Sing in me, Muse, and through
me tell the story of that man
skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years
on end, after he plundered the
stronghold on the proud height
.
of Troy. He saw the townlands
and learned the minds of many
distant men, and weathered
many bitter nights and days
in his deep heart at sea, while
he fought only to save his life, to
bring his shipmates home.
(1: 1-10)
Muses
Calypso
Book 1
Timeline
Mount
Olympus
Zeus
Athena
The grey-eyed goddess Athena
replied to Zeus:
“O Majesty, O Father of us all…
my own heart is broken for
Odysseus, the master mind of
war, so long a castaway upon
an island in the running sea
(1:63-69)
Zeus
Athena
“Only the god who laps the land in
water, Poseidon, bears the fighter
an old grudge since he poked out
the eye of Polyphêmos, brawniest
of the Kyklopês…”
(1:90-93)
Cyclops
Poseidon
“…let the Wayfinder,
Hermês, cross the
sea to the island of
Og´ygia; let him tell
our fixed intent to
the nymph with
pretty braids, and
let the steadfast
man depart for
home.
(1:109-112)
“I shall visit
Ithaka to
put more
courage in
the son, and
rouse him
(1: 113-115)
Meanwhile
back in
Ithaka…
Suitors
Telemachus
“It is easy for these men to
like these things…they have an
easy life, scot free, eating the
livestock of another.”
(1: 196-98)
Never
“But never in
this world is
Odysseus
dead– only
detained
somewhere on
the wide sea…”
(1: 240-241)
“How arrogant they seem,
these gluttons, making free
here in your house! A sensible
man would blush to be among
them.”
(1: 272-274)
Then here’s a course for you, if you agree:
get a sound craft afloat with twenty oars
and go abroad for news of your lost father—
Then here’s a
course for you,
if you agree: get
a sound craft
afloat with
twenty oars and
go abroad for
news of your
lost father—
(1: 325-326)
You need not bear this insolence of theirs,
you are a child no longer
“You need not
bear this
insolence of
theirs, you are
a child no
longer.”
(1: 342-343)
Book 2