Epic Timeline
Olivia Gabrielle, Abi Smith, Carson Sifford
Invocation
Sing in me Muse, and through me tell the story…” Odysseus tells the Muses (the daughters of Zeus) to tell the story of his travels.
Change in POV
Homer is near the end of his story, talking about Calypso, then the point of view switches to Odysseus. To this the strategist Odysseus answered “My lady goddess, there is no cause for anger.”
King Alcinous's Island
He washes up onto an island and is found by the daughter of Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians. That night they have Odysseus as a guest, they ask him to tell his story. “Now this was the reply Odysseus made “I am Laertes’ son, Odysseus.”When he tells the story to King Alcinous’s court is when the frame story starts. This is also a flashback.
Cicone
They landed on the coast of Cicone: His men raided the island for cattle and wine (against his orders), people went to go get their army, then they fought. Six benches on every ship were killed. “I stormed that place and killed the men who fought. My men were mutinous, fools, on stores of wine.”
The storm
It was storming so they took shelter for three days. He could have made it home but the current drifted them past Cythera for nine days. “Zeus the lord of cloud roused in the north a storm against the ships.”
The Lotus Eaters
Finally they landed on the Lotus Eaters island to rest and restock supplies. “Upon the tenth we came to the coastline of the Lotus Eaters, who live upon that flower. We landed there to take on water.”
Investigating is in action
He sent out two men and a runner to learn what kind of men where on the land. They find the lotus eaters. “Then I sent out two picked men and a runner to learn what race of men that land sustained. They fell in, soon enough, with Lotus Eaters."
Odysseus to the rescue
His men ate some Lotus flowers, Odysseus retrieved them and tied them up to their benches on the boat, and they left. “I drove them, all three wailing, to the ships, tied them down under their rowing benches.”
Cyclopes
They land on the island of the cyclops, where they wander into a cave and eat some cheese (which wasn’t theirs). Until the cyclops that lives there, Polyphemus, comes home with his sheep and closes them in. Polyphemus starts eating some men. “Are you wandering rogues, who cast your lives like dice, and ravage other folk by sea? We felt a pressure on our hearts, in dread of that deep rumble and that mighty man.”
Attack!
Polyphemus wakes up and leaves. When he’s gone they make a spear to stab his eye with. When he comes back they give him wine to make him fall asleep, then they stab his eye. Polyphemus eventually opens the cave so the sheep can eat and the men hide under the sheep to get out. “Straight forward they sprinted, lifted it, and rammed it deep in his crater eye, and I leaned on it turning it as a shipwright turns a drill”
Polyphemus gets angry
Odysseus then takes it too far by taunting Polyphemus, so he throws a bolder that barely misses the ship. Odysseus’ crew tries to stop him, but he keeps talking. After this Polyphemus prays to his father Poseidon to never let Odysseus get home. “O hear me, lord, blue girdler of the islands, if I am thine indeed, and thou art father: grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, never see his home”
Aeolus
They go to the wind king Aeolus, he gives them a bag of wind that will help them get home. On the way home his crew gets curious and thinks that Odysseus is hiding gold from them, so they open the bag. The winds pushes them back to Aeolus, he turns them away. “He puts all the stormy winds in a bag so that they will not harm the Ithacans. The bull’s-hide bag containing the winds is wedged under Odysseus’s afterdeck.”
The Cannibals
Then they sail to the island of the Laestrygonians who are gigantic cannibals, all his ships but one are destroyed. “On the island of the Laestrygonians, gigantic cannibals, all the ships but one are destroyed and their crews devoured.”
Circe
Then they go to Aeaea, the island of Circe. Odysseus’s men are turned into animals when they drink Circe’s magical wine. Hermes helps Odysseus out by giving him a special plant that makes him immune to the potion. But, Circe persuades him to stay with her for a couple years. “Scarce had they drunk when she flew after them with her long stick and shut them in a pigsty— bodies, voices, heads, and bristles, all swinish now, though minds were still unchanged.”
Teiresias
Circe tells Odysseus he has to go to the underworld to ask Teiresias the blind prophet for wisdom. Teiresias tells him that all his men will die except him, he will never return home, and that men have come to marry his wife. “But if you raid the beeves, I see destruction for ship and crew. Though you survive alone”
Later on obstacles
Then they go back to Circe and she warns them about the monsters that they will have to pass. The sirens, Syclla the 6 headed monster, and Charybdis the whirlpool. Listen with care to this, now, and a god will arm your mind.Square in your ship’s path are Sirens
Helios and The cattle.
Then they stop to take a rest on Thrinakia the island of the sun god Helios. Odysseus makes them promise not to touch the cattle. But, as usual they don’t listen so they all die except Odysseus. “Old shipmates, our stores are in the ship’s hold, food and drink;the cattle here are not for our provision, or we pay dearly for it.”
Odysseus comes home.
Then Odysseus goes home and Athena disguises him as a beggar to get his kingdom back. (This is divine intervention) “Because his home is full of enemies, she advises him to proceed disguised as a beggar. Now Odysseus must succeed not only by physical power but also by intelligence.”
First Challenge
He passes the challenge Penelope sets for the suitors, and kills them with the help of Athena. Which is stringing Odysseus’s bow and shooting an arrow through some some ax handles. “There will be killing till the score is paid.You forced yourselves upon this house. Fight your way out, or run for it, if you think you’ll escape death.”
Second Challenge
Penelope then challenges him again by wanting to move the bed (which is un-moveable), Odysseus gets upset because the bed is carved out of the tree and they built their house around the tree. In that moment she knew it was really him. “Then I lopped off the silvery leaves and branches, hewed and shaped the stump from the roots up into a bedpost, drilled it, let it serve as model for the rest”