Chapter Twenty-One
Lecture One
The Return of Odysseus
The Return of Odysseus
• More folktale patterns than the Iliad
• Ends happily, hence it was compared with
comedy, not tragedy (as was the Iliad)
An Overview of Odysseus's
Life
Not in the text, but perhaps useful
to set the context
Overview of Odysseus's Life
• The Odyssey begins in the 20th year after
the beginning of the war
• The first half of the epic is embedded
memories; songs within songs
• The great adventures of the Odyssey are
memories
Overview of Odysseus's Life
• Laertes, king of Ithaca and son of
Autolycus, marries Anticleia
• Their household slave is Eurycleia
• Son, Odysseus
• Odysseus has a dog, Argus and a special
hunting bow
Overview of Odysseus's Life
• Odysseus marries Penelope, daughter of
the Spartan King Icarius
• Builds a bed build around a tree
• Odysseus joins the expedition after their
son Telemachus is born
• His advice to Penelope: “If I don’t return,
remarry when Telemachus comes of age.”
Overview of Odysseus's Life
• After the war, for years, he is blown
around the Mediterranean
– Cicones, Lotus-Eaters, Cyclops Polyphemus,
Aeolus, Laestrygonians, Circe
• The underworld
• Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the cattle of
the Sun, Ogygia and Calypso
Overview of Odysseus's Life
• In the 17th year of his absence, 108
suitors begin coming to Odysseus’s palace
• The Odyssey begins in the 20th year
• The gods decide it is time for Odysseus to
go home
Outline of the Odyssey
• Begins when the gods decide Odysseus should
return and when events in Ithaca have reached
a crisis point.
Books 1–4 “Telemacheia”
• Stirred by Athena, Telemachus fails to rally
the men of Ithaca against the suitors
• Then, accompanied by Athena disguised
as Mentor, he goes to find news of his
father
• Nestor in Pylos; Menelaus in Sparta
• The suitors learn he is away and plan an
ambush when he returns
Outline of the Odyssey
• Book 5: Calypso releases Odysseus, but
he is nearly killed by Poseidon
• Books 6–7: Odysseus lands on Scherie,
the island of the Phaeacians
– saved by Nausicaa, the daughter of the king,
and taken to the palace
• Books 8–12: Odysseus finally says who he
is, and relates the tales of his adventures
at Troy
Outline of the Odyssey
• Books 13–21: Odysseus arrives in Ithaca,
but disguises himself as a beggar,
undergoing various forms of abuse at the
hands of the suitors and others
• Books 21–2: the contest and the slaughter
of the suitors
Outline of the Odyssey
• Book 23–4: Odysseus proves to Penelope
that he is Odysseus, ghosts of the suitors
in the underworld; battle between
Odysseus and his allies and the relatives
of the suitors; Zeus and Athena intervene;
Odysseus makes a symbolic end to his
travels.
End