Answer Key to Reading Road Map: Section 3
Location
Island of Aiolia
pg119-120
General Answer to Question
This is the island of the keeper of the winds, Aiolos Hippotades. He has
six sons and six daughters each of whom he gave as a wife to his sons.
The king offered his hospitality to Odysseus and gave Odysseus all of the
winds, except the west wind which would guide them home, in an
enclosed bag. Odysseus’ crew secretly opened the bag and they floated
back to the island of Aiolia where the king refused his hospitality because
he believed that Odysseus was cursed by the gods.
Laistrygonians pg
123-122
The Laistrogonians threw massive stones and Odysseus and his crew.
Odysseus’ ship was the only ship that escaped the massacre.
The Island of Aiaia
(home of the
goddess Circe) pg
123-133
Circe was the goddess of Dawn who had entrancing powers over men.
He turned half of Odysseus’ crew into pigs. Before Odysseus could
leave for home, Circe told him he must travel to Hades to ask for
directions from the blind prophet Teiresias.
The House of Hades
pg 134-141
Teiresias prophesizes: 1) Odysseus will return home to Ithaca but not
without suffering for blinding Poseidon’s son. 2) Odysseus will travel to
the island of Helios, and if he manages to sail past the island without
hurting Helios’ cattle, he will return safely. 3) If Odysseus hurts the
cattle, there will be grave destruction which if he escapes, he will end up
losing all of his men and returning home miserable and late. 4) Odysseus
will find strangers in his home, and once he has killed them he will need
to make sacrifice to Poseidon in a land where the people do not known of
the sea.
Odysseus meets Agamemnon, his mother, Elpenor (who had fallen of
Circe’s roof and died that morning), Sisyphus, Hercules, and various
heroes.
Aiaia pg 149-152
Odysseus and his men must properly bury their crewmate Elpenor.
Past Sirens pg 153154
The Sirens bewitched men with their melodious singing. If any man
drew near the Sirens, he would never return home.
Straight with Scylla
and Charybdis pg
154-155
Scylla- She has six heads attached to long necks and twelve feet. Each
head has three rows of teeth. She lives in a cave and yelps.
Charybdis- She lives under a wild fig tree and swallows the ocean three
times each day.
The Island of
Thrinacia (Home of
Helios, the sun god)
pg 155-159
Odysseus wanted to avoid hurting Helios’ cattle and losing all of his men
as Teiresias had prophesized. Eurylochos argued that all of the men
deserve a square meal and they need rest. After spending some time on
the island, Eurlyochos told the crew that he would rather drown quickly
than starve to death. Eurylochos also said that the crew shall sacrifice to
Helios some of the cattle, and if they are allowed to return home safely,
they will build Helios a temple.
Back past Scylla and
Charybdis pg 159
After eating the cattle on the Island of Thrinacia, the gods punished
Odysseus and his men and struck Odysseus’ ship with lightning.
Odysseus held on to a piece on the wrecked ship and floated past the
monsters. When he was near Charybdis, he held onto the tree tightly so
that he was not swallowed with the sea. After Charybdis spit out the sea,
Odysseus continued floating.
Island of Ogygia
(Home of Calypso)
pg 159-160
Labeled on map.