The Odyssey
By: Melissa L.
In the movie the Odyssey there is a man named Odysseus who is torn apart from his family right after his son is born. He is sent to Troy to battle, and he is sent on a journey of a lifetime.
The movie starts with Odysseus running through a forest because his wife Penelope is having her baby. As soon as he reaches her he has to carry her to a tree house where she has her baby son named Telemachus. The very next day Odysseus was to go battle in Troy and he knew he must go but right before leaving he made Penelope promise that when Telemachus was a man she should get another husband. Going Odysseus tries to take his bow but his mother stops him, because it belonged to Telemachus now.
When Odysseus was on the boat the goddess of knowledge came to Odysseus and told him that she wanted him to be remembered. “LAND HO!” someone yells they could see Troy. The goddess disappears. There is a BIG battle. But the warriors figure out a way to beat the Trojans …… the Trojan horse. There is another BIG battle. Troy is burnt down.
Anticleia tells Penelope to get another husband. But Telemachus was not a man yet so Penelope would wait as long as she could.
Odysseus’s boat drifts to an island, as soon as they got on the island they found a cave and decided to make them at home. When the crewmembers where out looking for wood they found a Cyclops, a big Cyclops. When Odysseus offered the big Cyclops some food he reached for one of his crewmembers and ate him. Odysseus gave him some wine and it put him right to sleep. As soon as Odysseus had sharpened a big pillar of wood he poked the eye of the Cyclops out! Could you just imagine what that sounded like! EEWWW! Almost all of the crew got out alive accept for two men. When they were on the boat Odysseus yelled “We are out here!” Just then the Cyclops ran out there and threw a huge boulder at their boat and it almost hit it so they decided that it was time to leave.
They arrived at another island but this time they met up with the God of the Wind he filled Odysseus’s sack with three of the four winds “In nine days open this bag and the wind will blow you back to your home, Ithaca.” The God of the Wind blew the mast of their boat. Out on the sea Odysseus saw a bird and told the bird to tell Penelope that he would be home soon. She receives the message. The men of the ship thought that Odysseus was hiding food or gold or something like that from them. So they decide to open it. But as soon as they did POOF! The wind blew so hard that it broke through the mast and it blew a lot of the men out of the boat. It blew them away from Ithaca and towards another island. When they got there they went searching for food … finally they found a pig but one of the other crew members came running up and told them that the pig was another one of the crew members, there was a witch that turned all the others that went looking for food into animals too. The other people who stayed behind didn’t believe him until he told them why he hadn’t been changed. But Odysseus knew that he had to go after the others and he did. When he was climbing up a rock and Hermes came and told him the future and what he should do when he gets there. Hermes disappears. As soon as Odysseus reaches the top and there is a castle. Circe, the witch says that the only way that he can have his men back is if he took her to bed so he did. Every hour was one year in her palace so he was there for five years.
Odysseus’s mother wants to kill herself because she can’t live another day without him, so she drowns herself. Penelope tried to stop her but Anticleia wouldn’t let her.
Odysseus goes to the underworld to see the prophet down there. The whole crew is floating down the river of fire. “Don’t leave,” all of the crew was saying. Odysseus tells the ghosts to stay away. Finally Odysseus finds the prophet and he tells him what he needs to know. Just after Odysseus left the prophet he saw his mother and tried to embrace her, but he couldn’t because she was dead.
A lot of men show up to see if they can win Penelope’s heart. But she didn’t want to have another husband until Telemachus was a man.
Odysseus and his crew entered the Water Cave and the Scylla attacks their boat and eats some of their men. They row out of there as fast as a dog that had been inside for three days and hadn’t been able to go to the bathroom. As they just got out of there was a huge monster type thing like in Star Wars out in the desert that ate all of the crew accept for Odysseus.
Eurycleia, Melanto, Telemachus, and Penelope were fed up with all the men that showed up Penelope and wouldn’t leave.
Odysseus ends up on another island …… it was the island of Calypso the goddess. Her servants had never seen a man before and she hasn’t seen one in one hundred years. Odysseus stays there for a while but Hermes shows up and tells Calypso that she must let him go. He builds a raft and sails out to sea he ends upon another island. Boy if I were Odysseus I’d really be getting sick of islands by now.
During this time this last few island Telemachus is searching for his father. He had lots of luck and it was all of the luck was bad.
When Odysseus was washed up on the shore someone found him. Just as soon as Odysseus was found he was taken to the leader of that island. “Will you please give me a ship or give me a ride back to Ithaca since it is not so far away,” said Odysseus. The leader agreed and took him back to Ithaca. As soon as he was there he went to a hut where Eumaeus lived and where Telemachus was born. The herdsman recognized him right away and just then Telemachus came back from his journey that supposedly told him that his father is dead. Eumaeus asked Telemachus to come here and meet someone. At first he would not believe that it was his father but a little while after he came around and believed it.
The goddess of Wisdom appears she reads Odysseus’s mind he is wondering if she has been loyal to me. So Athena changes him into an old beggar man and that is how he will find out if she has been loyal to me. Penelope knew she must make her choice of a new husband. Telemachus is going into a boxing match to prove himself a man. The challenge for the new husband was to string the bow, and then shoot an arrow through twelve small holes on the end of axes. All the men thought that it was impossible but when the old beggar man who is Odysseus, strings it and shoots it and makes it through all the holes after the arrow went through the last hole the old beggar man turned back into the sort of young Odysseus. Telemachus and Odysseus kill all the men that tried to become the new husband for Penelope.
So in the end Penelope and Odysseus were reunited and all is well. Odysseus was still remembered or else I wouldn’t have been writing this summary so Athena had her wish come true for Odysseus to be remembered.
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