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Summary Homer, The Odyssey
1. Invocation to the Muse. Central theme of the Odyssey: the wanderings and trials of Odysseus after the fall of Troy. The gods meet on Mt. Olympus during the absence of Poseidon. Athene requests the return of Odysseus from the Island of Calypso. She herself descends to Ithaca to rouse Telemachus to action. She predicts Odysseus' early return.
2. Telemachus summons an assembly and complains about the suitors' waste of his property. He commands them to leave his palace. The suitors refuse arrogantly and ask that Penelope choose one of them at once as her husband. Athene (Mentor) and Telemachus leave Ithaca for Pylus and Sparta in search for news of Odysseus.
3. Arrival in Pylus at the palace of King Nestor. Nestor tells of the homecoming of the Achaeans from Troy, but he cannot tell anything about Odysseus. Nestor despatches Telemachus by chariot to consult Menelaus in Sparta.
4. Telemachus arrives in Sparta and is hospitably entertained by Menelaus and Helen. Menelaus relates the story of the homecomings of the Achaean leaders, which Proteus told him. According to him, Odysseus was being held on the island Ogygia by the nymph Calypso. The suitors plan an ambush to kill Telemachus on his return.
5. Athene repeats at a meeting of the council of the gods her request that Odysseus be permitted to return. Zeus sends Hermes to instruct Calypso to release Odysseus. Odysseus is found weeping at the shore, yearning for his home. Calypso reveals to him the decision of Zeus, but she makes a final fruitless attempt to keep him with her by offering him immortality. After constructing a raft with Calypso's aid, he sets sail for home. After seventeen days at sea he sights land, but at that moment Poseidon spies him and rouses a terrible storm which wrecks the raft. Odysseus is saved by the magic veil of Ino. After two days of swimming he lands, naked and exhausted, at the shore of the island of Scheria, the home of the Phaeacians. He falls asleep on a bed of leaves underneath some bushes.
6. In a dream Athene urges princess Nausicaa to go to the mouth of the river to wash the family clothing. Next day, while they wait for the clothes to dry, Nausicaa and her maidens, play at ball. Odysseus, awakened by their excited shouting, comes out, covering his nakedness with a branch of leaves. All the girls flee, but Nausicaa stays. Speech of Odysseus. Nausicaa provides him with clothing and food and conducts him to the outskirts of the town. She gives him explicit instruction how to find the palace of her father Alcinous.
7. Odysseus, made invisible by Athene, enters the palace and approaches Queen Arete, the mother of Nausicaa, with a prayer for assistance in completing his homeward journey. The king and Queen grant his request. Odysseus relates how he has been on Calypso's island for seven years and how he has been shipwrecked. Alcinous renews his offer of a swift ship.
8. Athletic contests and a feast in honour of the stranger. Tremendous throw of a discus. The blind minstrel, Demodocus, sings about how Ares and Aphrodite were detected in their adulterous love by her husband, Hephaestus. Precious gifts for the stranger. After the feasting, Odysseus asks Demodocus to sing of the Trojan horse and the fall of Troy. Alcinous notes Odysseus weeping and enquires his name.
9. Odysseus reveals his identity and tells the story of his wanderings after the fall of Troy.
ODYSSEUS' STORY
Cicones, Lotus-eaters, Cyclops (Polyphemus, son of Poseidon).
10. Aeolus, Laestrygonians (only Odysseus and his crew saved), Circe (island of Aeaea). Men transformed into swine. Hermes provides Odysseus with an antidote. Circe overpowered by Odysseus and his men are restored to their human shape. After a year, Odysseus decides to leave and Circe advises him to consult Teiresias in Hades about his future. Elpenor is left behind unburied.
11. Hades. Evocation of the spirits of the dead. Elpenor, Teiresias, Anticleia and many famous women. Agamemnon tells the sad story of his return from Troy. Warning against the infidelity of women. Achilles; Ajax refuses to talk to Odysseus. Parade of famous men (Tantalus, Sisyphus, and Hercules).
12. Return to Circe to bury Elpenor. Continuation of the journey. Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the sacred cattle of Helios. The ship is destroyed by a thunderbolt of Zeus. Odysseus, the only survivor, is shipwrecked on the island of Calypso.
13. After a day's sail Odysseus is landed by the Phaeacians on the island of Ithaca. O. awakens, Athene tells him where he is and advises him how to destroy the suitors. He is transformed into an old beggar.
14. O. goes to the hut of the swineherd Eumaios and predicts the return of Odysseus, but conceals his own identity.
15. Telemachus, evading the ambush of the suitors, returns home from Sparta and goes directly to Eumaius' hut.
16. Odysseus makes himself known to his son. They plot the vengeance against the suitors.
17. Telemachus is welcomed at the palace by Penelope and tells her of what he had heard at Pylus and Sparta. O., again transformed into an old beggar, is recognised upon entering the palace by his hunting-dog Argos, who makes a feeble attempt to greet him and then dies. As O. begs from the suitors, Antinous strikes him with a footstool.
18. Antinous forces O. to fight against a fellow-beggar. Seeking to avoid suspicion, O. strikes very gently, but breaks his jaw. Penelope expresses her willingness to consider marriage to one of the suitors. O. rebukes one of the handmaidens for her shameless behaviour with the suitors and Eurymachus throws a stool at him for his insolence.
19. O. and Telemachus remove the arms from the hall. Conversation with Penelope. O. invents a story about himself and reveals some accurate knowledge of Odysseus. As Eurycleia, his old nurse, washes his feet, she recognises on his thigh a scar he had once received while hunting. Penelope tells O. that she has decided to ordain a shooting contest the following day. She will marry the suitor who can string Odysseus' bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe-heads placed in a row.
20. The suitors assemble and O. further notes those among his own people who are faithful and those who are unfaithful to him. One of the suitors jeeringly throws him a bone, and is rebuked by Telemachus. A soothsayer foretells the coming destruction of the suitors. They laugh at him.
21. Penelope brings out Odysseus' bow and proposes the shooting contest. The suitors try to string the bow but all fail, even their leaders Antinous and Eurymachus. O. asks to be permitted to try. He strings it easily, and shoots through the axes.
22. Telemachus arms himself. O. strips off his rags and first kills Antinous with an arrow. When Eurymachus discovers who the stranger really is, he seeks to lay all the blame for the behaviour of the suitors on the dead Antinous. O. slays him too. The remaining suitors are slain one by one by O. with the aid of Telemachus and the faithful servants. O. spares none but the minstrel, Phemius and the herald, Medon. The twelve handmaidens who have collaborated with the suitors are forced to carry out the dead and clean the feasting-hall. Then they are all hanged. The hall is purified.
23. Penelope is informed of what has happened, but after twenty years of waiting, finds it difficult to believe that the beggar is O. O. and Penelope converse. Penelope tries O., but when O. mentions the secret in the construction of their bridal-bed, she is finally convinced. Reunion. Athene holds back the dawn. Before dawn O. and Telemachus head for the country to the house of Odysseus' father Laertes.
24. Hermes conducts the souls of the dead suitors to Hades, where they are greeted by Achilles, Patroclus, Ajax and Agamemnon. Agamemnon envies O. for his faithful wife. O. reveals himself to his father Laertes and they prepare to defend themselves from the expected retaliation of the relatives of the suitors, who arm to attack O. The two sides have begun the struggle, when suddenly at the intervention of Athene and a warning thunderbolt of Zeus, peace is restored.
ITHAKA
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon dont be afraid of them:
youll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you wont encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors youre seeing for the first time:
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what youre destined for.
But dont hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so youre old by the time you reach the island.
wealthy with all youve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldnt have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka wont have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
youll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Cavaphy
Odysseus to Telemachus
My dear Telemachus,
The Trojan War
is over now; I dont recall who won it.
The Greeks, no doubt, for only they would leave
so many dead so far from their own homeland.
But still, my homeward way has proved too long.
While we were wasting time there, old Poseidon,
It almost seems, stretched and extended space.
I dont know where I am or what this place
can be. It would appear some filthy island,
with bushes, buildings, and great grunting pigs.
A garden choked with weeds; some queen or other.
Grass and huge stones . . . Telemachus, my son!
To a wanderer the faces of all islands resemble one another. And the mind
trips, numbering waves; eyes, sore from sea horizons,
run; and the flesh of water stuffs the ears.
I cant remember how the war came out;
even how old you are I cant remember.
Grow up, then, my Telemachus, grow strong.
Only the gods know if well see each other
again. Youve long since ceased to be that babe
before whom I reined in the plowing bullocks.
Had it not been for Palamedes trick
we two would still be living in one household.
But maybe he was right; away from me
you are quite safe from all Oedipal passions,
and your dreams, my Telemachus, are blameless.
Joseph Brodsky
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'I adore simple pleasures,' said Lord Henry. 'They are the last refuge of the complex.' - The Picture of Dorian Gray
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