form.
Odysseus responds that Penelope seems a shade before Calypso's majesty, as Calypso is immortal, but he still longs for home.

Odysseus's Departure

Odysseus builds the raft and sets sail.
Poseidon raises a storm, destroying the raft.
Athena and a sea nymph help Odysseus arrive on Scheria, where he hides in leaves and falls asleep.

Odysseus at the Phaeacian Court

Odysseus is found by Alcinous's daughter, king of the Phaeacians.
Ancient Greeks believed guests were godsent and treated them with courtesy before asking their identity.
Odysseus, the stranger, is seated in the guest's place of honor.
A minstrel sings, and Odysseus requests a song about Troy, essentially asking for a song about himself.
Odysseus weeps, reminded of his companions who will never return home.
The king asks Odysseus to identify himself, and he begins his story.

Odysseus's Introduction

Odysseus identifies himself as Laertes' son, known for guile in peace and war.
His home is Ithaca, under Mount Neion, in sight of other islands: Doulikhion, Same, wooded Zakynthos.
Ithaca is rocky but good for a boy's training, and he holds it dear, despite being detained by Calypso and Circe.
He never consented in his heart, as nothing surpasses one's own home and parents, even a house of gold.

Odysseus's Travels

The Cicones

The wind carried Odysseus west from Ilion (Troy) to Ismaros, the Cicones' strongpoint.
Odysseus and his men stormed the place, killed the men, enslaved the women, and took plunder, dividing it equally.
Odysseus ordered them back to sea quickly.
The men were mutinous, feasting on wine and butchering sheep and cattle.
Fugitives called the main force of Cicones, who attacked at dawn on horseback and foot.
Odysseus's men fought from morning to noon but eventually gave way as the sun passed toward unyoking time.
Six benches were left empty in every ship, and they bore the grief of losing friends.
No ship sailed until a shipmate cried out three times for each ghost unfleshed by the Cicones.

The Storm

Zeus roused a storm from the north, with squalls like night on land and sea.
Sails cracked, and they saw death in the fury, dropping the yards and pulling for the nearest lee.
They lay offshore for two days and nights, worn out and sick at heart, until the third dawn.
Then they put up masts, hauled sail, and rested, letting the steersmen and the breeze take over.
Odysseus might have made it home then, but the current took him out to sea past Cythera, and a gale drove him on.
He drifted for nine days on the sea.

The Lotus Eaters

On the tenth day, they reached the coastline of the Lotus Eaters.
They landed to take on water, and Odysseus sent two men and a runner to learn about the inhabitants.
The men encountered the Lotus Eaters, who offered them the sweet Lotus.
Those who ate the Lotus never cared to return, longing to stay and browse on the native bloom, forgetting their homeland.
Odysseus drove them, wailing, to the ships, tied them down, and ordered everyone to leave quickly and not taste the Lotus.

The Enchantress Circe

After sailing from the Cyclops's island, Odysseus and his men landed on Aeolia, where Aeolus, the wind king, favored Odysseus by putting all the stormy winds in a bag.
The curious sailors opened the bag, thinking it contained treasure, and the evil winds blew them back to Aeolia.
On the island of the Laestrygonians, gigantic cannibals, all but one ship were destroyed, and their crews devoured.
Odysseus's ship escaped and landed on Aeaea, Circe's home.
A party of twenty-three men, led by Eurylochus, explored the island and found Circe's hall.
Wolves and mountain lions lay there, mild in her soft spell, fed on her drug of evil and fawned on the men.
Inside, they heard Circe singing in her beguiling voice, weaving ambrosial fabric on her loom.
Polites suggested they greet Circe.
All but Eurylochus, who feared a snare, went after her and were seated on thrones and lounging chairs.
Circe prepared a meal of cheese, barley, amber honey, and Pramnian wine, adding a vile pinch to make them forget their homeland.
After they drank, she struck them with her long stick and shut them in a pigsty with bodies, voices, heads, and bristles all swinish, though their minds remained unchanged.
Circe tossed them acorns, mast, and cornel berries to eat.
Eurylochus returned to the ship, alarmed, and told the tale.

Odysseus and Circe

Odysseus rushes to Circe's hall.
Hermes meets him and gives him a plant $("moly" (possibly garlic))$ , to weaken Circe's power.
Protected, Odysseus resists Circe's sorcery.
Circe, realizing she has met her match, frees Odysseus's men.
Circe persuades Odysseus to stay with her.
They feast, and she restores his heart.
After many seasons, Odysseus and his men want to return home.
Circe commands Odysseus alone to descend to the Land of the Dead to seek the wisdom of Teiresias.

The Land of the Dead

Odysseus seeks to learn his destiny from Teiresias, the blind prophet from Thebes.
Circe instructs Odysseus on performing the rites to bring Teiresias up from the dead.

Performing the Rites

Odysseus addresses the dead, vowing to sacrifice his best heifer at home in Ithaca and burn choice bits on the altar fire.
For Teiresias, he vows to sacrifice a black lamb.
He slashes the lamb and ewe, letting their blood stream into the well pit.
Souls gather out of Erebus: brides, young men, old men, tender girls, and battle-slain warriors.

The Prophecy of Teiresias

Teiresias comes forward, bearing a golden staff, and asks why Odysseus has left the sun to see the cold dead.
He commands Odysseus to put up his sword and let him taste blood to speak true.
After tasting the blood, Teiresias says that Odysseus seeks a fair wind and home, but anguish lies ahead.
Poseidon prepares it in rancor for the son whose eye Odysseus blinded.
Teiresias advises denial of himself and restraint of shipmates to survive Poseidon's blows.
Upon landing on Thrinakia, they will find Helios's grazing herds.
Avoid those cattle, and seafaring will bring them all to Ithaca.
However, if they raid the beeves, destruction will occur for ship and crew.
Though Odysseus survives alone, he will come home under strange sail to find his house filled with trouble.
${\tiny{\text{Teriasias Prophecy:}}}$ Suitors will be eating livestock and courting his wife and Odysseus will make them atone in blood!
After dealing out death to the suitors, Odysseus must go overland on foot, taking an oar until he reaches men who have never known the sea.
When someone asks about the winnowing fan on his shoulder, he should implant the oar in the turf and sacrifice to Poseidon.
He must carry out hecatombs at home to all the gods.
Then a seaborne death will come upon him in old age, with his countryfolk in peace around him.

Perils Ahead

The Sirens

Circe warns Odysseus of the Sirens, who cry beauty to bewitch men, leading them to their death.
She advises him to keep seaward and plug his oarsmen's ears with beeswax.
If Odysseus wishes to listen, he must be tied to the mast and his crew must twist more line around him if he begs to be untied.

Scylla and Charybdis

The next peril is between two headlands where Scylla and Charybdis lurk.
Scylla has twelve legs like tentacles and six heads with triple serried rows of fangs.
She hunts for dolphins, dogfish, and bigger game, taking one man for every gullet.
Charybdis swallows down the sea tide three times a day, creating a whirling maelstrom.
Circe advises Odysseus to hug the cliff of Scylla, as it is better to lose six men than the whole ship to Charybdis.

Thrinakia

They will then coast Thrinakia, Helios's island, where cattle and sheep graze.
The herds and flocks are seven, with fifty beasts in each.
There are no lambs or calves, and the cattle never die, and you must Give those kine a wide berth!
If they raid the beeves, there will be destruction of Ship and crew.

The Crew's Journey

Odysseus and His Crew Face Peril

Odysseus reveals to his crew Circe's forecast of dangers ahead.
They are to shun the Sirens' haunting songs and green shores, although Circe urged that Odysseus alone should listen to their song.
The crew ties him to the mast, and if he begs to be untied, they must take more turns of the rope to muffle him.
Soon, the wind falls, and the crew furled the sail, poised oar blades, and sent white foam scudding. Odysseus makes bits of beeswax.
Odysseus applies wax to their ears. The crew the ties Odysseus plumb to the mast.
The Sirens begin to sing sweetly.
Odysseus craves to listen and tried to say "Untie me!" to the crew but they restrained him even further.
The sirens dwindled into the sea rim.
His faithful company rested on their oars and the crew removed the wax that Odysseus laid thick on their ears and then set Odysseus free.
Scarcely had that island faded in blue air when Odysseus saw smoke and white water, with sound of waves in tumult, Terrifying the men.

The Crew's Response to Danger

The men, no longer able to to control the the Oar and the ship lost way, and well, Odysseus walked up and down from bow to stern to raise their spirits.
Odysseus reassures them through the the power of his the words and he uses his wits to lead the way and commands that they pick up the oar shafts in their hands, hard on their benches and the Zeus would help as they pull away to founder.
Odysseus commands the the Tiller (captain!) to keep her out of the combers and the smother with direction to steer for the headland or they would drown.
The direction brought them through action after they headed toward Scylla, but because in Panic the crew was scared Odysseus told them nothing.
Odysseus strapped is cuirass, donned, took up two spears and made his way along to the foredeck to seek the the monster of the Gray rock. but he couldn't catch sight of anyone.

Facing Scylla and Charybdis

Battling travail, and sobbing to the current Odysseus and the crew rowed into the strait with Scylla to port and Charybdis with her dire gorge.
Charybdis vomited all the sea upward like a caldron seething over the Intense fire. The shot spume soared to the landside and fell like rain.
As Charybdis swallowed, the men saw the tunnel of the maelstrom, The rock bellowed all around, and dark sand raged Below.
The men blanched against the gloom and our eyes, fixated upon the great mouth. Odysseus glanced aft saw his best men snatched from the ship overhead.
They were borne aloft in spasms toward the Cliff. Scylla ate them as they shrieked. Odysseus was ran through by the worst pity to suffer in the past.
The Rocks were behind and Charybdis receded and they rawed.

The Cattle of the Gods

Circe's warning rang ever ominous.
The crew the crew passed the noble island with wide brows and bounteous flocks with lowing cattle heading back home. Odysseus was reminded of the dire Consequences coming.

The Cattle of the Sun God

Weathering the Storm and Making Camp

Odysseus urges his exhausted crew to bypass Thrinakia, the island of the sun god $Helios$. When the men insist on landing, Odysseus makes them swear not to touch the god's cattle. Odysseus is still speaking to Alcinous's court.
In the small hours of the third watch, when stars had set, a giant wind blew from heaven, and clouds driven by $Zeus$ shrouded land and sea in a night of storm; so, just as Dawn touched the windy world, they dragged their ship to a grotto, a sea cave.
He mustered the crew, and said to not touch the cattle, or they pay dearly for it, for fierce is the God who cherishes them. $Helios$; and no man avoids his eye.
The men nodded, and had a month of onshore Gales, blowing south winds from the east, As long as bread and good red wine remained they wouldn't touch the cattle. when all was gone, hunger drove them to scour the wild shore with hooks, for sea fowl.

Temptation and The Deadly Feast

Then the storms continued So one day, Odysseus withdrew to the interior Pray the gods in solitude, Slipping away to a sheltered spot, out of the driving Gale,
${\tiny{\text{Odysseus Prayed}}} \implies$ ${\tiny{\text{the gods slept.}}}$
Now Eurylochus makes his insidious plea and tries to sway The shipmates
They murdered the cattle in ceremony and they Plucked leaves from the oak tree.
They performed their Prayers Plucked, and with their sacrifices a fire with the offerings.
Since there was wine, the crew turned to clear spring water to conduct the feast and shared the tripes.

The Overlord

Odysseus awoke seaward and as he went down his heart sank due to the burnt savory and grief swept him up.
Lampetia told $Helios$ they killed his kine.
Zeus avenged his servant to have killed the Kine and that restitution was in order.\

Punishment

When Odysseus and his men set sail again, they are punished with death a thunderbolt from Zeus destroys their boat, and all the men drown. Only Odysseus survives. Exhausted and nearly drowned, he makes his way to Calypso's island, where we met him originally, in Book 5.
Odysseus has brought us up to date. He can now rest and enjoy the comforts of Alcinous's court but not for long. Ahead lies his most difficult task reclaiming his own kingdom.
At this moment of suspense, Homer might have put aside his harp until the next night.

Part Two: The Homecoming

Odysseus Returns Home

In Books 13-15, King Alcinous and his friends send Odysseus on his way home. Odysseus sleeps while the rowers bring him to Ithaca. When he awakens, he fails to recognize his homeland until $Athena$ appears and tells him that he is indeed home. She disguises him as an old man, so that he can surprise the suitors, and then urges him to visit his faithful swineherd, Eumaeus. $Athena$ goes to Telemachus and tells him to return home. She warns him of the suitors' plot to kill him and advises him to stay with the swineherd for a night.
Telemachus does as she bids.
In Book 16, Odysseus reveals his identity to Telemachus, and a tearful reunion ensues. Telemachus lets Odysseus know that they face more than 100 suitors. Odysseus tells Telemachus to return home. He will follow, and Telemachus must pretend not to know him. He must also lock away Odysseus' weapons and armor.
Telemachus returns home, and Odysseus and the swineherd soon follow. Odysseus is still diguised as a beggar.

Argos

An old hound named $Argos$, near death, wagged his tail upon hearing $Odysseus's$ voice after all these years.

Question

Where is Odysseus going? How did the hound react?

The Beggar at the Manor

As he spoke, an old hound, lying near, pricked up his ears and lifted up his muzzle. This was $Argos$, trained as a puppy by $Odysseus$, but never taken on a hunt before his master sailed for Troy. The young men, afterward, hunted wild goats with him, and hare, and deer, but he had grown old in his master's absence.
Treated as rubbish now, he lay at last upon a mass of dung before the gates-manure of mules and cows, piled there until fieldhands could spread it on the king's estate. Abandoned there, and half destroyed with flies, old $Argos$ lay.
But when he knew he heard $Odysseus'$ voice nearby, he did his best to wag his tail, nose down, with flattened ears, having no strength to move nearer his master. And the man looked away, wiping a salt tear from his cheek; but he hid this from Eumaeus. Then he said: "I marvel that they leave this hound to lie here on the dung pile; he would have been a fine dog, from the look of him, though I can't say as to his power and speed when he was young. You find the same good build in house dogs, table dogs landowners keep all for style."
And you replied, Eumaeus: "A hunter owned him-but the man is dead in some far place. If this old hound could show the form he had when Lord $Odysseus$ left him, going to Troy, you'd see him swift and strong. He never shrank from any savage thing he'd brought to bay in the deep woods; on the scent no other dog kept up with him. Now misery has him in leash. His owner died abroad, and here the women slaves will take no care of him.You know how servants are: without a master they have no will to labor, or excel. For Zeus who views the wide world takes away half the manhood of a man, that day he goes into captivity and slavery.”
Eumaeus crossed the court and went straight forward into the megaron among the suitors; but death and darkness in that instant closed the eyes of $Argos$, who had seen his master, $Odysseus$, after twenty years….
Odysseus enters his home as a beggar, and the suitors mock and abuse him. Penelope asks to speak with the beggar, but Odysseus puts her off until nightfall.

The Test of The Bow

In Books 18-20, Odysseus observes the suitors and finds that two in particular, Antinous and Eurymachus, are rude and demanding.Penelope asks Odysseus the beggar for news of her husband. He says he has heard that Odysseus is on his way home. Penelope, however, has given up hope for Odysseus' return. She proposes an archery contest to the suitors, with marriage to.her as the prize. She enters the storeroom and takes down the heavy bow that Odysseus left behind.

The Storeroom

Now the queen reached the storeroom door and halted. Here was an oaken sill, cut long ago and sanded clean and bedded true. Foursquare the doorjambs and the shining doors were set by the careful builder.Penelope untied the strap around the curving handle, pushed her hook into the slit, aimed at the bolts inside and shot them back. Then came a rasping sound as those bright doors the key had sprung gave way-a bellow like a bull's vaunt in a meadow-followed by her light footfall entering over the plank floor. Herb-scented robes lay there in chests, but the lady's milkwhite arms went up to lift the bow down from a peg in its own polished bowcase. Now Penelope sank down, holding the weapon on her knees, and drew her husband's great bow out, and sobbed and bit her lip and let the salt tears flow.
Then back she went to face the crowded hall, tremendous bow in hand, and on her shoulder hung the quiver spiked with coughing death. Behind her maids bore a basket full of axeheads, bronze and iron implements for the master's game. Thus in her beauty she approached the suitors, and near a pillar of the solid roof she paused, her shining veil across her cheeks, her maids on either hand and still,then spoke to the banqueters:
Now Question to the audience; Notice that Penelope still grieves for Odysseus, even after 20 years.
"My lords, hear me suitors. Indeed, you commandeered this house to feast and drink in, day and night, my husband being long gone, long out of mind. You found no justification for yourselves-none except your lust to marry me. Stand up, then: we now declare a contest for that prize. Here is my lord $Odysseus'$ hunting bow. Bend and string it if you can. Who sends an arrow through iron axe-helve sockets, twelve in line? I join my life with his, and leave this place, my home, my rich and beautiful bridal house, forever to be remembered, though I dream it only."
Despite heating and greasing the bow, the lesser suitors prove unable to string it. The most able suitors, Antinous and Eurymachus, hold off. While the suitors are busy with the bow, Odysseus-still disguised as an old beggar-goes to enlist the aid of two of his trusted servants, Eumaeus, the swineherd, and Philoetius, the cowherd.
Note: the contest has two parts:First:The suitor must bend the heavy bow and string it.Second: he must Shoot an arrow straight through the holes in 12 axe heads set up in a row.

Asking the Swineherd and Cowherd for Help

Two men had meanwhile left the hall: swineherd and cowherd, in companionship, one downcast as the other. But Odysseus followed them outdoors, outside the court, and coming up said gently: "You, herdsman, and you, too, swineherd, I could say a thing to you, or should I keep it dark? No, no; speak, my heart tells me. Would you be men enough to stand by Odysseus if he came back? Suppose he dropped out of a clear sky, as I did? Suppose some god should bring him? Would you bear arms for him, or for the suitors?”
The cowherd said:"Ah, let the master come! Father $Zeus$, grant our old wish! Some courier guide him back! Then judge what stuff is in me and how I manage arms!”Likewise Eumaeus fell to praying all heaven for his return, so that Odysseus, sure at least of these, told them:
"I am at home, for I am he. I bore adversities, but in the twentieth year I am ashore in my own land. I find the two of you, alone among my people, longed for my coming. Prayers I never heard except your own that I might come again. So now what is in store for you I'll tell you: If $Zeus$ brings down the suitors by my hand I promise marriages to both, and cattle, and houses built near mine. And you shall be brothers-in-arms of my Telemachus. Here, let me show you something else, a sign that I am he, that you can trust me, look: this old scar from the tusk wound that I got boar hunting on $Parnassus$….”
Shifting his rags he bared the long gash. Both men looked, and knew, and threw their arms around the old soldier, weeping, kissing his head and shoulders. He as well took each man's head and hands to kiss, then said-to cut it short, else they might weep till dark"Break off, no more of this. Anyone at the door could see and tell them. Drift back in, but separately at intervals after me.

The Plan

Now Odysseus devises his the PLAN! The the time has come, those gentlemen will be dead against giving bow or quiver.
defy them. Eumaeus, bring, and put bow into the door, and there tell the women to lock!
Philoetius, you ran to the outer gate and lock it! Throw the cross bar.