Book xii
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Odysseus and his men sail to Kirke’s island
They bury Elpenor on the island
Kirke warns Odysseus of the Seirenes, the
threat of drifting rocks, and Kharybdis
After these obstacles would come the island of
the cattle of the sun, or Apollo, Thrinakia
The cattle on this island is sacred to Apollo and
must not be disturbed
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When Odysseus and his men meet with the
seirenes, Odysseus must give each one of his men
earplugs made of earwax so avoid being lulled by
the Seirenes’ beautiful singings
Odysseus wished to listen to their songs, so to
avoid being lulled by them, he ordered his
shipmates to tie him to the mast so that he does not
give in to the Sirens’ beauty
To avoid Kharybdis, the whirlpool, Kirke advises
Odysseus to sail close to the cave of Skylla, where
the six-headed monster will only take six of his
men, rather than losing all of them in Kharybdis
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This is the sacred island of Apollo, or Helios,
where his cattle graze, fine herds, and flocks of
goodly sheep.
The heards and flocks are seven and fifty each
The life, including the two shepherds
(nymphs), are immortal
Kirke warned Odysseus to leave the life on the
island alone or Apollo would not be happy and
punish Odysseus and his men
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That same night, Odysseus had relayed his info
from Kirke to his men, and they followed his
instructions the next day
However, he purposely left out the part of Skylla
and Kharybdis to avoid a revolt
As soon as they neared the island of the Seirenes,
everyone of Odysseus’s crew put in their beeswax
earplugs, and tied Odysseus to the mast so tight
that he could not escape no matter how lulling the
music was
He later described the music to his crew, but
encouragingly told his crew to keep moving
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The crew rowed faster and watched the
Kharybdis on their left vomiting up debris.
While they watched Skylla ate six crew men
Odysseus heard yelling but had his men row
faster
Once they were out of danger, they started to
near the island, Thrinakia
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Odysseus tried to get his men to row past
Thrinakia, but the crew did not want to row
through the night, and Eurylokhos promised not to
disturb the life on Thrinakia
So Odysseus complied and landed on the island,
ate, and mourned the six that they had lost
They become stranded on the island for 20 days
due to stormy weather
When Odysseus had gone on into the island to
pray alone, Eurylokhos ecouraged the men to kill
the cattle and make an elaborate sacrifice to the
gods
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Odysseus awoke from a nap and smelled the
smoke, and immediately prayed to Zeus as he
had realized what his men had done
Apollo went to Zeus to ask for revenge, and
Zeus promised to avenge Apollo
Once the men had left Thrinakia, Zeus split
their ship in half with a lightening bolt
All of Odysseus’s men were killed, but he
survived and floated of some debris toward
Skylla and Kharybdis
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Odysseus was almost sucked down into the
whirlpool, but jumped at the last second and
held onto a fig tree.
He waited for the whirlpool to spit out the
ship’s debris and jumped back onto it
He then floated to the island of Kalypso
**This is where he started and ended his story**