The
Odyssey. The second most important work by
Homer? Well,
some people say that the book is the work from one or more writers, or at
least that there are additions from some other authors ... but this is not what
brought us here.
The
Odyssey gets its name from its main
character, Odysseus. This hero was the husband of
Penelope,
with whom they had a son named Telemach. During his return from the Trojan
war with his12 ships, he and his team had very bad luck (if we can call
it luck, as Gods were responsible of all events). It started when,
trapped inside a
storm when they were almost next to their home, the waters took them far
away from their way up to the north coast of Africa.
There they were friendly received
by the Lotophagen, stayed for a short while, and continued their trip.
After, they arrived to the land of the single-eyed giant
Polyphem.
The Cyclop captured Odysseus and his people and started to eat
them one by one. But suddenly Odysseus had an idea and offered some wine
to the Cyclop, who of course didn't rejected it. After some glasses, the
giant was starting to get drunk. Then he asked the hero about his
name because he wanted to eat him the last as a gratitude for offering him
such a delicious drink. Odysseus answered his name was Utis, which
in ancient Greek means "nobody". They continued drinking and, when the
giant fall asleep completely drunk, Odysseus called his team and
they stuck a sharp stake in Polyphem's big eye.
When the giant woke up from the pain the
team had already ran away, so he called on his brothers for help. They
asked him who had attacked him, but the answer was that Nobody had
blinded him, that Nobody had taken his sight away. At this point,
the brothers turned around and gave him up for crazy.
This way the crew managed to escape and they
continued their trip back. What they did not know, was that their trip
was still to last around ten more years and that not all of them would see
their homeland again.
Soon they
left the island of Aiolia behind, where the wind demon lived, and got to
the island of Kirke, the daughter of the sun God Helios and sister of
Aietes, the king of Kolchis.
Gods / Heroes / The Danaids / Europa / The Atriden / Trojan War / The Oracle
