Reading Notes: The Odyssey B

 THE ODYSSEY

- Odysseus sacrificed a barren heifer and the blackest ram so that he could speak to the ghost Teiresias

- Elpenor's ghost appeared to Odysseus telling him not to forget him when he goes home and to give him a proper burial or he will be "haunted"

- He spoke a very long prophecy about Odysseus' future in this journey whether him and his crew can control their greed

- Odysseus got to speak with his dead mother and she told him of his home and how it was still plentiful under his son's rule, his wife longed for him, as well as his father who slept with the less wealthy, it seems that she died of heartache

- He met a lot of dead women and listed of their lineage and what they are known for

- He saw Agamemnon who was murder at a feast with Aegisthus and Agamemnon's wife

- Agamemnon urged Odysseus to dock in secret because of his distrust for the wife who killed him

- Next up was Achilles, who wanted to know of his son and his father

- While Odysseus did not know any about his father Peleus, he had heard of the great that Achille's son had done and recounted it all to the ghost

- The ghost of Ajax appeared and Odysseus tried to speak to him to get the anger he had for him to go away, but Ajax did not speak a single word

- Odysseus recounts his time seeing other ghosts of his past and after awhile he began to get fearful and swiftly got back in his boat to leave

- They rode through the Sirens' waters and the crew plugged their ears with beeswax and kept Odysseus tied up until they had passed through them

- Then him and the crew fought Scylla and he lost about 6 of his crew mates to the "monster" 

Person Crawling Out of Ground like the Underworld (UnSplash)

Bibliography

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