Jordan Selep, Christian Kelly, Anne Steen, Erin Casey, Melody MacLauchlan
The Odyseey Key Scene:
(Odysseus and crew spot the island of Helios)
*Odysseus’ Flashback*
(Odysseus is in the House of Hades asking Teiresias how he
can return home.)
Teiresias: “‘ You seek to return home, mighty Odysseus [...]
But God will make your voyage hard and dangerous [...]
Nevertheless, you may all get safe home still, although not
without suffering much, if you can control yourself and your
companions when you have traversed the sea as far as the island of Thrinacia. There you
will find the cattle and sheep of Helios [...] If you sail on without hurting them you may come
safe to Ithaca [...] But if you do hurt them, then I foretell destruction for your ship and your
crew,” (135-136).
*End of Flashback*
Odysseus: “Men, you are having a hard time of it, I know that, but listen to me a moment: I
want to tell you a warning of Teiresias and of Circe also. They strictly forbade us to land on
the island of Helios: for there they said an awful danger awaits us,” (155).
(The crew is exhausted and hungry. As they hear Odysseus say they will not be stopping at
the next island they become angered)
Eurylochos: “Here are your men, tired to death and scarce able to keep awake, and you
won’t let us go ashore on this island and cook a square meal.”(156).
(crew members cheer on Eurylochos in his rant.
Odysseus: (realizing he cannot win) “Eurylochos, I must give way to force. I am against
many. But you must swear a solemn oath, that if we find a herd of cattle or a flock of sheep
no one shall dare to kill one cow or one sheep,” (156).
(The crew members eagerly swore to the oath as the ship went towards shore. Crew
feasted on food and wine stored on the ship)
*1 month later*
(The ship is still stationed in the shore of the island Thrinacia as the lack of wind prevents
the ship from sailing. Food finally ran dry, and the men are starving.)
Eurylochos: “[...] you are in a bad way [...] Come along, let us drive off the best of these
cattle, and sacrifice them to the immortal gods[...]” (157).
(After hearing Eurylochos’ speech the other men killed Helios’ cattle to sacrifice to the gods
and also ate some of the cattle themselves.)
Helios: (After Helios became aware of the state of his cattle from a messenger, he prayed to
Zeus) “Punish those men of Odysseus Laertiades!” (158).
Odysseus
and his crew
Helios’
cattle
Reasoning:
These scenes are by far the most important and influential to Odysseus and the
audience because they learn about what they need to do in order to return to Ithaca.
Although they learn that the journey will be difficult, this gives them a pathway. It is also key
for Odysseus to learn what to do, for Circe and Teiresias’ direction of not to harm Helios’
cattle. This meeting in Hades foreshadows the fate of Odysseus and his crew. We then
jump forward to the very scene where Helios gets angry and Zeus intervenes. We have
determined that the best way to cut costs was to leave out some insignificant scenes that
don’t necessarily correlate to the main plot of the story. We will not include the scene where
Odysseus lists all of the people he meets down in the underworld with the exception of his
mother, Achilles, and Agamemnon. We also believe that it is unnecessary to keep the
scene with the two monsters, Scylla and Charybdis. We decided to cut this scene because
it is already inherent from Teiresias’ words that Odysseus and his crew will find trouble on
the way. And lastly, we feel that the scene where Odysseus returns to Circe’s island to bury
his dead comrade who fell off the roof is also unnecessary for the main idea of this part of
the play.