With telemachus, eumaeus, and his goatherd philoitios at his side, odysseus leads the massacre of the suitors, aided only at the end by athena. He is the king of ithaca, normally said to be the son of laertes and anticlea, husband of penelope, and father of telemachus. What does odysseus do while the lesser suitors fiddle with the bow. The moral values in the story include loyalty, compassion, selfcontrol and perseverance. The odyssey moral values the odyssey by homer uses odysseus 10year journey home from the trojan war to illustrate some of the most important moral values of book.
The story of the odyssey is a quintessential quest that relates to the passage. Odysseus has finished telling his story to the phaeacians. In the book the odyssey how did odysseus kill the suitors. Summary homer opens the odyssey with an invocation to the muse of epic. Why was odysseus needed for killing the suitors in the. Summary and analysis book 1 athena inspires the prince. Odysseus languishes on the remote island ogygia with the goddess calypso, who has fallen in love with him and refuses to let him leave. She suggest if odysseus is dead defeat the suitors for yourself. Odysseus had asked his son to lock the armory so that the suitors cannot defend themselves. When athena leaves telemakhos, what change occurs in him and what does he realize about his visitor. A folkloristic approach provides a second source of comparanda. Odysseus and telemachus devise a plan to massacre the suitors and regain control of ithaca.
Odysseys story and why odysseus is a hero of the book. A funny flash animation version of homers, the odyssey, that i created as a project for english class, it was made in less than three weeks. The next day, young phaeacian noblemen conduct him home by ship. While i myself go down to ithaca, rouse his son to a braver pitch, inspire his heart with courage to summon the. Penelope gets odysseuss bow out of the storeroom and announces that she will marry the suitor who can string it and then shoot an arrow. Eumaeus gives him dinner and tells him about the suitors and his dead lord, odysseus. It was 20 years since odysseus had left his palace, but still his wife. He arrives in ithaca after an absence of twenty years. Odysseus and telemachus slaughter the suitors with athenas help. Get an answer for are odysseuss actions in dealing with the suitors consistent with his actions earlier in the story.
Odysseus languishes on the remote island ogygia with the goddess calypso, who has. Odysseus arrives at his palace, still in disguise and unrecognised except by his old dog argus. The odyssey, like the iliad, is divided into 24 books, corresponding to the. Finally alone with penelope, odysseus offers convincing evidence that he knew her husband. He begins his story with odysseus trapped on the island of calypso, a nymph who wants to take odysseus as her lover.
The book is definitely written to entertain and hardy goes above and beyond to achieve this goal. Odysseus, a greek hero, is the leading figure in the epic poem the odyssey, attributed to homer. But then penelopes ruse was discovered and the suitors demanded a decision. Other works in the epic cycle provide further details, including his death at the hands of his. So it is that the gods do not bestow graces in all ways on men, neither in stature nor yet in brains or eloquence. Telemachus tells eurycleia that they are storing the arms to keep them from being damaged. Hypothetically speaking, telemachos, eumaios, and philoitios could have possibly all ganged up, perhaps enlisted some help from the town, and slaughtered all the suitors on their own without odysseus, but that is not what the story is about. What might be homers purpose in having zeus recall the story of odysseus at the beginning. Man v god is the most important conflict in the story. Well, said odysseus, and he began to tell the tale of his sorry saga.
Meanwhile, a mob of suitors is devouring his estate in ithaca and courting his wife, penelope, in hopes of taking over his kingdom. The odyssey books 16 summary and analysis gradesaver. Emilia irovic odysseus is finally home with his wife, penelope, and son, telemachus. If odysseus is alive wait 1 year for his return and odysseus will have his revenge. It tells the story of odysseus in wonderful detail my 8 and 10 year olds read independently, but i am reading to my 6 year old in chapters 4 year old listens as well. This is a timeline of odysseus journey from ithaca to the trojan war then back home by. In short, in contrast to many other tellers of odysseuss story, the homeric poets opted both to have a battle between odysseuss household and the suitors relatives and to make odysseuss household demonstrate its physical superiority in that confrontation.
Moral of the odyssey study guides and book summaries. However, the suitors, led by antinous, plan to ambush him upon his return. Odysseus finally reveals himself, and the suitors become terrified. Nestor wonders whether odysseus will ever return to punish the suitors, and echoes telemachus in wishing for him the affection of the gods. Boy meets girl when odysseus was a young king in the land of greece, he was called to. One of the suitors recites the story of the courtship of penelope, her resistance to the suitors, and odysseus revenge. Homer opens the odyssey with an invocation to the muse of epic poetry and asks for her guidance in telling the story of a man who has experienced many twists and turns of fate and has suffered many hardships. The other narrative is odysseus own journey back home, which consists both of presentday narrations and recollections of his past adventures in lands inhabited by monsters and natural wonders. Nestor tells this story to telemakhos in book iii and establishes klytaimnestra as the badmotherwoman archetype. Litcharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in the odyssey, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. After successfully shooting an arrow through the holes of the twelve axes, odysseus shoots antinous in.
The odyssey books 14 summary and analysis gradesaver. As telemachus tracks odysseus trail through stories from his old comradesinarms, athena arranges for the release of odysseus from the island of the beautiful goddess calypso, whose. The final book opens with hermes, the traditional guide, leading the souls of the dead suitors to the land of the dead commonly referred to as hades. At a divine council on mount olympus, athena pleads with her father, zeus, to take pity on odysseus and allow him to return home. Meanwhile, odysseus wife, penelope, is besieged by suitors at his home in ithaca.
The suitors dishonor the house by insulting penelope and stealing odysseuss property, so telemachus feels that its his duty to stop them. When the suitors retire for the night, telemachus and odysseus remove the arms as planned. The narrator of the odyssey invokes the muse, asking for inspiration as he prepares to tell the story of odysseus. The story opens with odysseus being held captive by the goddess calypso on a remote island. Melantho, the disrespectful servant girl who sleeps with eurymachus, confronts the beggarodysseus once more. Odysseus promises him that his lord will return and seek vengeance against the suitors. Odysseus makes his way in and makes contact and we get to see what theyre like. With this final story, odysseus finishes his tale for the phaeacians. The slaying of the suitors the following day, advised by athena, penelope announces an archery competition, cunningly promising that she will wed whoever wins. Odysseus makes up an elaborate story about being a commoner from crete, who coincidentally has suffered many of the same trials that odysseus did.
We have taken this book out of library numerous times and finally have purchased because it is so good. At his forest hut, odysseus, disguised as a beggar, meets his old swineherd, eumaeus. This paper will explore some of the important conflicts in this classic tale. The weapon of choice is odysseus bow, which means that he alone is strong enough to string it and shoot it through the dozen axeheads. Odysseus ulysses ancient roman and greek mythology. All of the greek heroes except odysseus have returned home. His son, telemachus, an infant when odysseus left but now a young man, is helpless to stop them. Odysseus, the reader is told, is the only greek survivor of the trojan war who.
In his madeup story, he that hes heard odysseus had just left an island when the beggar arrived. The suitors are confused and believe this shooting to be an accident. Odysseus has incurred the wrath of poseidon, god of the sea, by blinding his son polyphemus the cyclops. An outline the first four books of the odyssey largely. Odysseus is going to head home just as soon as he consults an oracle.
And this starts opening up to us in this section of the, of the text through book seventeen and eighteen. However, penelope knew she had to buy time so that she would not have to marry one of the suitors before his return, so she thought of an elaborate plan to trick them all. He was able to string the bow and, with telemachus, drove out and killed the suitors. The story contains many conflicts such as man v god, man v himself, and man v society. In book 1, telemachus tells the suitors that he will officially give them notice to leave in the morning.
Back in his home city, ithaca, his wife, penelope, is being besieged by suitors, who have moved into her home, taking advantage of the ancient greek. When odysseus arrives at the palace the next day, still disguised as a beggar, he endures abuse and insults from the suitors. She sent a letter to odysseus, not knowing if he was alive, about the troubles that were arising and how need not worry, for the key to her heart was in his possession only. The only person who recognizes him is his old nurse, eurycleia, but she swears not to disclose his secret. The king goes around the suitors begging for a small offering and is abused verbally and physically. The telemachy shows us exactly what odysseus does not know about his wife and son and their plight. So these suitors, who are eating odysseus out of house and home and helping themself to whatever they feel like that belongs to someone else. Homer, the greek poet, is commonly regarded as the author of the epic poem, the odyssey. These souls pass such greek heroes as achilles and agamemnon. Telemachus returns to the palace where his mother is delighted to see him again and the suitors are not.
Before the suitors realize what is happening, odysseus shoots a second arrow through the throat of antinous. The odyssey picks up the story of odysseus 10 years into his journey home from the trojan war, which itself had lasted 10 years. Homer, odyssey book 22 theoi classical texts library. Meanwhile, odysseus goes to the farm of his father, laertes, and, after telling a false story, reveals himself. Odysseus lovingly reunites with penelope, his knowledge of their bed that he built the proof that overcomes her skepticism that he is an impostor. It was 20 years since odysseus had left his palace, but still his wife penelope had some hope he would return, though most believed him dead. One narrative takes place in ithaca, an island whose ruler, odysseus, has been absent for twenty years. There is also a map and pronounciation guide in the back. Ithaca, the suitors are arranging to murder telemachus so he wont be able to inherit the throne.
He tells the suitors that if they persist in eating at his house, jove will reckon with. Towards the beginning of the story odysseus goes to war against the trojans and wins. The odyssey, homers epic poem, is comprised of two distinct narratives. Start where you will, says the bard to the muse, and so the story begins in the middle of odysseuss long journey home from troy. Homer begins by asking the muse, the goddess of poetry and music, to sing to him about odysseus and his travels. Agamemnon praises odysseus wife, penelope, for her faithfulness, and curses his own wife, klytaimestra. Odysseus instructs telemachus to gather the weapons and hide them where they will not be readily available to the suitors the next day. The story of odysseus is told from the point of view of his loyal dog, argos.
Folly and greed link the suitors with odysseus lost shipmates and the now dead aigisthos. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The story begins ten years after the end of the trojan war, the subject of the iliad. Odysseus returns to ithaca in disguise and with telemachus plots revenge on the suitors. Odysseus, too, has a wife besieged by suitors and a son who, logically, dislikes them. Ralph hardy has turned the classic story of the odyssey into something else with his book argos.
The odyssey is the story of odysseus return home at the end of the trojan war. The word comes from homers epic poem the odyssey, written in the 8th century bc and it is a sequel to homers other epic poem, the iliad, which describes the last days of the great trojan war. After 10 years at war, and 10 years of traveling home, odysseus is finally home at ithaca but before he can officially return to his household, he must kick the suitors out of his house. Its thought to have been composed late in the 8th century bc, and tells the tale of. Telemachus repeats that odysseus will never return, because the gods have cursed him. The legendary story of odysseus the word odyssey has come to mean a journey of epic proportions. The nymph calypso has held odysseus captive for seven years on the island ogygia, and the goddess athena has come before an assembly of the gods to plead for his release.