Reading Notes: The Odyssey A

THE ODYSSEY

- Odysseus and his crew leave to head home and stumble on an island of cyclopes 

- They dock and regroup and then it is decided that Odysseus and his boat are going to go check on the people that live on the island

- Odysseus and his group moves toward a cave to wait for the occupant to see what kind of host this person is

- Polyphemus comes back and is surprised by the group and he immediately crushes two of the soldiers and eats them in front of the others 

- The soldiers all wait for Polyphemus to leave with his sheep and then they sharpen a wood post to stab him

- When Polyphemus comes back he crushes 2 more soldiers, after he is full Odysseus gives him the win e they had as a gift

- Polyphemus gets very drunk and the soldiers take this as an opportunity to stab him in the eye

- The cyclops cries out asking who did this and Odysseus responds that his name is Nobody and therefore it made it seem as if Nobody was hurting Polyphemus

- The soldiers hid under the bellies of his sheep and used that as their escape out of the cave

- When they escaped Odysseus revealed his name and Polyphemus cursed Odysseus to Poseidon 

- The crew split into two groups and one went to Circe's house where they were trapped an turned into pigs, only Eurylochus was not tricked

- Odysseus goes to the house to free his men and is greeted by Hermes who tells him of an herb that will make him somewhat immune to Circe's tricks

- Circe frees the men when she saw that Odysseus was weighed with guilt

- Circe releases the men so they no longer stay against their own will and she tells Odysseus that he must see the ghost of Teiresias in the House of Hades

The Odyssey Book (UnSplash)

Bibliography

Cooper, G. (2011). Homer's odyssey. London: Bantam.