Odysseus’s Journey
The Island of the
Cicones
• Odysseus and his men raid the island
for supplies.
• Cicones attack on horseback, and
Odysseus loses 72 men.
The Lotus Eaters
• Odysseus sends his men out to look
for food.
• They eat the Lotus Flower and forget
about home.
The Cyclops
• Odysseus and his men enter Polyphemus’s
cave and eat his cheese and drink his wine.
• Odysseus calls himself Nobody.
• Trapped in the cave, the men blind the
Cyclops and sneak out under the sheep.
• Odysseus reveals his real name.
• Poseidon seeks revenge.
Aeolus
• Aeolus, caretaker of the wind, gives
Odysseus all of the bad winds so that
he can sail home.
• Odysseus's men go against his orders
and open the bag of wind just when
they have Ithaca in their sights.
The Laestrygonians
• The Laestrygonians, a race of giant
cannibals, eat the Greeks and
destroy their ships.
• Only the men on Odysseus’s ship
survive.
Circe
• Circe, a witch, turns Odysseus’s men to
swine.
• Hermes helps Odysseus by giving him an
herb that will render him immune to
Circe’s spell.
• Odysseus stays for what seems like a
short time but is really several years.
• Circe tells Odysseus to find Teiresias in
the underworld.
The Underworld
• Odysseus consults Teiresias.
• Odysseus sees his mother, Achilles,
and a former member of his crew.
The Sirens
• Odysseus and his men pass here, an
island with women singing their luring
songs, trying to reel in sailors.
• So they do not hear, Odysseus fills
his men’s ears with beeswax, and he
has them tie him to the mast.
Scylla and Charybdis
• Odysseus enters the straits with a
dilemma – either face Scylla a sixheaded serpent or the whirlpool
mouth of Charybdis.
• Odysseus chooses Scylla, thus only
losing six men.
The Island of Helios
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•
•
•
Odysseus falls asleep.
His men eat Helios’s cattle.
Zeus destroys Odysseus’s crew.
Only Odysseus survives.
Ogygia (Calypso’s Island)
• Odysseus finds this island of women
after drifting at sea.
• Odysseus has a seven year affair
with Calypso.
• Hermes convinces Calypso to let
Odysseus go.
The Island of the
Phaecians
• The Phaecians accept Odysseus, and
he explains his 10 year journey to
them during a feast.
• They happily give him a ride home on
one of their magical ships.
Ithaca
• HOME!