Ithaca

Finally I had returned home!

I awoke to a shrouded mist made by Athena. Athena appeared to me  in shepherd form, in which I was suspicious and lied to. Then she changed to a beautiful woman and convinced me to hide the treasure in a cave and find out how to kill the suitors. She turned me into an old man so he wouldn't be recognized. Me and my son Telemachus took care of the suitors and I was finally retunited with my wife after 20 long years and I was glad to see how much of man my strong son Telemachus had become. The events of the War have chaged me forever and made me a hero that I hope all men can look upto.

Scheria

I decided to ask Nausicaa in a humble way that would not scare her, if she would help me.  I decided not to scare Nausicaa but to use charm with my words. If I had scared Nausicaa, she would have run and I never would have figured out how to get on Alcinous and Arête’s good side. Nausicaa said yes and gave me instructions on how to get on her parents good side and gave me a bath and clothes. Athena then lead me to the palace of Alcinous and Arete and I followed Nausicaa’s instructions to win favour among the two. I then told them my story of all of my advenchers and my hope to return home to my Ithaca, wife and child.While I was there for the four days I also competed in a few competitions (discus, etc) and won. Alcinous then gave me lots of gifts and escorted him to Ithaca. On the return trip, my ship turned to stone!

 

Ogygia

The beautiful and wise goddess Calypso saved me and forced herself to be my lover for seven years. The great messenger Hermes came to tell Calypso to release me after Athene and Zeus had intervened on my part and she gave me generous food and wood to make a raft. On the way to Scheria I met Ino as I was about to drown and she gave me a cloak that would make me stay alive for the next few days while he was on sea.

I decided to listen to Ino's instructions instead of doubt her. At first I  doubted her, but then listened, of course I had no other choice. But by  doing this I made it to Scheria.

Thrinakia, Kharybdis

When we passed Thrinakia, I told them not to stop, but once again the men mutinied and they stopped. For a long time, they resisted temptation to eat Lord Helios' sacred cattle, but because Poseidon beached us, eventually when supplies ran out, they had to eat the cattle. We had remained on the Island for a month and a week. However, when the cattle kept on moving once they were cut into pieces, the men kept on eating and angered Lord Helios. For fear of losing the sun, Zeus granted Poseidon permission to punish the men.  . He unleashed a water tornado that killed all but me (because I hadn’t eaten the meat) and was sent back to the Kharybdis were I survived by hanging onto a branch above the maelstrom until it let up. I was a dark time. I had lost all of my men in one fell swoop. I almost gave up and thought what the point of going on was. It not for the thought of seeing my wife and son. It was the only thing giving me the strength to continue.  

Skylla and Khaybdis

I followed Teiresias' directions went past the Sirens without harm over to the Skylla, knowing that 6 men would die, but did could not tell my crew. we made it past to Thrinakia after a day but had lost 6 men.  

I couldn't tell the men that six of them would die, because this would instil fear which instils mutiny which is one of the worst words a captain can utter and i couldn't let that have a dishonarable death in fear but knowing they would die was awful so mcuh so that I can't bare to talk of it.

 

Erebos

As per Krike's instructions, I arrived at Erebos and made many sacrifices to draw the dead people near and I fought them all off, even my mother, until I met Teiresias. Teiresias told him me to stop by Thryinacia and how to get past the Skylla, Kharybdis and the Seirenes.

Later I conversed with many dead people including Akhilleus, Antiklea, Elpenor, Aias and Agamemnon as well as many lovers of gods. Later I left after Persephone let the scary people come. It was a very interesting and haunting experience; thank Zeus that I was there for a day.

The only decision that I made was to follow the advice of Kirke, which got me out alive and made me a hero. It also helped to get past the Skylla, Kharybdis and Seirenes. However nothing I could do would make a difference with the outcome because of Poseidon's great hate for me.

Aiaia

After the disasters on the last few islands I decided that I didn’t want to explore the new island, but Eurylokhos (second captain) wanted to, so I sent 20 men to explore. When this group neared the house of Kirke, Eurylokhos took the hint of tame mountain lions as a sign of witchery and told his men not to go in, they refused and were turned into pigs.The great God Hermes came to me and told me to eat a flower that would make me invincible to Kirke's magic and then to be her lover for a year (although I am in love with my wife Penelope and nothing will change it. After I did this I told Kirke that it was time for me to return home and she told me to see Teiresias in Erebos for information on how to get back to Ithaca. On the day of leaving, the drunken Elpenor fell of the roof and broke his neck. With the sad death of my second in command it brings the total losses to 80 men and 11 ships.

I seem to have learnt from the mistakes of my past as I decided to listen to Hermes’ advice and carry out the plan which lead them to Erebos where we got a lot of useful information which will help us in our journey to Ithaca.  

Laistrygonia (stronghold of Lamos)

My men and I the set upon the island of Laistrygonia where I and a few other of my men came upon a girl (Artakia) who promised us fresh water, but instead lead us to her lord (Antiphates) who ate one of my men!  All the men then tried to flee but only one could escape because of the fact that all 12 ships were lodged inside a canyon. The rest were crushed by boulders the Lasitrygonians threw. It was a dreadful day in which we lost one man and 12 ships a terrible loss luckily we got away after a day. Once again, I made the same mistakes for a third time, although his intentions were correct, the gods just weren't on my side. So my first mistake was that I even tried to get to know the people. My second was for parking all 12 of my ships in a narrow canyon with no escape route. I feel like I have let my men down in the long quest back to Ithaca.

Aiolia

Next on are seeming never ending voyage back to Ithaca we travelled to Aiolia, a small Island with only 13 inhabitants Aiolos Hipptades and his 6 lusty sons and 6 daughters and stayed there for one day. Aiolos Hippotades, the warden of winds, gave me a bag of all the winds, except for the West Wind which would guide me home to my beloved Ithaca. I decided not to tell my men the contents of the bag as I feared a mutiny. For nine days they guarded it and they had perfect sail until I let the guard off and my men opened the bag, unleashing a storm that blew us all the way back to Aiolia. When I again asked Aiolos for help, Aiolos turned the men and I away because we were cursed by the gods. I feared that he may have been right.

 

Hypereia

My men and I then went on to land on the island of Hyperia where the Cyclopes dwelled. For two days we feasted and on the third day, I decided enter a cave where I saw Polyphemos and I wanted to discover if he was friend or foe. I took 12 men with me and we feasted on food until Polyphemos returned. Polyphemos ate two of my men!  Then I decided not to kill Polyphemos in his sleep but to drug him with Maron's wine and merely blind him, but before this plan of action could occur, Polyphemos ate another four of my men! 

 After the plan was complete and I had blinded him, I then used my extreme cunning and informed Polyphemos that my name was Nobody, so that when the other Cyclopes came wondering why Polyphemos was screaming, he would say, "Nobody hurt me."  I then instructed the remaining 6 men to hide underneath Polyphemos' giant sheep and escape, and then took the sheep for their own.

As we were sailing out I stupidly was over powered at my own pride and taunted Polyphemos almost destroying my ship, and  then I did this again and still managed to escape! Looking back on my actions and the dessions that I made first, I decided to 'get to know' the obviously gigantic men, then upon leaving in a fit of foolish pride I decided to taunt Polyphemos-then after that I still hadn't learned my lesson and taunted him yet again, causing Polyphemos to put my men in jeopardy by throwing hilltops at the ships.

 However, despite this, I did make two very good decisions that saved I decided that I would not kill Polyphemos, but merely blind him because only Polyphemos could open the stone blocking the cave from the outer world showing my cunning and bravery gifted to me by the Gods. I also came up with the idea to hide under the sheep as an escape route. Without my  idea, the crew would be minus a dozen crew mates and their witty leader, and probably doomed. I only regret that my foolish action fuled by pride and the victory after Troy lead to the dimsise of 6 of my men bringing the total losses to 78 men and no ships.

Lotus Eaters

Once my men and I had survived the storm we refer to as the Lotus Eater’s Island (the name shall become clearer as my tale goes on). After the men were safely out of the water and on the sand of the Island I sent of three of my men to get information from the inhabitants of the odd island as we had seen no one. Once they returned it was apparent that they had eaten the lotus flowers that we had seen growing on the Island, they were crazy saying that they had “no desire to return to Ithaca” and wished to live out the rest of their days on the Island. I realised that I needed to make the decision to leave the Island immediately or the rest of my men would have stayed on the island forever. This could have lead to mass mutiny and or the loss of my men in the hundred. So I tied up the men affected and ordered my crew to back on the ship for fear of losing hope for home to see my wonderful wife Penelope and to glimpse my son for the first time and see what a fine man he has become. We had only stayed on the island for less than a day and thank the gods lost no men or ships.

Ismaros

The first Island that my men and I encountered was called Ismaros. It was inhabited by people called the Kykones.

 Being victorious after the battle of Troy I decided to raid Ismaros where a man called Maron gave me many gallons of wine. Later once we had all of the wine stored I told my men to pull out however for some reason that to this day I still cannot fathom they mutinied and refused to pull out, perhaps the Kykones had put a spell on them or maybe they had drugged the wine. This gave the sneaky Kykones time to recuperate their loses and once they had recovered what we, as their guests, were entitled to, they then started to attack us: Warriors from the Trojan War! It would have been an easy fight had we not been so tired from fighting for 10 years however after a bit of time we were able to defeat them and the men finally saw sense and left the island with me.

Once we had departed the Island we attempted to make for Malea for three days however the Gods must have been angry at us as we were blown of course by the wind and a storm which took us ten days to reach land.It was dreadful and we all feared for the worse.However tragic that part of the journey was we were lucky as no ships were lost (praise to Zeus!)  although we did lost a substantial number of our crew: 72 men who had survived the vicious battles in the Trojan War for ten years to then be defeated by the might of a storm.

Overall my idea to raid the island was noble and just idea however it harmed my plan to get home to Ithaca as quickly as possible, I should have thought about the greedy nature of human kind, and factorised that in to my decision.

Disclaimer

Some of the events about Odysseus' journey are different from different translations. I have tried to cross reference the story's about the Island that are listed with in the Odyssey however some different sites say many different things. I have gone with the most widely found story's that I can however you may need to check with the copy and the Translation that you are using.

Welcome!

Welcome my Name is Odysseus! I am a warrior from the Trojian War which lasted a total of 10 years. We were victorious and I couldn't wait to get home to my Beloved wife, son and Ithaca my homeland. However my journey home was frought with hardships and it took me 10 years to get back home. This blog documents my jpurney home and how I the great Odysseus came home :)