Homer's The Odyssey, Synopsis

Homer's The Odyssey: The Wanderings of Odysseus

~by Vinia






In the beginning of the story, Odysseus’s son, now coming of age, left Ithaca to visit the old friends of his father’s, trying to find out the whereabouts of Odysseus. He met old Nestor in Pylos, and then visited Helen, now a middle-aged housewife, and Melelaus in Sparta. At the same time, on the sea. Odysseus was still alive and wandering.






Sailing away from Calypso’s island alone in a wooden boat, Odysseus met storm and was washed ashore. He lay unconsciously and was saved by the young Princess Naussica, who came to the beach with her maids. Princess Naussica brought Odysseus back to the palace, where the King gave a feast to welcome this stranger. In return to the King’s hospitality, Odysseus entertained the court with the stories of his ten-year wanderings but he did not reveal his true identity.






When Odysseus left Troy the wind carried him to the coast of Thrace, where a priest of Apollo offered him twelve jars filled with strong wine. Then, they came to an island, where lived a quiet and friendly people.






Specificities about the Story:






1. The Lotus Eaters gave fruit to Odysseus’s sailors and they started to dream happy dreams and refused to leave the island.






2. The Cyclones were a race of giants with only one eye each set in the middle of their foreheads. The giant asked Odysseus: “What is your name?” Odysseus answered: “My name is Nobody .”






3. What harm has Odysseus and his crew done to this giant? Answer: They blinded his eye.






4. Who is the father of this giant?
Answer: The Sea-God Posidon.






5. Odysseus and his men landed on an island called Aeaea, where Circe, the enchantress, lived there. With her magic wand, she turned Odysseus men into swines (pigs).






6. The God Hermes (Mercury) came to Odysseus and taught him how to deal with this enchantress. She became kind to Odysseus and, after his living with her for a whole year, showed him how he might escape dangers on the way home. She instructed Odysseus the way to the Hades to consult the soul of a dead prophet about the way home.






In the Hades, Odysseus met the souls of many old acquaintances, including his mother, his dead crew, Achilles, Agamemnon, and so on. Achilles expressed that he now would rather be a living beggar than a dead king. Agamemnon had a tragic homecoming, and he warned Odysseus to watch out about his own homecoming.






7. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. The Trojan Princess Cassandra that Agamemnon had brought home as a slave was also murdered.






8. The Sirens were a group of beautiful but dangerous women, who charmed men to their island with their sweet singing and caused their shipwreck and death.






9. To avoid the danger these women might bring, Odysseus told his men to put small pieces of wax into their ears and he also told they to fasten him (Odysseus) tightly to the mast with ropes.






10. Odysseus and his crew came to a place where the sea narrowed between two high black rocks. Under the left rock was a terrible whirlpool, called Charybdis, and under the right rock, there was a cave, where lived a terrible creature with six heads called Scylla.






11. All the sailors, except Odysseus, killed and ate the cattle of the Sun God on the sacred island of Thrinacia, and them they received their punishment, i.e., death. Only Odysseus survived and was saved by a nymph called Calypso, with whom Odysseus had stayed for seven years.






12. The nymph was deeply in love with Odysseus and offered him immortality (to live forever) on the condition that he would stay with her forever. However, Odysseus chose to live and die with his wife Penelope.






13. The gods took pity on Odysseus and sent the god Hermes (Mercury) to visit the nymph.






To entertain him, the nymph spread a table with ambrosia (the food of the gods) and mixed a bowl of nectar(the wine of the gods).






Calypso had to obey the wish of the gods and let Odysseus go. They kissed for the last time and said goodbye. It was said that they had a son. However, Odysseus chose to go back to Ithaca.






On the sea, Odysseus encountered a strong storm and was washed to the shore. This was the story how he came to be saved by Princess Naussica. The King then kindly sent Odysseus home with his own ship, and before long, Odysseus reached his hometown, Ithaca.






14. The Goddess Athena came to instruct Odysseus to disguise himself to be a beggar. She also told him that his son, Telemachus, was presently visiting Helen and Menelaus in Sparta to ask for information about his father.






15. The Goddess also asked Odysseus to first visit the faithful Eumaeus, the swineherd, on his farmhouse. At the same time, she would go to Sparta and asked the young Prince to come back to Ithaca and to guide him to meet his father at the farmhouse.






16. How old was Telemachus when his father returned from Troy? Answer: Twenty years old






17. Odysseus’s wife promised her suitors that she would choose a husband when she had finished weaving a great linen cloth.






18. After Telemachus met his father, they had a plan. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus went into the palace courtyard. His old dog, named Argos, recognized him and gave him a feeble welcome before it lay down to the ground and died.






19. The Queen of Ithaca asked the beggar how Odysseus was wearing, and the beggar answered: “He was wearing a purple cloak fastened with a brooch shaped like a hunting dog.” On hearing this, the Queen wept again and said that she herself had given Odysseus the brooch and the cloak.






20. The Queen asked the nurse, Eurycleia, to wash the feet of this old beggar, and she immediately recognized that this man, though dressed in rags, was Odysseus himself. How did she know? Odysseus had a long scar of a wound on his leg.






21. Holding his old bow, Odysseus took up an arrow, fitted it to the string, and shot it through all the twelve axe-heads.






22. Odysseus considered his attack on, or slaughter of, these suitors to be an act of revenge rather than an act of cruel murdering for he thought these suitors have “wasted my possessions and insulted my wife.”






23. After all the enemies were killed and the hall was cleansed, the Queen still was not sure whether this man was Odysseus. Therefore, she tried to find some way to test Odysseus.






Odysseus had married a woman as clever as himself.






24. What was the secret of Odysseus’s bed?
Answer: Odysseus made it with his own hands, with a a standing tree for the bedpost. Therefore, no one could move the bed.