Odyssey Auxiliary: The Ultimate Guide to Homer's The Odyssey

Summary

Odysseus continues his enthralling story. His ship sails for Aiaia (Aeaea), and they arrive there at nightfall. Odysseus’s shipmates remove Elpenor’s body from Circe’s house to give him a proper burial, which was attended by Circe and her handmaidens. They were a welcome sight due to the copious amount of loaves, meat and wine they brought with them. Circe tells them to enjoy the feast, but reminds them to be off tomorrow. Later that night, Odysseus privately tells Circe all he had encountered. She warns him of impending dangers, such as the Sirenes, who bewitch men with their melodic singing, as well as the unsurpassable rocks, called Drifters, and the monstrous Scylla, an abominable creature with twelve legs and six heads sporting terrifying fangs. Circe advises Odysseus not to fight but to push on, even if it means losing men --or, he can take a detour and confront Charybdis, a massive whirlpool that can swallow their entire ship. After these dangers lies the island of Thrinakia, inhabited by Helios’s immortal cattle. Once again, Odysseus is told not to touch these sacred kine (or cows). Circe also mentions Phaethousa and Lampetia, sweet nymphs from Helios and Neaira who take care of the cattle. However, Circe’s words of caution are overshadowed by an ominous presage: she tells him that he will face long, lonely years after this episode. Her advice also seems to come with other relaxing, enjoyable, and maybe slightly inappropriate activities.

The next morning, Odysseus and his crew sail off and fast approach the Sirene’s island. Following Circe’s instructions, Odysseus places beeswax in each of his men’s ears, but he gets the special privilege of being tied to the mast in order to hear the Sirene’s charming melodies. Their sweet voices promise to tell him the future, and he begs to be untied so he can join them, but his men merely secure his bindings, displaying loyalty to their captain’s previous orders. The ship sails safely by the Sirenes, and reach the straits between Scylla and Charybdis. Odysseus navigates the boat to scale the side of Scylla --he is following Circe’s orders again, but he doesn’t tell his men that at least six of them will meet their death during this dangerous passage. Odysseus puts on a show of bravery and futilely brandishes his sword at the colossal monster; however, he knows his attempts are pointless and is only trying to show his men that he is valiantly trying to fight Scylla. Nevertheless, six of his men, as foretold, are swallowed by Scylla’s giant heads and the ship continues its route towards Thrinacia.

Odysseus is wary about this island, but he gives in when Eurylokhos, a predominant crewmember, insists on taking a break and replenishing the crew’s fatigued bodies. Since most of the crew agreed with him, Odysseus had no choice but to surrender and land at Helios, but he makes sure to tell them not to harm any of the cattle. The men promise not to do so, and they then proceed to feast on the food Circe had provided and regain some of their strength. However, bad weather in the form of lashing storms prevent Odysseus from boarding the ship and continuing their journey. Meanwhile, Circe’s stock of food is becoming dangerously low and the men are becoming dangerously thin. One day, a desperate Odysseus slips away to pray to the gods that some means of nourishment should come their way, to no avail. A fatigued and worried Odysseus falls asleep under Zeus’s spell --or so he says. Odysseus seems to have a tendency to lie and embellish a story in order to put himself in a better light, so perhaps he fell asleep on his own. While Odysseus slumbers in his sleep due to “divine intervention”, his men grow increasingly famished. The outspoken Eurylokhos, whose opinion carries a certain weight with the rest of the crew, declares that some action has to be taken in order to eat. Is it better, he argues, to die starved at Helios’s island, or to die with a full stomach? His point of view convinces the rest of the men, and, embracing temptation, they slaughter Helios’s sacred cows. They perform the necessary rituals and offer the heifers and then sit down to their first satisfying meal in weeks --just as Odysseus comes rushing back to the scene of the crime! He is dismayed at the idea that his men would disobey him, and apprehensive of the punishment they will surely get. Lampetia tells Lord Helios that Odyessus’s men killed his kine, and he asks Zeus for revenge. For six days, Odysseus’s men feasted on their catch, and then contently (save for Odysseus) set sail. Zeus, true to his word, sent a bolt of lightning to hit their ship. Calamity struck --the entire crew was separated, possibly dead, and Odysseus was clinging for dear life on the mast of his ship. He drifted off to the churning straits between Scylla mountain and Charybdis deep. Tossed around like a cork, Odysseus managed to grab hold of a fig tree, and clung to it all night --a real show of determination. Finally, when dawn, with her ever-present finger tips of rose, came upon the wreckage, Odysseus managed to climb back down on the remains of his ship and paddle past Scylla…who everyone thought was an insurmountable monster, but it turns out all you have to do is paddle by her! Nine days he drifted in the sea before landing at Ogygia Island, home to the legendary Calypso, where she loved and cared for him.

Characters & Their Lessons
Character: Dawn
Description: The goddess of the sunrise.

Character: Circe
Description: Circe (Kirke) is a beautiful witch goddess who turns Odysseus and his men into pigs. According to Greek Mythology, Circe was the daughter of Helios and Perse, an Oceanid; she was also the sister of Aeetes, the king of Colchis and of Pasiphae and Aga. Circe was renknowned for transforming her enemies or those who had affronted her into animals. She was also famed for her knowledge of drugs and herbs.

Character: Helios
Description: The god of the sun.

Character: Sirens
Description: The sirens (sirenes) are the winged sea nymphs, Teles and Ligiea, whose voices call sailors to drown.

Character: Perimedes and Eurylokhos
Description: Members of Odysseus' crew.

Character: Scylla
Description: Skylla is a huge monster with twelve tentacles and six heads. According to some mythologies, Scylla was once the daughter of a farmer, but she was raised by wolves when her family died in an earthquake caused by an irritated goddess.

Character: Charybdis
Description: Charybdis is a giant whirlpool that sucks down anything that is near it.

Character: Zeus
Description: Zeus is the king of gods and men. His symbol is a lightning bolt.

Character: Calypso
Description: Calypso is a nymph who falls in love with Odysseus and holds him prisoner at her island that she is banished to.

Character: Odysseus
Description: He is the king of Ithaca and has a son, Telemachus and a wife, Penelope. He is on his way home after fighting ten years in the Trojan War.
Analysis: Odysseus, the main character, displays some important traits in this book. Several events occur, which, upon deeper inspection, uncover his possibly egotistical ways.

Odysseus comes back to Aiaia to give Elpenor a proper burial --yet, when he departs for the underworld, Odysseus doesn’t even notice Elpenor is not with them. Self-interest could have motivated his return to Aiaia. He could have wanted to see Circe to get more advice, or he was just fearful of the gods extracting revenge on his lack of compassion for the dead.
Odysseus wants to hear the Sirenes sing. Natural temptation and curiosity drive Odysseus to hear the Sirene’s songs, but he could also have been displaying his pride --maybe he wanted to listen to the Sirenes to be able to tell people, upon his return, that he listened to their melodic tunes yet he did not fall into the temptation of going to them. Since his deeper longing of returning home surpassed his want for a challenge, Odysseus ties himself to the mast just in case. However, it may be that he wanted to experience their melodies first hand, to prove his daring audacity.
Odysseus puts on a show of heroism while passing Scylla. Despite Circe’s warnings that fighting Scylla would do no good, Odysseus still gets out his armor and sword and attempts to attack the monster. He knows that six of his men are fated to die. Odysseus probably does this for several reasons: He doesn’t want to be the one to die, so he arms himself, he wants to put on a show of valor to demonstrate his bravery for his men, or he wants a small revenge on Scylla for eating his men. Odysseus’s conceitedness plays a part in this --he wants everyone to know that he tried to fight off the monster, and it isn’t his fault that some of his men were swallowed. However, it is his fault because Circe told him what was going to happen. He had little choice but to follow through with Circe’s directions, but he didn’t even tell his men what was going to happen, for fear of uncooperativeness.

Literary Devices
Figurative Language
Figurative language is one of the literary devices and in the Odyssey one example of figurative language is “When the young Dawn with her fingertips of rose made heaven bright.” This quote means that the sun rose.

Foreshadowing
Circe’s advice to Odysseus warning him not to touch Helios’s cattle is foreshadowing of what is going to happen --not only did she insist not to touch his cattle, but the Prince of Thebes in Book XI did as well, a sure sign that something is bound to happen at Helios’s island.

Epic Simile
“summering Dawn has dancing grounds there, and the Sun his rising… the young Dawn with finger tips of rose”(lines 4-9) This epic simile says that on the Island of Aiaia, the rising of the sun there is beautiful, but since they got there at nightfall, they couldn’t witness it. Dawn’s “finger tips of rose” represent the pale rosy color of the rising sun.

Symbolism
Sirens
In Book XII the Sirens symbolize representation of inferior women, torment, and temptation in life.

Connections
Quick Connections
Countries invading other countries = Odysseus’s men “invading” Helios’s island and taking cows for food.
People being attracted to beauty or looks of products on T.V. or places you can buy things = Sailors being attracted to the Seirenes and going towards them not seeing the rocks.
Justice/ Greater forces punishing criminals = Zeus killing crewmembers.
Leaders being influenced by followers = Odysseus agreeing to land on the island.

Charybdis
In book XII of the Odyssey one character named Charybdis is mentioned. This character is one obstacle Odysseus has to overcome and in real life this character exists. Today people go to a park in the Straits of Messina to go see this whirlpool.

Wonders of the World
The god Zeus can be connected to the Egyptian culture because a statue of Zeus is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, just like the Great Pyramids created by the Egyptians. These two thing are connected by the fact that they both are each a Wonder of the World.

Merfolk
The first known mermaid stories appeared in Assyria around 1000 BC. A goddess named Atargatis, fell in love with a mortal shepherd and ended up killing him. Ashamed of what she had done, she jumped into a lake in order to transform into a fish, but the waters could not obscure her divine nature. Thus, the first mermaid was born. The Greeks knew Atargatis as Derketo, and she was often confused with Aphrodite. Mermaids are also popular in fiction, such as in Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Mermaids have even featured in Hollywood productions, such as Splash, where Daryl Hannah portrayed a mermaid who fell in love with a normal man. In the movie, the mermaid could walk normally on land, but as soon as her feet touched water, she developed a fish tail. Most recently, a movie entitled Aquamarine, after the book by Alice Hoffman, was put into theaters.

Links & References
The phrase “between Scylla and Charybdis” now means to be between two dangers, and moving away from one will cause one to be in danger from the other.

This Section By: Jared R., Alicia P., Morgane C.