My Documents

The Odyssey

Odysseus king of Ithaca and Greek hero has been missing for 10 years after the fall of Troy. In his absence a mob of suitors, believing Odysseus is dead, has taken over hiscastle and tried to court his faithful but weakening wife Penelope. Athena, the greatest immortal ally of Ithaca and the goddess of wisdom, has been granted permission by Zeus to leave Mount Olympus andaid in the search for Odysseus. She takes this chance to appear to Telemachus in disguise advising him to go on a journey to Pylos and Sparta to seek information on his father. There Telemachus isinformed by kings Nestor and Menelaus that his father is not dead but imprisoned on Calypso’s island Gygia.

During this time Hermes has convinced Calypso to allow Odysseus to leave. Before longthe god Poseidon conjures a huge storm to wreck his ship because he is mad at him for blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and he ends up spending the night at Scheria, the land of the phaeacians.He spends the night regaling the stories of the battle leading up to Calypsos Island. He talks of the land of the lotus-eaters, fighting the Cyclops, his love affair with the witch-goddess Circe, histemptation by the deadly Sirens, his journey into Hades to consult the prophet Tiresias, and his fight with the sea monster Scylla and just before he reached the island, a punishment from Zeus thatkills the last of his soldiers. Afterwards he returns to Ithaca where he finds residence and his son in his old swineherd hut.

When they go to the castle the next day, Odysseus is disguised asa beggar, thanks to Athena, and is treated very rudely by everyone in the castle. The only person who fully recognizes him is his old nurse, Eurycleia, but she promises not to say anything. His wifePenelope recognizes the similarities between the beggar and her husband and challenges all the suitors. The challenge is to string and shoot her husband old bow and fire an arrow through 12 axe...