The Mythology Book

70

great quantities of food, wine,

and other supplies stored within it.

They began to help themselves,

only to be interrupted when the

owner of the cave returned. This

was the terrifying Cyclops—a

one-eyed giant named Polyphemus,

who drove before him a flock of

giant sheep. Polyphemus was a

son of the sea god Poseidon.

Wounding Polyphemus

When the Cyclops discovered

Odysseus and his crew inside

his cave, he was furious. He rolled

a huge boulder across the entrance,

sealing it shut and trapping the

men inside. He then snatched two

of the men and devoured them.

Desperate to escape, a terrified

Odysseus and his remaining crew

came up with a plan. Waiting until

the giant shepherd was drunk and

drowsy, they heated up a massive

tree-sized stake in the fire, then

thrust it forcefully into the giant’s

single eye, blinding him.

Groping about in agonized rage,

Polyphemus could not find his

attackers. They plotted their escape

and, next morning, when the giant

rolled back the boulder to take out

his flock, the men hid beneath the

bellies of the giant sheep, clinging

to their fleece. The giant felt each

animal as it came out, but

did not check underneath them.

Reaching the safety of their ship,

Odysseus jeered at the Cyclops.

Hearing his voice, Polyphemus

hurled boulders after Odysseus

and his crew as they sailed away.

By wounding Polyphemus,

however, Odysseus and his men

had incurred the wrath of Poseidon,

who would prove an implacable foe

from this moment on. Every wind,

wave, and current was against

THE QUEST OF ODYSSEUS

Every day I yearn

for the day I

see my home.

Odyssey

Key:

1. Troy


2. Ismarus


3. Lotus-Eaters


4. Cyclops


5. Land of giants


6. Aeolia
   7. Aeaea
   8. Hades
   9. Aeaea
   10. Sirens
   11. Charybdis
   12. Skylla
   13. Thrinakia
   14. Calypso's Island
   15. Scheria
   16. Ithaca

Route of

Odysseus

ITALY

THE QUEST OF ODYSSEUS

GREECE

MOUNT

OLYMPUS

CORSICA

SARDINIA

SICILY

ASIA

MINOR

CRETE

Mediterranean Sea

ATHENS

AFRICA

6

11

12

1

2

10

9

5

7

15

13

4

8

16

3

14

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71

them. Even a seeming stroke of

luck—when King Aeolus gave

Odysseus the gift of a leather bag

in which all the winds of the world

were stored—turned out to only

delay them further. The ship was in

sight of Ithaca when the crewmen,

thinking the bag might contain

gold, opened it. The winds blew

out, taking them away from Ithaca

and into the unknown, where they

wandered for several more years.

Witchcraft and prophecy

Next, Odysseus traveled to Aeaea,

where the witch-goddess Circe

turned a band of his men into pigs.

He forced her to change his men

back and became her lover. After a

year, Odysseus asked Circe how to

get back to Ithaca, and she advised

him to sail to Hades to seek a blind

prophet named Tiresius to direct

them home.

Odysseus and his crew set

off from Aeaea and he blocked his

men’s ears to save them from the

seductive songs of the Sirens as

they sailed past their isle. Next,

his crew steered a course through

a fiendishly narrow strait (Messina).

On one side was the whirlpool

Charybdis, eager to suck ships

down; on the other was a crag,

on which the six-headed maiden-

monster Scylla sat, ready to seize

and swallow passing sailors. When

Odysseus finally met Tiresius, the

seer explained Poseidon's grudge.

Against Tiresius's advice,

Odysseus and his men stopped to

rest in Thrinakia, after which he

was caught by Calypso. After

leaving Calypso, Odysseus's ship

was caught in a mighty storm

created by Zeus, and washed up on

the shores of Scheria, where they

were rescued by Athena.

A hero’s homecoming

When the crew finally made it home

to Ithaca, Odysseus was disguised

so he would not be recognized by

any of Penelope’s suitors and could

plan to win his "widow" back. His

old swineherd Eumaeus took him

in, and in the old servant’s cottage

he met his son Telemachus, who

was overjoyed to see him.

By this time, the suitors had

tired of Penelope’s tapestry ruse,

and so she set a new challenge. She

agreed to marry only the man who

could string her husband’s bow and

shoot an arrow accurately through a

row of 12 axeheads. Penelope knew

that Odysseus alone had the skill

and strength for this. Still disguised,

Odysseus succeeded with his first

arrow and killed a suitor with his

next. The angry suitors drew their

weapons against the hero, who,

with his son's help, killed them all. ■

Odysseus's waiting wife, seated

at her loom, is besieged by requests for

her hand in marriage. Penelope with

the Suitors was painted by the Italian

Renaissance artist Pinturicchio (1509).

“Shapely ships”

Homeric text is full of insight

into the construction and

importance of swift ships for

the early Greeks. The ancient

galley of Homer’s day was

long and slender, rising

gracefully at bow and stern,

like the horns of an ox (Iliad

XVIII, 3). Adjectives such as

“hollow” (Iliad I,25) seem to

imply the absence of a

covering deck. The "black

ships" in the Odyssey were

covered in pitch that made

them watertight. Odysseus

himself built a vessel to leave

Calypso's island, felling 20

trees and smoothing them into

a keel, ribs, and planking. The

central sail provided

propulsion out at sea, while

25 men rowing on each side

allowed progress in weak or

adverse winds and gave the

vessel maneuverability and

speed close to shore.

ANCIENT GREECE

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