Odysseus's ship returned to Aiaia, where Circe met them with food to eat and wine to drink. She took Odysseus aside while the others were eating and told him of the dangers to come. First, she said, their ship wold pass the island of the Sirens, who bewitch everyone who passes with their music. Circe told Odysseus to plug all of his men's ears with wax before they passed the island, so no one would hear it. If Odysseus himself wanted to listen to the music, he should have his men tie him to the mast and take away his sword.
Next, Odysseus would have a descision to make about which way to go. One way would take him to the Moving Rocks that crush anything that comes between them. The other path made Odysseus sail between two cliffs. One the larger cliff, Scylla lived in a cave, waiting for shipd to pass so that she could reach each of her six heads down and grab six men from the boat. At the base of the other cliff, Charybdis lived. Three times a day, Circe said, she sucked in much of the surrounding water, and then spat it back out. Cicre urged Odysseus to sail through the cliffs at the base of Scylla's cliff, where he would only lose six of his men and not the whole ship.
Circe said that next Odysseus would come to the island where Helios kept his flocks of cattle and sheep, just like the prophet from the Underworld said. Circe told Odysseus that if he didn't harm the cattle, then he would make it home, but he will have suffered a lot. If he does harm the cattle, however, Odysseus ship and crew would be destroyed, but he might still make it home, but late and unhappy.
The next morning, Odysseus and his men set sail. Odysseus told them what Circe had said to him, and by the time he had finished, they were close to the Sirens's island. He walked around the ship, giving every man some wax to plug his ears with and then he had the men tie him to the mast. As they passed the island, Odysseus heard the Sirens's song and longed to listen. He ordered his men to untie him, but they just added more ropes. When the ship passed the island, the men untied Odysseus and unplugged their ears.
Up ahead they could see the cliffs of Scylla and Charybdis. The men were scared, but Odysseus told them that they were used to fear and that this isn't anything worse then when Odysseus was trapped in Polyphemus's cave. Odysseus did not mention Scylla and what she did to passing boats, but instead told the helmsman to steer away from the smoke and sail at the base of the larger cliff. As the men sailed below the cliff, Scylla reached her heads down and took Odysseus's six best men and ate them live and screaming for Odysseus to help them.
Once they were past the cliffs, they came to Helios's island. Odysseus told his men that he knew that they were tired, but they couldn't stop at this island. At this, Eurylochos stood up and demanded that they stop here, as the entire crew was tired and hungry. Odysseus gave in to his crew's requests, but made them swear on a solemn oath that they would not touch Helios's cattle. The men agreed to only eat the food that Circe had given them, but after a month, that food ran out and the men were starving again. One day, when Odysseus was out in the woods, when the gods made him fall into a deep sleep. During this time, Eurylochos made another speech to the rest of the crew, saying that he would rather die at sea because of the gods then die on an unknown island because of hunger. The rest of the crew agreed so they found a few of the cattle and killed and cooked them. Odysseus the woke up and smelled cooking meat. Helios found aou about the slaughter, and he prayed to Zeus to kill the men of Odysseus. Zeus calmed Helios down and told him that he would destroy Odysseus's ship with a lightning bolt.
For six days the crew feasted on the cattle, and then on the seventh they set sail again. When the island was far away, Zeus created a storm that struck Odysseus's ship and destroyed it. Odysseus,the only man left alive, created a makeshift raft to keep him afloat as the storm pushed him back the way he had come. When he reached the two cliffs again, his raft was on Charybdis's side. As she sucked the water in, Odysseus jumped up and grabbed onto an olive tree that was on the side of the cliff. He hung there until Charybdis spat his raft back out again. He jumped back on his little boat and paddled away with his arms. Odysseus drifted for nine days until the gods brought him to Calypso's island.
At this point in telling his story, Odysseus stops because Alkinoos had already heard of his time with Calypso.
No comments:
Post a Comment