The title
immediately makes think about difficult labor that takes long time
That is the
content of this classic book, the efforts of a
hero "Odysseus" or
"Ulysses" to go back to his country, an island named Ithaca and go
back to his
wife and son, after being at Troy''s war.
Is so difficult because he made
Poseidon upset. His way home is full of mythological creatures that will try to
retain him, and sometimes his
partners are foolish or unlucky (the only one
that survives is Odysseus, the rest of them is killed)
The hero is
very smart (the wooden horse idea that made
Troy burn, was his) and he is helped by Minerva, Goddess of Intelligence.
Principal characters:
Odysseus: the clever Hero.
Penelope: the loyal wife.
Telemachus: brave son.
Euryclea: the family''s housekeeper and nanny.
Minerva: Counselor goddess and friend.
Circe: magician that turns people into animals.
Calypso: beautiful nymph that wants to hold the hero.
Pretenders: group of jackasses, that eat and party a lot,.
Short story: on his way home Odysseus finds:
1. Cyclops: monster with one eye, Poseidon’s
son, which dinners many of the partners. Odysseus convinces him to take a
strong wine and while slept, he leaves him blind. The monster calls his family
but since the hero says that his name is "nobody", the stupid
indicates them that nobody is hurting him and the Cyclopes do nothing.
2. Carbides and Scylla: marine monsters
that destroy ships.
3. Sirens: magical singers that attract
the sailors with beautiful melodies and make them crash. Everybody covered
their ears with wax except the hero that asks to be tied to a pole.
4. Calypso: immortal nymph that falls in
love with the hero and tries to hold him with her charms.
5. Circe: magician, it turns the hero''s
partners into animals, but thanks to Minerva''s advise and to the "golden
garlic" that Hermes gave him, he is immune and will kill the magician, but
she begs for her life, turns the partners back to normal and falls in love with
the hero.
6. Aeolus''s winds: Aeolus gives Odysseus a
bag containing the winds so that he can get home quickly. While the hero sleeps
the partners think is gold and open it unleashing strong winds that take them
away from the island already in sight.
7. Lotus''s eaters: in a strange island
people eats a variety of lotus that makes them forget all their problems. Seeing
the risk, the hero and his
man run away.
8. The fortune teller Tiresias: by
Minerva''s advice, Odysseus has to consult a fortune teller named Tiresias, but
he is dead and the hero has to go to hell, where he finds out that his mother
has died. In exchange of goat blood the man tells him that to calm Poseidon''s
anger he needs to go to a place where the sea was never heard and plant an oar.
9. The Sun''s Cows: starving the partners eats
the sacred Sun''s cows and they get a terrible death.
10. Arrives
to coast king Menelaus, the princess finds him. Since Menelaus is Odysseus’s
friend, there are banquets. She sends him home in a borrowed ship with many
presents.
11. Odysseus
house has been invaded by noble man, that believing he is dead want to marry
his wife Penelope. Penelope asks to knit a mortise and when she finishes it she
will get married. However she knits at day and unknots at nights. The
Pretenders realize and they revenge establishing themselves at queen''s house
and have a never ending party. They insult Odysseus’s son, Telemachus,
who search for his father.
12. Closing: the hero is turned into a
beggar by Minerva and he arrives to his house and is insulted by the pretenders;
he is recognized by the house keeper Euryclea, his dog and his son. The queen
says that she will marry who can handle her husband''s arch. All the pretenders
fail. The beggar asks to participate and to everybody''s surprise he can handle
the arch and the first arrow kills the firstg starts.
When his wife wakes up, the goddess transforms him again. Penelope at first
doesn''t believe in her joy and tells him that she will bring the bed to the
garden. Since the bed is made by a tree that the spouses had promised not to cut
Odysseus gets upset. He discovers that is only a strategy to probe that is
really him that came back. They hug and... And then the book ends. Happy
ending? Yes, but remember that the hero just killed all the noble man and their
families will want revenge, besides is still pending the oar thing, that gave
the bases for Odyssey part II that sadly never saw the light or if it did it
didn''t arrive to our days.
Final note and related books: the author of this undisputed
classic, is attributed to a rapsoda (a person that knew plays by memory and
that went from town to town repeating them, to earn the daily bread) called
Homer, even though this is always subject of discussion. This book is the
second part of "The Iliad''s" from the same author, which tells the
story of Troy''s
conquest by the Aqueous.
More reviews about the The Odyssey, an easy resume for students forced to read it