The Odyssey

I. Preliminary Information

A. The name of the book I read is The Odyssey Translated by W.H.D. Rouse.

B. The author of the book is Homer.

C. The name of the book's publisher is New American Library. The novel was published in New York City.

D. This book was published in August 1999. The original year is not known.

E. The edition of this book is Signet Classic.

F. The book's translator is W.H.D. Rouse.

G. This novel has 271 pages.

H. This book is a work of non-fiction.

II. Book's Contents

A. Fiction

B. Non-fiction

1. The general topic of the book is Odysseus trying to get home and people mourning over his absence for twenty years. No one in Ithaca has seen or heard from him. His wife, Penelopeia, and his son, Telemachos, are worried. Since it has been so long, every man in the city is now wooing Penelopeia.

2. The main characters in the novel, The Odyssey, are Odysseus, a man who left his home and family to go fight in Troy and never returned home for twenty years, because of a series of misfortunes. Telemachos, Odysseus's son, who finally, after twenty years, decided to sail the sea in search of anyone who may know anything about his father. Also, there is Penelopeia, Odysseus's wife, who has been waiting for him all this time. Her heart is full of pain and sorrow and all of the men are wooing her for her hand in marriage. There are also several kings who play a part in this novel. They are King Nestor, King Alcinoos, and King Menelaos. Lastly, one of the minor, but still important characters is the swineherd, whom let Odysseus stay in his home when he returned from his long and tiring journey.

3. The chief place in which the novel's actions occur is in Ithaca. Some other places in which actions take place are the Island of Aeaea, Island of the Sirens, and the Island of Helios.

4. The historical time period in which the novel's actions took place is in 1,000 B.C.

5. The main events in The Odyssey include Athena, a goddess, commanding Telemachos to go on a journey to Pylos and Sparta. She wanted him to find out information about his father who has been missing. Telemachos heeds her words and goes to King Nestor's palace. Sadly, he has no information on Odysseus. Next, he traveled to the home of King Menelaos. Here they all recall stories of Odysseus and King Menelaos tells him that his father is alive and imprisoned on Calypso Island. While all of this is happening Penelopeia, Odysseus's wife, says she would choose a man to marry once she is finished making a burial shroud. She secretly, every night, would undo the knitting, and for quite sometime it fooled everyone. Then, her maids caught her and told every one of her evil doings. Next, Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, is then sent to Calypso Island to tell Calypso to let Odysseus go. Calypso wanted him for a husband and would make him immortal if he stayed with her. Calypso obeys Zeus and lets Odysseus go. He makes a raft and then on the raft he embarks on a journey to the coast of Scheria. Odysseus fell asleep under some trees and he awoke to the sound of shouting girls.

It was Nausicaa and her maids. Nausicaa brought Odysseus home to her father. There Odysseus stayed in the house of King Alcinoos. Odysseus tells all the people his long tale of what happened to him. How him and his men came to the cyclopean monster. Who ate some of his men, and then they came to the house of Circe on the island of Aeaea. Circe actually turned some of the men into pigs. Hearing this Odysseus goes to help them and luckily, Hermes tells him to eat an herb called Moly to protect him from Circe's drug. Hermes also tells him to lunge at Circe when she tries to strike him with her sword. Odysseus follows his instructions and is safe. Circe then changes the men back to their human forms. The next day when all of the men are getting ready to leave, Elpenor, the youngest of the men, was sleeping on the roof and he fell off. In doing so, he broke his neck. Finally, Odysseus visited the Kingdom of the Dead and asked Teiresias questions about how to get home. Following this they passed the Island of Sirens, where they had to place beeswax in their ears and tie Odysseus to the mast of the ship. Then, they travel to the strait of Scylla and Charybdis. Charybdis is a humongous whirlpool that almost swallowed the entire ship. Scylla, the six headed monster, then grabbed and took six men from the ship, six men, one for each of her heads.

Next, came the Island of Helios, where Odysseus's men killed the cattle on the island that belonged to Zeus. The cattle did not belong to them and they should have known better. Zeus was very furious and sent a thunderbolt, which