BOOKS 9-12

Books 9-12:

In which Odysseus recounts his journey thus far

Book 9: Odysseus and his men end up on the land of Cyclopes. Odysseus ends up stabbing Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, in the eye and thus causes Poseidon to have a beef with him (as in a problem with him, not an actual cow. That comes later).

Book 10: Odysseus and his men sail to the home of Aeolus, ruler of the winds. He gives Odysseus a bag of winds to help guide him home, but seals it tightly shut. The men are off, and are just off shore of their homeland when Odysseus falls asleep. Curiosity of the men gets the best of them, and they open the bag, propelling the ship quickly away from their land. They sail to the land of the Laestrygonians, who end up being really mean giants and destroy all but one of Odysseus’ ships. Next they sail to Aeaea, home of Circe. She turns his men into pigs, but Odysseus is helped by Hermes and forces her to turn them back to men. They live here for one year, but they finally leave to go to Hades and speak with the prophet Tiresias.

Book 11: Odysseus travels to the River of Ocean in the land of the Cimmerians. He preforms a sacrifice and speaks to Tiersias, who foretells Odysseus’ fate – that he would return home, reclaim his wife and palace, and make another trip to a distant land to try and patch things up with Poseiodon. He warns Odysseus not to touch the flocks of the sun, otherwise he won’t return home without more hardships and losing all of his crew. He then meets the spirit of his mother, who had died after Odysseus left for Troy. He then speaks of the various people he met in the underworld, and how the souls mobbed him and he sailed away.

Book 12: They head back to Circe’s island to give a proper burial to a newly deceased crewmember, then kept sailing. They passed by the island of the Sirens. His crew have their ears plugged, but Odysseus is tied to the mast and listens to their song. After this, they navigate the straits between Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla eats six of the sailors. The rest arrive on Thrinicia, and after being stranded for a month, his crew eat the cattle. They finally sail off the island, and Zeus destroys the ship and kills everyone except Odysseus. Odysseus ends up on Calypso’s island.

Theme: succumbing to temptation

They spend a long time on Circe’s island (1 year)

            Killing the cattle even though they weren’t supposed to

Character List:

Polyphemus

Aeolus

Antiphates

Circe

Elpenor

Tiresias

Anticleia

Agamemnon

Achilles

Ajax

Charybdis

Scylla

Eurylochus