Trip Tracker Information
Troy
Crafty Odysseus devised a plan that ultimately doomed the city of Troy and the Trojans. Sending all the Greek ships
away or into hiding, it appeared to the Trojans that the Greeks had given up. The Greeks left a parting gift in front of
the walls of the city of Troy--- it was a giant wooden horse which appeared to be an offering to Athena -- a peace
offering. The jubilant Trojans dragged the monstrous, wheeled, wooden horse into their city to celebrate the end of the
10 years of fighting.
That night, while the Trojans were more than a little comatose from too much drinking, the Greeks slipped quietly out
the trap door Odysseus had had built in the horse's belly. Killing Trojans and setting fire to the city, they quickly won
the war.
Land of the Cicones
Odysseus and his men sail to the island of the Cicones. The Cicones come over the hill like blades of grass in the spring
and Odysseus and his men slaughter all of the Cicone's horseback soldiers, enslave the women, and kill all of their
stock.
Land of the Lotus Eaters
After leaving the land of the Cicones, Odysseus and his men sail to the Island of the Lotus Eaters. Some of Odysseus'
men eat the lotus. The lotus is a drug-like plant that make those who taste it never want to leave or go home. Odysseus
drags his men back to the ship and they continue their journey.
Land of the Cyclops
Odysseus and his men then land on the Island of the Cyclopes. They search the island for food and gifts and eventually
come to an abandoned cave. They wait for the owner of the cave to come home. The owner of the cave is a one-eyed
Cyclops named Polyphemus. Rather than treating his guests to gifts and food, Polyphemus eats a Odysseus' men.
The door to the cave is covered by a great rock and Odysseus and his men are trapped. The Cyclops asks Odysseus his
name and he tells him that it is Nohbody. Odysseus then offers some wine for the Cyclops to wash down his crewmen.
The Cyclops then gets drunk and Odysseus and his men put his plan into action. Odysseus and his men sharpen a
wooden pole and burn the tip to make it hard and sharp. Then, while Polyphemus is sleeping, they drive the pole into
his eyeball. Polyphemus screams in pain and calls to his brothers telling them that "Nohbody has hurt him." The
brothers, assuming that nothing is wrong, go home.
Odysseus then ties each of his men to one of Polyphemus' sheep. He then grabs hold of the underside of the largest ram
and waits until morning when Polyphemus lets his sheep out to graze.
The next morning Odysseus and his men sneak past the Cyclops underneath the sheep and then run to the ship when
they get outside. Odysseus then taunts Polyphemus. Polyphemus begins to throw rocks at Odysseus and his crew and
almost hits them with one. Odysseus then tells Polyphemus that it was Odysseus that tricked him. In retaliation,
Polyphemus tells his father, Poseidon, about Odysseus blinding him. Poseidon then curses Odysseus to wander the sea
for ten years, during which he would lose all his crew and return home through the aid of others
Island of Aeolus
After leaving the Cyclopes’ island, Odysseus and his men sail to Aeolia. This is the place where Aeolus, the wind king
lives. He gives Odysseus a gift of stormy winds in a bag so they will be able to sail back to Ithaca. As they come upon
Ithaca, the men become mutinous and open the bag. As the stormy winds are released, the men are blown astray and
end up on the island of Aeaea.
Land of the Laestrygonians
The Laestrygonians are a tribe of giant cannibals from ancient Greek mythology. Odysseus, the main character of
Homer's Odyssey, visited them during his journey back home to Ithaca. The giants ate many of Odysseus' men and
destroyed eleven of his twelve ships by launching rocks, from high cliffs. Odysseus' ship was not destroyed as it was
hidden in a cove near shore. Everyone on Odysseus' ship survived.
Circe’s Island
The next stop was Aeaea, the island of the enchantress Circe, where Odysseus sent ahead a scouting party. Circe
invited the scouting party to a feast, and turned all the men into swine after they ate food laced with one of her magical
sleep-inducing potions. Only Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus and the
others, who had stayed behind with the ships.
Odysseus, against his fellows' bidding, set forth to rescue his transfigured men but was intercepted by Hermes and told
to procure the herb moly, which would protect him from a similar fate. When it snubbed her magic, he threatened to kill
her. She begged for mercy, and offered to sleep with him. He forced her to swear to not plot against him any longer,
then obliged by Hermes's counsel. He then refused to eat and drink until his crew was turned back into humans. This
she did, and then asked Odysseus to stay. This he did, for an entire year. He eventually left Aeaea at the insistence of
his crew, with whom Circe agreed. She gave him advice about the remainder of his journey. During the preparation for
departure, however, Odysseus's youngest crewman, Elpenor, fell from a roof and died.
Land of the Dead
After speaking to Circe, Odysseus decided to talk with Tiresias, so he and his men journeyed to the River Acheron in
Hades, where they performed sacrifices which allowed them to speak to the dead. Odysseus sacrificed a ram, attracting
the dead spirits to the blood. He held them at bay and demanded to speak with Tiresias, who told him how to pass by
Helios's cattle and the whirlpool Charybdis. Tiresias also told him that, after his return to Ithaca, he must take a wellmade oar and walk inland with it to parts where no-one mixes sea salt with food, until someone asks him why he
carries a winnowing fan. At that place, he must fix the oar in the ground and make a sacrifice to appease Poseidon.
Tiresias also told Odysseus that, after that was done, he would die an old man, "full of years and peace of mind"; his
death would come from the sea and his life ebb away gently. (Some read this as saying that his death would come away
from the sea.)
While in Hades, Odysseus also met Achilles (who told him that he would rather be a slave on earth than the king of the
dead), Agamemnon, and his mother, Anticlea. The soul of Ajax, still sulking about Achilles's armor, refused to speak to
Odysseus, despite the latter's pleas of regret.
Odysseus also met his comrade, Elpenor, who told him of the manner of his death and begged him to give him an
honorable burial.
Sirens
Circe had warned Odysseus of the dangers of the singing creatures who lured men to their death on the rocks around
their island. She advised him to avoid them but said that, if he really felt that he must, he should have his men plug
their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast to keep him from escaping.
Odysseus had his men do so. As they passed the island, the three Sirens began to sing beautifully, promising him
wisdom and knowledge of past and future. Enchanted by their song, he struggled and tried to break free, but two of his
men bound him even more tightly until they passed beyond the island.
Scylla and Charybdis
Odysseus had been told by Circe that he would have a choice between two paths home. One was the Wandering Rocks,
where either all made it through or all died, and which had only been passed by Jason, with Zeus's help. Odysseus,
however, chose the second path: on one side of the strait was a whirlpool called Charybdis, which would sink the ship;
on the other was a monster called Scylla, daughter of Crataeis, who had six heads and could seize and eat six men.
The advice was to sail close to Scylla and lose six men but not to fight, lest they should lose more men. Odysseus did
not dare tell his crew of the sacrifice, or they would have cowered below and not rowed, in which case all would have
ended up in Charybdis. Six men duly died. Odysseus announced that the desperate cries of the wretched, betrayed men
were the worst thing he had ever known. Undoubtedly this affected morale and left the survivors feeling mutinous.
Island of the Cattle of the Sun God
Finally, Odysseus and his surviving crew approached an island, Thrinacia, which was sacred to Helios, who kept
hallowed cattle there. Odysseus, having been warned by Tiresias and Circe not to touch these cattle, told his men that
they would not land there. Eurylochus first argued that the men were mourning, then refused to travel by night and
finally threatened mutiny. Outnumbered, Odysseus gave in.
The men were soon trapped on the island by adverse winds and, after their food stores had run out, began to get hungry.
Odysseus went inland to pray for help and fell asleep. In his absence, Eurylochus reasoned that they might as well eat
the cattle and be killed by the gods as die of starvation, and claimed that they would offer sacrifices and treasure to
appease the gods if they returned alive to Ithaca. When they slaughtered the cattle, the guardians of the island, Helios's
daughters Lampetia and Phaethusa, told their father, who told to Zeus that he would take the sun down to Hades if
justice was not done. Zeus destroyed the ship with a thunderbolt, killing all but Odysseus. After sweeping past Scylla
and Charybdis, whom he luckily escaped once more, he was washed up on an island.
Calypso’s Island
The island, Ogygia, was home to the nymph Calypso (daughter of Atlas), who held Odysseus captive as her lover for
seven years, promising him immortality if he agreed to stay. He was strongly attracted to her by night but wept by the
shore for home and family by day. On behalf of Athena, Zeus intervened and sent Hermes to tell Calypso to let him go.
Land of the Phaeacians
Odysseus duly departed on a small raft, furnished by Calypso with provisions of water, wine and food, only to be hit by
a storm from his old enemy Poseidon. He was washed up on the island of Scheria and found by Nausicaa, the daughter
of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, who entertained him well. The bard Demodocus sung a song
about the Trojan war. As Odysseus, as yet unidentified by the Phaeacians, had been at Troy and longed to return home,
he wept at it, at which point Alcinous pressed him for his true identity.
It is here that we are given the story of Odysseus's trip from Troy to Scheria, which occupies books nine to twelve of
The Odyssey. After his recital, the Phaeacians offer him passage home, with all the hoardings he obtained along the
way and the gifts the Phaecians themselves bestowed upon him (showing xenia, the idea of guest friendship). King
Alcinous provided one fast Phæacian ship that soon[10] carried Odysseus home to Ithaca.
Poseidon, on seeing Odysseus's return, was furious and decided to cast a ring of mountains around Scheria so that they
could never sail again. This would naturally have been damaging to the Phaeacians, for they were seafarers, but Zeus
persuaded Poseidon not to go ahead with the idea. Instead, he turned the ship on which Odysseus journeyed home to
stone.