Odysseus Travels Home to Ithaca
When the Greeks were victorious at Troy they were very cruel to its inhabitants - even to those who were in the temples. Sacrilege of this kind is rarely looked on kindly by the gods, so they resolved to get their revenge on the Greeks.
Even Odysseus, who was the special favorite of Athena, was subject to many dangers. When he set sail to his home in Ithaca, he was immediately blown westward by a great storm untill he came to an island. He sent three men to explore, but they did not return, and soon Odysseus found that he had arrived in the land of the lotus eaters. These were a people who always lie about in a dreamy state, because to taste the local food drives away all remembrance of home and friends. So he dragged his men away by force, binding them to the benches of his boat, and sailed on.
Next they came to another island, where there was a bay with rocks around and goats leaping on them. Landing with his men, Odysseus entered an enormous cavern that was stocked with milk, cream and cheese. The hungry Greeks began to eat, but soon they heard a noise, and great flocks of sheep and goats came bleating in.
Behind them came a giant, with a fir tree for a staff, and only one eye in the middle of his forehead. This was Polyphemus, one of the Cyclops, the sons of Poseidon, and workmen of Hephaestus. He demanded to know who the strangers were, and Odysseus told him that they were shipwrecked sailors, begging him for hospitality in the name of the gods.
Polyphemus laughed at this, saying he was stronger than the gods and did not care for them. Then he grabbed two unlucky Greeks from the floor and ate them up. After this he closed the front of the cave with a gigantic rock, trapping Odysseus and his men with many of his flock. He then sat back to drink a great quantity of milk and fell asleep on the ground.
In the morning the Cyclops let out his flock, then shut the Greeks in with the stone; but he left his staff behind, and Odysseus commanded his men to sharp the tip of the staff using their knives. A skin of wine had been brought from the ships, and when Polyphemus came home in the evening, and had devoured two more Greeks, Odysseus offered it to him.
It was the first wine Polyphemus had ever tasted, and, amazed by it, he asked his guest's name. "No one," replied Odysseus, begging again for mercy. "This will I grant," said the Cyclops, "in return for your gift: 'No one' shall be the last whom I devour." He drank up the whole skin of wine, and went to sleep.
Taking this chance, Odysseus and four of his companions seized the sharpened staff and forced its tip into Polyphemus's single eye, so that he awoke blind and roaring with pain so loud that all the other Cyclops awoke, and came calling to know who had hurt him. "No one!" shouted back the enraged Polyphemus; and they, thinking it was only some sudden illness, went back to their caves.
Meanwhile, Odysseus was fastening the remaining Greeks under the bellies of the sheep and goats, the wool and hair hanging over them. He himself clung under the largest goat, the master of the herd.
When morning came, the bleating of the herd caused the blind giant to rouse himself and roll back the stone from the entrance. He laid his hand on each beast's back, so that the Greeks might not ride out on them, but he did not feel beneath.
As soon as Odysseus was safe on board his ship, he called back his real name to the giant, whom he saw sitting on the stone outside his cave. Polyphemus and the other Cyclops hurled rocks angrily at the fleeing ship, but none touched it, and Odysseus made good his escape. This adventure, however, had made Poseidon his bitter foe, and how could he hope to sail safely on Poseidon's realm?
Next Odysseus came to the Isle of the Winds, which floated about in the ocean and was surrounded by a large wall. Here lived Aeolus, with his wife, sons and daughters, and Odysseus stayed with him a whole month. At the end of it, Aeolus gave Odysseus enough of each wind, tied up in separate bags, to take him safely home.
But one night, while Odysseus was sleeping, his crew decided there must treasure in the bags and opened them all at once. The winds burst out and tossed the ships in a storm back to the island, where Aeolus declared that Odysseus must be forsaken by the gods, and would give him no more.
Proceeding westward, the crew soon came to an island that belonged to Circe, the witch goddess and daughter to Helios. Once again, the scouts that Odysseus had sent to explore did not return, and he went in search of them himself.
Out of nowhere, Hermes appeared to him and warned him that if he tasted the food she would offer him, he would, like his friends, be changed into a pig. The only way to avoid this would be to eat some of a plant named moly - a white-flowered sort of garlic, which Hermes gave him.
Odysseus made his way through a wood to the hall where Circe sat, waited on by four nymphs. She received him courteously, offered him her cup, and so soon as he had drunk of it she struck him with her wand, and ordered him to go and grunt with his friends. But, thanks to the moly, he stood unchanged before her, so he drew his sword and made her swear to do him no hurt, and to restore his companions to their proper form.
Odysseus continued his journey on beyond the Mediterranean into the outer ocean, to the land of gloom, where Helios, the sun, does not shine. Here Odysseus dug a pit, into which he poured water, wine, and the blood of a great black ram, and there came up to him crowds of shades, eager to drink this mixture and to talk to him.
All his friends were there: Achilles, Ajax, and, to his surprise, Agamemnon - all very sad, and mourning for the realms of the living. His mother, who had died of grief for his absence, came and blessed him; and he was warned of Poseidon's anger.
Soon he had to continue on, and he knew the Isle of the Sirens was near. The Sirens were women sang a beautiful song to ships that passed by, causing their sailors to fall so much in love with the women that their ships crashed on the rocks of the island.
To prevent the perils of their song, Odysseus blocked the ears of all his crew using wax. But he was curious what the song sounded like, so he left his own ears unblocked, and ordered his crew to tie him firmly to the mast of the ship so that he could not follow the song. Thus he was the only person who ever heard the Sirens' song and lived.
Soon they came to the island of Trinacria, which was pasture for the 360 cattle of Helios. Circe had warned Odysseus that they must not be touched under any circumstances, so he would happily have passed it by if it were not for his crew insisted on landing for the night.
At dawn such a wind arose that they could not put to sea for a month, and the men were forced to eat from their stores until they had noting left. Growing hungry, the crew waited until Odysseus was asleep and took some of the oxen, vowing to build a temple to Helios as compensation.
But soon the crew became scared: the hides of the slain beasts started to stir where they lay, and their flesh started to low as it boiled in the cauldron. It turned out that Helios had gone to Zeus and threatened to stop his sun chariot unless he had his revenge; so as soon as the wretched crew embarked once more on their journey a storm arose, the ship was struck by lightning, and Odysseus alone was saved from the wreck, floating on the mast.
Lost, adrift on the ocean, Odysseus came to land on the island of the nymph Calypso, who kept him eight years because she wanted Odysseus for herself. But secretly he pined for home all the time, and at last built a raft on which to return. Poseidon was not weary of persecuting him, and raised another storm, which shattered the raft, and threw Odysseus on the island of Scheria.
Here the king's fair daughter Nausicaa, going down to the stream with her maidens to wash their robes, met the shipwrecked stranger, and took him home. Her father feasted him then sent him home in a ship, which landed him on the coast of Ithaca fast asleep, and left him there. He had been absent twenty years in all: ten years at Troy, and ten years trying to return.
After all these great adventures, Odysseus was left to spend his old age in Ithaca with his wife, Penelope, and their children.
