Odyssey Flashcards
Who were the important family members of Odysseus?
He was the great grandson of Hermes, his wife was Penelope. and his son was Telemachus
What was he the king of?
Ithaca, a Greek Island
What did he do in the Trojan war?
He fought in it all 10 years and was the inventor of the Trojan Hourse.
Odysseus begins his voyage home before he encountered multiple trials, what Island was he stuck on for 7 years?
Ogygia, with the nymph Calypso
Odysseus and his crew get stuck on an island and none of his crew want to leave, why?
They got high on special lotuses that makes them forget where they are, where they are going, and why they need to leave, so they only want to stay and eat more lotuses
what god hated Odysseus and caused him practically all his problems?
Poseidon
What Cyclopes did Odysseus face?
Polyphemus
Who was Polyphemus the son of?
Poseidon
What does Odysseus do to escape Polyphemus?
He gives him some wine so that he gets drunk and passes out after telling him his name is nobody and then stabs him in the eye. Once Polyphemus was blind he said nobody has hurt me to the other Cyclopes and they did not understand and Odysseus and his crew escaped under his herd of sheep.
They land at what home of wind?
Aeolia, where the king of wind Aeolus lives
what does Aeolus do for Odysseus and co.?
He gifts them a bag of wind.
Odysseus used the bag of wind to get himself to seeing distance of Ithaca but
his crew wanted to see what was in the bag and opened it fully letting lose a storm that pushed them far away from Ithaca
They next land on the Island of the
Laestrygonians, man-eating giants that chased them back onto their ships that destroyed every ship other than Odysseus’s
They next landed on
Aeaea where a sorceress named Circe lived turning all male people who land there into animals, she offered the men who went there special wine that turned them into pigs but one guy did not trust her, Eurylochus did not drink it and escaped and warned Odysseus and said they should escape
Odysseus decided (while in Aeaea)
Not to give up on his crew and was given something from Hermes to protect from her magic and he forced her to set his company free, she obliged and turned them back into humans
After this they live at Aeaea for another year gaining wisdom from Circe until
Odysseus goes to the underworld and learns that Agamemnon has died along with his mother and was asked by a crewmate to bury his body
They then leave to continue their Journey to Ithaca and run into what singing on the rocks?
The Sirens, who sing and lure sailors to their doom by using their enchanting looks and voices to make them fall in love with them, luckily none of the crew died and Odysseus was tied to the mast so he could still listen to their music.
After escaping the Sirens they reach the
strait of Messina
What made this strait dangerous?
on one side is Scylla the 6 headed monster and on the other is Charybdis, a whirlpool-like monster.
How does Odysseus survive these 2 monsters of the strait
He goes around Charybdis and stayed as far from Scylla as possible but they get stuck in the current and 6 people are killed by Scylla
Zeus sent a massive storm that pushed them into the nearest Island which Circe had warned them not to go to which was
Thrinacia
This island had cattle that belonged to
Helios
As they were stranded the crew became hungry while Odysseus went to pray to Zeus and ate one of the cows which led to
Helios requesting Zeus to fire thunderbolts at them and he did so they had to escape the island during the storm that was happening
Due to the storm running hard they got pushed back, what happened due to this problem?
They got pulled into Charybdis’ and everyone got pulled into him as their ship fell in and Odysseus held onto a branch above them, barely escaping as the only one alive
How did Odysseus escape his precarious situation above Charybdis’?
He waited for Charybdis’ to throw up some of the ship and then jumped to a piece from the wreckage and swam away, escaping
Odysseus tells the Phaeacians his story once landing at their island and
Athena disguises him as a beggar and the Phaeacians smuggle him to Ithaca where he assesses the home situation in one of his servant’s room
Telemachus after a search for his father,
Also goes to that hut and Odysseus reveals himself so then they made a plan to kill the suiters of his wife Penelope
During an archery contest,
Odysseus wins and reveals himself and kills the leader of the suiters, Antinous and a fight breaks out leading to the death of all the suiters
Afterwards he hangs 12 maids due to them
sleeping with the suiters
The people are upset with Odysseus because ____________ but before a fight happens _____________
All their children died during his rule due to things like the Trojan War, his returning journey, etc.; Athena tells them to cut it out
