The Odyssey
Books I – II Summary
• Odysseus’ trials on his journey home from
Troy.
• The story then turns to Telemachus
interacting with Athena and dealing with
the suitors.
• Telemachus takes on the role of a leader
and openly condemns the suitors and
plans to sail for news of his father.
I – II: Important motifs and themes
• In Medias Res: in the middle
of the journey
• Denied Nostos: homecoming
• Omens from the gods:
promise coming from
Athena and the eagles
• A crafty family: Penelope’s
cleverness
• From child to man:
Telemachus’ journey
Books III-Iv Summary
• Telemakhos sails to Pylos and meets Nestor and
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his sons.
Hekatombs take place. What is the news that
Nestor speaks of?
Meets Menelaus and Helen
Menelaus traveled the world and acquired
wealth
Menelaus and Helen discuss Odysseus in stories
What happened after the war? What news of
Odysseus?
Penelope laments and the men plan to stop
Telemakhos
III-IV: Important motifs and themes
• Hekatombs and paying honor to
the gods
• xenia (hospitality)
• Orestes as the example of the
avenging son – a FOIL to
Telemakhos
• Athena’s support and open
transformation
• Weak freeloaders plotting murder
– the unguarded home
Books V-VI Summary
• Zeus sends Hermes to tell Kalypso to release
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Odysseus.
Kalypso complains of the gods’ double standards.
18 days at sea, sighting Scheria, Poseidon returns
Poseidon’s wrath… Ino’s veil and a river bring
safety
Athena’s dream to Nausicaa
Naked pleading and post-bathed Odysseus
Nausicaa’s instructions to Odysseus
V-VI: Important motifs and themes
• Odysseus, very self-
confident and deliberative…
almost to fault.
• Different from the Iliad, the
man.. not just the hero.
• The double-standard in
terms of mating. Gods and
mortals, men and women.
Books VII-VIII Summary
• Alkinoos having a festival to Poseidon
• Odysseus appears at his wife Arete’s knees
• Alkinoos impressed with Odysseus, thinks he’s a
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god, offers his daughter’s hand
Odysseus is provided a ship to return home
The minstrel Demodokos speaks of a fight,
bringing emotion to Odysseus
Seareach’s accusation and loss
Story of Aphrodite and Ares’ affair
Odysseus cries at tale of Trojan horse, identity is?
VII-VIII: Important motifs and themes
• Flings vs. familial
responsibility
• The adventure-
seeking foolish youth
vs. the pains of an
experienced hero
• The meanings of
names
Book IX Summary
• Sacking the city of Ismarus, loss of men
• The Lotus eaters
• Killing of goats on the island of the
Kyklopses
• Try to steal sheep from Polyphemus’ cave
• Men eaten or part of the future meal plan
• Polyphemus drunk and blinded
• “Nobody” and escape under the sheep
• One pompous cry
IX: Important motifs and themes
• The temptations of
the world in a
negative light
• Horrible guests and
hosts
• Kleos and Hubris –
dooming qualities
Book X-XII Summary
• Aeolus and the winds
• Antiphates and the giants
• Circe, pigs, and a year of rest
• HELL – Tiresias’ prophecy, a mother’s tears,
old comrades, & questionable women
• The Sirens
• Scylla and Charybdis
• Thrinacria and Helios’ flock
X-XII: Important motifs and themes
• Temptation preventing
nostos – Odysseus as well
• Those diabolical, cheating
women
• Kleos isn’t all that
it’s cracked up to be,
but still important
Book XIII-XIV Summary
• The Phaiakans send Odysseus home with
his gifts, asleep on Ithaka
• The Phaiakans are rewarded by having their
ship turn to stone
• Odysseus awakes and meets Athena,
deception vs. deception
• In disguise he goes to swineheard Eumaios
• A story of a life in Krete and Odysseus still
being alive
XIII-XIV: Important motifs and themes
• Disguises for the sake of
information gathering –
patience above all
• And you get kleos! And you
get kleos! And you get kleos!
• Xenia isn’t important when
you have family relations to
keep happy
Book XV-XVI Summary
• Athena urges Telemakhos to return home in secret
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- Bird omen 1.
Telemakhos bypasses a greeting to Nestor and
also brings along Theoclymenus.
Odysseus tests the swineherd’s xenia and shares
stories
Telemakhos returns to the hut, bird omen 2, and
sends Eumaios out with a message to his mother
Odysseus sheds his disguise and the father and
son embrace and discuss plans
The suitors, good and bad, talk to Penelope about
the plan to kill Telemakhos
XV-XVI: Important motifs and themes
• Meeting in a swineherd’s
hut = real, emotional
humans
• Bird omens
• Antinous vs. Amphinomus
• Xenia can be bypassed in
situations of urgency
BookS XVII-XVIII Summary
• Telemakhos gives his mother hope with news of
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Odysseus, Theoclymenus swears that Odysseus is in
Ithaca
Odysseus abused by Melanthius, words with
Antinoos, then injured by him
Penelope is told by Eumaios of the beggar’s story
and wishes to meet him, which Odysseus will do
later
Odysseus kicks Irus’s butt, Amphinomus given the
opportunity to leave
Penelope speaks to the suitors with glamour and
cunning, Melantho ridicules Odysseus, and more
broken furniture
XVII-XVIII: Important motifs and themes
• “Of all that breathes and crawls
across the earth,
Our mother earth breeds nothing
feebler than a man.”
• Mercy for Amphinomus? Pfft,
Athena wants blood!
• Worse and worse actions from
Antinoos and others. A sign of
moral weakness, especially from
one highborn. Foils.
Encouraging their future
slaughter.
BookS XIX – XX Summary
• Odysseus has an audience with Penelope.
• Proves that he met… himself… and tells her
Odysseus shall return within the month
• Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus
• The eagle and 12 geese
• Penelope decides to remarry one who can
shoot the arrow… she begs Artemis to kill her
• Suitors plot murder, eagle + dove, Athena
encourages their arrogance to enrage
• COW HOOF!
XIX-XX: Important motifs and themes
• All portents, all the time!…
all bloody (blood,
thunderclap, etc)
• The wish for the suitors’
demise. The maid, the
herdsman, etc.
• Repetition at work.
BookS XXI – XXII Summary
• The suitors attempt to string the bow
• Odysseus reveals himself to the swineherd
and shepherd
• Odysseus requests a chance to string the bow
• SUCCESS! All is revealed and Antinoos is
killed
• Odysseus’ party gets weapons and fight,
Melanthius gets weapons for the suitors and
is trapped, Athena ends it
• Ladies clean and are killed, Melanthius
XXI-XXII: Important motifs and themes
• The bow brings Odysseus’ story full circle
• People “fall” from their own flaws
BookS XXIII – XXIV Summary
• Penelope in doubt
• Odysseus argues that the olive tree bed
cannot be moved
• Odysseus recounts his voyage and the
prophecy
• Suitors in the underworld
• Odysseus visits Laertes
• Fathers have an uprising, Laertes is a beast,
all accept Odysseus as king
XXIII-XXIV: Important motifs
and themes
• A love through
cleverness
…no one can move their
wedding bed