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HOMER´S ODDYSEY

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On the Mount Olympus the Gods were debating whether Odysseus should return home.

Eventually, Zeus decides Odysseus should return so he sends Hermes, the messenger´s

God to tell Calypso to set Odysseus free while the Goddess Athena goes to see his son

Telemachus to help him find out what happened to his father because he and his

mother´s palace were being overrun with suitors after their fortune.

Athena in disguise convinces him to go to Nestor who fought with Odysseus in the

Trojan war but he does not know what happened with him . He suggests to go to

Menelaus who knows that Odysseus is stranded with Calypso. Meanwhile, Hermes travels

to Caplypso´s island and she agrees to let Odysseus go so he set sets sail on a small

raft but it´s destroyed during a storm created by Poseidon – the God of the Sea.

Eventually, he washes up on the shore of Phaeacias who welcome him and declared a

holiday in his honor. Odysseus proves his strength by throwing a disk as far than anyone

else. Then, king Alcinous asks who he is, so Odysseus started the story.

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After leaving Troya, Odysseus and his men attacked the city but reinforcements arrive

and they had to flee.

Then, they came upon the Lotus-Eaters where many of his men ate the strange plant and

lost the desire to go home but Odysseus dragged them away on the land of the Cyclop´s

island where they were locked in the Polyphemus – the Cyclop´s cave, but Odysseus

blinded him and tricked him into moving the boulder blocking the exit. After sailing

more, they came upon the keeper of the winds who gave Odysseus a bag of wind to blow

him back to Ithaca, but his men opened it and they blew them the wrong way when they

landed in the Giant Laestrygonians who threw bolder at Odysseus ship killing many of

his men.

They escaped and came to the witch Circe who turned Odysseus´ men into pigs and then

told him to go to the underworld and find a prophet. In the underworld Odysseus talked

to Tiresias , the prophet who tells him, the path to Ithica.

Then they pass the Sirens who lure sailors to crash on their rocks but Odysseus men tied

him to the master of the ship. Once they passed the Sirens, they came upon the

whirlpool Charybdis to avoid it, they passed Cila a six-headed monster who ate six of

Odysseus men.

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Next they came to the island of the sun where Odysseus´ men sacrificied the sun´s

sacred cattle and the ship was destroyed leaving Odysseus as the sole survivor to wash up on

Calypso´s island.

When Alcinous hears Odysseus story he gives him a ship and send him back to Ithaca.

When he gets there Odysseus wants to make sure that everyone is still loyal to him after

being gone for 20 years. Athena gives him a disguise as a beggar and he meets Eumaeus

a friend who welcomes Odysseus, not knowing who he is.

Telemachus returns to Ithica and Odysseus reveals himself to his son. They, then, plan

to kill the suitors. The next day there was a contest to string Odysseus´ bow and send an

arrrow through twelve axes and all the suitors knew Odysseus was the only one who

could do it.

Then as Antinuous the Leader of the suitors is taking a drink, Odysseus shoots an arrow

at him and kills him; Odysseus and Telemachus battled with the suitors and killed them.

After all the suitors were gone, Penelope, Odysseus´wife, tested him to make sure that´s

him. Then she truly believes him but the relatives of the suitors wanted to kill him but

Athena convinces all of them to live in peace.

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Olympus was the residence of the divine family, the twelve most important ruling gods and goddesses of ancient Greece, who therefore were called the Olympians. There they alllived together in an enormous palace, high above the clouds. Olympus is generally identified with Mount Olympus in Thessaly, which is the highest mountain in Greece, but very often it is identified also as some mysterious region far above the earth.

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Athena is said to have been born out of Zeus's head fully grown and armored. She is the patron goddess of Athens. Athena was known to be a protecter of heroes, including the hero Odysseus.

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Nestor (above) to Telemachus   -  ‘I cannot help looking at you in awe: you talk exactly as he did (Odysseus). I should have sworn no young man could so resemble him in speech.’ (122ff.)

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Calypso, in Greek mythology, seduced Odysseus and kept him for years away from his wife, Penelope, until Athena intervened; eventually Calypso had to let him go and even helped him to build his boat. She has both negative and positive connotation in Greek mythology: as a concealer and seductress, Calypso is a negative symbol, buas a rescuer she is a positive one. She is always compared with Penelope and thus ended up being a force of diversion and distraction.

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Hermes is the god of travellers and shepherds in Greek mythology. He is one of the Twelve Olympians and is the messenger of the gods.Hermes is the son of Zeus and Maia. He was born on Mount Cyllene. The story of his birth was told in the Homeric Hymn, which means Hyme to Hermes. It said the Maia was a nymph.Hermes was very clever and on his first day invented the lyre, by using the shell of a tortoise. One of the myths about Hermes is that he once, stole his brother's oxes, and burned them as a sacrifice.

10Poseidon

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Ulysses at the court of Alcinous by Francesco Hayez.

Alcinous or Alkínoös (Gr. Ἀλκίνοος) was, in Greek mythology, a son of Nausithous, or of Phaeax (son of Poseidon and Corcyra), and father of Nausicaa, Halius, Clytoneus and Laodamas withArete.[1] His name literally means "mighty mind". He married his brother Rhexenor's daughter after Rhexenor was killed.[citation needed]

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In Greek mythology, the lotus-eaters (Greek λωτοφάγοι, lōtophagoi), also referred to as the lotophagi or lotophaguses (singular lotophagus /ləˈtɒfəɡəs/) or lotophages (singular lotophage /ˈloʊtəfeɪdʒ/), were a race of people living on an island near North Africa (possibly Djerba) dominated by lotus plants. The lotus fruits and flowers werethe primary food of the island and were narcotic, causing the people to sleep in peaceful apathy.

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A cyclops (  /ˈsaɪklɒps/; Greek: Κύκλωψ, Kuklōps; plural cyclopes /saɪˈkloʊpiːz/; Greek: Κύκλωπες, Kuklōpes), in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a

primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead.[1] The name is widely thought to mean "circle-eyed".[2]

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Polyphemus (  /ˌpɒlɨˈfiːməs/; Ancient Greek: Πολύφημος Polyphēmos) is the gigantic one-eyed son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes. His name means "much spoken of" or "famous".[1] Polyphemus plays a pivotal role in Homer's Odyssey.

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After sailing for many days, they ended up among the Laestrygonians, but theyhad to escape because the Laestrygonians were unfriendly giantswho killed most of Odysseus' men and destroyed their ships. Only Odysseus ship could escape.

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KIRKE (or Circe) was a goddess pharmakeia (witch or sorceress) who lived with her nymph attendants on the mythical island of Aiaia. She was skilled in the magic of metamorphosis, the power of illusion, and the dark art of necromancy.

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Tiresias appears to Odysseus during the nekyia of Odyssey xi, in this watercolor with tempera by theAnglo-Swiss Johann Heinrich Füssli, c. 1780-85

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View of northern Ithaca.

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In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous and devious creatures, portrayed as femmes fatales who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli.

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Charybdis and Cila

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In Greek mythology, Eumaeus (Greek: Εὔμαιος, Eumaios) was Odysseus's swineherd and friend. His father, Ktesios son of Ormenos, was king of an island

called Syria.

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Telemachus (  /təˈlɛməkəs/; Greek: Τηλέμαχος, Tēlemakhos, literally "far-fighter")[1] is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central character in Homer's Odyssey.

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Telemachus and Penelope

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Penelope and the Suitors by John William Waterhouse (1912).

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I hope you liked the epic.