Why did Circe kill herself? Did Circe kill Scylla? Who is the mother of Scylla? Who was Scylla in love with? Why was Circe jealous of Scylla? What was Charybdis before she angered Zeus?
Who is Charybdis sister? Did Odysseus choose Scylla or Charybdis? How many siblings does Scylla have? What is the difference between Hydra and Scylla? What did Scylla look like? How did Charybdis become a monster? How many men did Odysseus lose to Charybdis?
Is Charybdis a real whirlpool? How many men did Odysseus eat Scylla? Just as their ship is pulling into harbor at Scheria, the prophecy mentioned at the end of Book 8 is fulfilled: the ship suddenly turns to stone and sinks to the bottom of the sea. The onlookers ashore immediately recognize the consummation of the prophecy and resolve to abandon their custom of helping wayward travelers. At first, he curses the Phaeacians, whom he thinks have duped him and left him in some unknown land.
But Athena, disguised as a shepherd, meets him and tells him that he is indeed in Ithaca. With characteristic cunning, Odysseus acts to conceal his identity from her until she reveals hers.
She tells him to hide out in the hut of his swineherd, Eumaeus. She informs him that Telemachus has gone in search of news of him and gives him the appearance of an old vagabond so that no one will recognize him.
Odysseus finds Eumaeus outside his hut. There Odysseus has a hearty meal of pork and listens as Eumaeus heaps praise upon the memory of his former master, whom he fears is lost for good, and scorn upon the behavior of his new masters, the vile suitors.
Odysseus predicts that Eumaeus will see his master again quite soon, but Eumaeus will hear none of it—he has encountered too many vagabonds looking for a handout from Penelope in return for fabricated news of Odysseus. Still, Eumaeus takes a liking to his guest. He puts him up for the night and even lets him borrow a cloak to keep out the cold. When Eumaeus asks Odysseus about his origins, Odysseus lies that he is from Crete. He fought with Odysseus at Troy and made it home safely, he claims, but a trip that he made later to Egypt went awry, and he was reduced to poverty.
It was during this trip, he says, that he heard that Odysseus was still alive. Like much of The Odyssey , Book 12 generates excitement through the tension between goals and obstacles. Some of these obstacles are simply unpleasant: Odysseus would rather avoid Scylla and Charybdis altogether, but he cannot—they stand in his way, leaving him no choice but to navigate a path through them.
But many of these obstacles are temptations. Unlike Scylla and Charybdis, the island of Thrinacia poses no immediate threat to Odysseus or his men. Some scholars believe that the straits between Scylla and Charybdis represent the Straits of Messina, which lie between Sicily and mainland Italy, as these straits are a prominent geographical feature and indeed treacherous to navigate.
But Homeric geography is notoriously problematic. Things become convoluted even on mainland Greece, as Homer often misjudges distances and even invents geographical features. Book 13 picks up where Book 4 left off: the setting quickly shifts back to Ithaca and the suitors again dominate the background of the story. No sooner does Odysseus forget the Phaeacians than he and Athena are conspiring to destroy the mob that has taken over his house, refocusing the poem from stories of misadventure in the past to the central tension in the present.
She is more interested in how performing great deeds in faraway lands will elevate his reputation than in his inner, more personal growth.
Throughout The Odyssey , Athena shows a steadfast devotion to Odysseus and the traits that he embodies; in risking his life to find his father, Telemachus stands to gain a measure of that same renown for which Odysseus and other Greek heroes risked their lives at Troy. The maids are virtually unheard of until they are punished for this perceived guilt. Odysseus started crying when he looked around his home, Ithaca, because he did not recognize his homeland and he thought he was somewhere else.
It was Athena, disguised as a shepherd who told him where he was. Skip to content Uncategorized.
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