Odysseus was the King of Ithaca. His wife, Penelope, was giving birth to their baby. Odysseus delivers their newborn son. They name their son Telemachus. Odysseus holds his baby son and tells him about the Earth (introduction). Then Odysseus takes his weapons to leave for a war against Troy. When he tries to take his bow, his mother tells him it now belongs to Telemachus. Before leaving, Odysseus tells his wife that if he dies in battle she must re-marry and give the kingdom to Telemachus.
While the soldiers travel on the boat to battle, Athena, goddess of wisdom, talks to Odysseus. She tells him that he must be brave win the war. He tells her that he doesn’t fear anything. The war lasts about 10 years. Achilles was also a big part of the war besides Odysseus. In the seventh year he was shot in his heal and killed. Then a sea serpent, sent from Poseidon, kills a soothsayer.
After most of Odysseus’ men have been killed, Odysseus takes the rest of his men and hides in a big horse statue. The Trojans celebrate and some get drunk. The statue, where Odysseus and his men are hidden, is stored in a room. In the same room the drunk people sleep (past out). Odysseus and his men climb out of the statue and kill all of the drunk soldiers.
Odysseus then goes to the ocean and brags to all the gods that he is a human heroe without help from the gods. He also says that nobody can stop him from returning home. Poseidon responds only to say that he will be punished.
So Odysseus takes his men and sail for home. They reach an island. On the island they find a cave. In the evening a cyclops returns to the cave. The cyclops has only one eye. The cyclops tells Odysseus that he is Polyphemus, the youngest son of Poseidon. Odysseus tells Polyphemus that he is nobody. Odysseus’ men offer the cyclops wine and cheese. Instead, Polyphemus eats one of Odysseus’ men and gets drunk from the wine.
The next day, while Polyphemus is gone, Odysseus and his men carve, out of a log, a sharp spear. They keep it hidden from the cyclops.
The next night, when the cyclops returns to the cave, he is tired and goes to sleep. While he is sleeping, Odysseus and his men take the poker from it’s hiding place, and stab the Polyphemus in his eye and blinds him. Polyphemus wakse up in the mornig and realizes what happened. He slides open the rock and Odysseus and his mean escape. Polyphemus is really mad and throws a big rock at them.
So Odysseus continues his quest home. He stops and meets with Aeolus, the keeper of the winds. He tells Odysseus that he will help him by sending winds for him to sail home and that Odysseus wont return home because of what he did to Polyphemus. In the ship, a sack is carried. Odysseus’ men want to know what is in it. But it is forbidden by Odysseus to open it.
So while Odysseus sleeps, two of the men open it and get blown out of the ship and die. The sail is also ripped because of this. Odysseus and his men then reach another island far away from their home, Ithaca. Odysseus and his men go searching for game, or food. They see a pig run by them and they chase it. But one of Odysseus’ men says that it his brother and he had been changed into a pig by a witch in fromt of his eyes.
So Odysseus goes in search of the witch. He comes to a cliff and climbs up it. Then Hermes, the messenger god, comes to Odysseus and warns him that the witch knows he’s coming. So if he drinks potion he will defeat her. Odysseus sees the animals, which she had turned humans into, and she makes him a deal. He “takes her to bed” and she turns his men back into humans. Odysseus agrees and he gets his men back.
Meanwhile, in Ithaca, Odysseus’ mother wants to drown herself because she misses Odysseus and is sad. Penelope tries to persuades her not to but she does.
Odysseus then wants to leave. The “witch” tells him to go to the Underworld to find Teiresias the soothsayer. He will tell him the how to get home (the future). So Odysseus enters the kingdom of the Underworld alone. He takes with him a ram for sacrifice. All of the dead souls want the ram but Odysseus tells them off. When he finds the soothsayer, he sacrifices the ram and gets the directions to get home. He also sees his mother in the Underworld.
Everyone in Ithaca thinks that Odysseus is dead. So Penelope must find another husband. So she stars to weave a tapestry. She says if Odysseus isn’t back before she finishes it, she will marry a new husband.
Odysseus then reaches the sea monster named Scylla. Syclla eats 6 of Odysseus’ men. Odysseus swims to shore and is taken captive by Calypso for 9 years. He sees a ship and says he must leave. She doesn’t let him. She tells him to forget about Ithaca and that he is home. Then Hermes comes and warns Calypso that if she doesn’t free Odysseus, her island will sink. So Calypso tells Odysseus to go home.
While Odysseus travles home, there is a storm on the sea (Poseidon). Odysseus asks Poseidon what he wants from him. Poseidon says he wants Odysseus to suffer but not die. Odysseus comes to the Palace of Phaecia. The king provides him a boat and Odysseus sails home. When he returns home Odysseus returns home, his son doesn’t believe that it’s him. Athena comes to Odysseus and makes him look old so he won’t be recognized.
Odysseus’ nurse finds out that it’s him. Penelope has servants clean the palace because a contest is going to be held. The contest is whoever can shoot an arrow through 12 battle axes wins. The winner will marry Penelope. So Odysseus shoots the arrow through amd he turns into his real self. Him and Telemachus then kill all of the other men. But one of the men asks what their crime was. Odysseus says that they tried to take his place and his world.
When Penelope finds Odysseus, they are very happy together.
THE END
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