Travels of Odysseus Odysseus was reluctant to leave his Background of the Trojan War serene home island of Ithaca. He did not want to leave behind a newborn son and his beautiful wife, Penelope, ______both of whom he adored with all his heart. After some convincing, ______Odysseus is off to the far away city of Troy. He must fight in the Trojan War. ______Odysseus’s creativity ends the war when he constructs the Trojan Horse. After enduring the ten-year battle of ______Troy, Odysseus and his fleet split apart from the Greek convoy to sail ______home to Ithaca to rejoin his family. He has no idea of what is about to come of him in the next twenty years. ______Invocation______

The story of The Odyssey begins with ______Odysseus telling about the adventures he experienced as he tried to return to Ithaca, his beloved homeland. He begins the story Calypso______with an invocation to a muse. Next, Odysseus describes his seven-year ______relationship with Calypso. At Athena’s request, Zeus sends Hermes to order the goddess to release Odysseus. Calypso ______reluctantly agrees to let him go; he builds a raft and sets sail for Ithaca, but Poseidon raises a storm and wrecks the raft. Scheria______Odysseus lands on the island of Scheria and falls asleep in a pile of leaves. At ______King Alcinous’s feast, Odysseus replies to the king, who has asked him to identify himself. Odysseus begins by stating where Ismarus (Cicones) ______he is from. He describes being detained by Calypso and Circe as well as the island of Ismarus. In Ismarus, Odysseus’s men first attack the Cicones but then are massacred ______by their army. Then, while going around Cape Malea, Odysseus and his crew are blown off course and end up in Northern The Lotus Africa. Here they encounter the Lotus- Eaters______Eaters. Some of the crew eat the tempting fruit and forget their homeland, but Odysseus drags them back aboard the ships and then the sail off. ______

______Polyphemus______

Then, Odysseus and his fleet sail north and ______come to the Cyclops' island. Here Odysseus takes twelve men with him ashore to explore. They encounter a Cyclops named ______Polyphemus and narrowly escape with their lives from his cave. ______Then they set sail again and come to the island of Aeolia. Aeolus, king of the winds, gives Odysseus a bag of all the bad winds ______that they will encounter on their journey home. Odysseus thanks him and, soon, the Aeolus ______fleet is off to Ithaca. When the ships are in sight of Ithaca, Odysseus' men get curious and open the bag of winds, thus propelling ______them away from Ithaca and back to Aeolus. This time the king is not hospitable and forces them to leave his island. Odysseus is ______compelled to set sail with only own ship. Circe ______Odysseus and his men reach the island of the witch Circe. The sailors are beguiled by the sorceress, who turns them into swine and ______shuts them in a pigsty. In the underworld, Odysseus is addressed by the seer Teiresias, who warns him to stay away from the cattle of Helios, the sun god. Teiresias tells Odysseus that when he finally arrives home, The Land of the Dead ______he will find his household in disarray. Teiresias also tells Odysseus that after slaying his wife’s suitors, he must make sacrifices to Poseidon. ______

______

Next, they come to the strait where Scylla Sirens ______and Charybdis live. Scylla is a six-headed monster who lives in a cave above the ______cliffs on one side of the strait. Charybdis is a fierce whirlpool that lies on the opposite side of Scylla. Charybdis swallows the sea ______whole three times a day and then vomits it back up, boiling hot. It is impossible to go through unharmed. Scylla and Charybdis ______

Well, the ship safely steers around ______Charybdis and then come to Scylla where Odysseus chooses to lose six men by the six mouths of the monster. A little ______battered, they sail on and Odysseus is devastated. ______Thrinacia ______Then, Odysseus and his crew come to the island of Thrinacia, also the home of the cattle of the sun god, Helios. Circe warned Odysseus not to ______eat the cattle or else the gods would become angry. Odysseus and his men are stranded there for about a month because the winds had died ______and they were unable to set sail. With their food supply gone, they crew becomes extremely hungry. While Odysseus goes to pray one day, Cattle of the Sun God ______the gods cast a spell and he falls asleep. While he is sleeping, the men slaughter some of the cattle and feast. Helios is furious and demands ______that Zeus take action and punish the men who ate his cattle. ______The next day the winds are good so they set off from the island. Out at sea, Zeus brews up a Death of the Crew ______storm, and all but Odysseus are killed. Odysseus floats helplessly for days before he comes to the island of Ogygia. The island is home to the ______beautiful nymph Calypso who he befriends and lives with for nine years. Odysseus meets Calypso ______After seven years with her, Odysseus is decreed to return to Ithaca by the gods. Hermes tells Calypso that he must return home to his wife. Although she does not Odysseus to leave, she ______releases him. On a makeshift raft, he sets sail for Ithaca at last. ______On his way to Ithaca, Poseidon becomes Scheria (Home of the Phaeacians)______infuriated because Zeus did not tell him that Odysseus was allowed to return home. Poseidon concocts a tempest and Odysseus' ______raft breaks apart. Almost drowned, he swims ashore the island of Scheria, home of the Phaeacians. Here he begs the mercy King Alcinous ______of the king and queen. Alcinous, the King of the Phaeacians, encourages Odysseus to tell the story of his wanderings and helps the hero return home to Ithaca. He ______furnishes him with gifts from the island and gives him a ship and crew to take him home. ______Soon Odysseus is back on Ithaca. Before he can take back his rightful place as king, he Ithaca ______must first defeat the suitors who have tried to marry his wife, Penelope, while he was away at war and during his long journey Suitors ______home. Penelope ______

______

The Odyssey Part Two: Coming Home

The Meeting of Father and Son

The Beggar and the Faithful Dog

The Test of the Great Bow

Death at the Palace Odysseus and Penelope

The Odyssey Part One: The Wanderings Invocation to the Muse (751)

Calypso, The Sweet Nymph (752 – 754)

I am Laertes’ Son…/Island of the Cicones (756 – 758)

The Lotus Eaters (758)

The Cyclops Part I (760 – 766)

The Cyclops Part II (766 – 770)

The Enchantress Circe (773 – 775) The Land of the Dead (775 – 777)

The Sirens (778 – 781)

Scylla and Charybdis (781 - 7830

The Cattle of the Sun God (784 – 786)