Summary: "Odyssey". Homer and his epic

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The great epic of ancient Greece has come down to us in the form of two works by Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey. Both poems are dedicated to the events of approximately the same time: the Trojan War and its consequences. The war has just ended. Odysseus proved to be an excellent warrior, an intelligent strategist. Thanks to his cunning decisions, more than one battle was won. This is evidenced by his own story in the poem, or rather, its summary. Homer's Odyssey (and his second poem, the Iliad) not only beautifully depicts historical events, but also has a magnificent artistic presentation. The facts are decorated with rich imagination of the author. It is thanks to this that history has gone beyond the usual annals or chronicles and has become the property of world literature.

Homer's poem "The Odyssey". Summary

After the war, Odysseus went home to his native Ithaca, where he was the ruler. There his old father is waiting for himLaertes, wife Penelope and son Telemachus. Along the way, Odysseus is captured by the nymph Calypso. Spends several years there. And at this time in his kingdom there is a struggle for the throne. There are many contenders for the place of Odysseus. They live in his palace and convince Penelope that her husband is dead and will not return, and she must decide who she will marry again. But Penelope is faithful to Odysseus and is ready to wait for him for many years. To cool the pretenders to the throne and her hand, she comes up with various tricks. For example, she knits a shroud for old Laertes, promising to make a decision as soon as the work is done. And at night she dissolves the already connected. Meanwhile, Telemachus had matured. One day a stranger came to him and advised him to equip a ship and go in search of his father. In the image of a wanderer, the goddess Athena herself was hiding. She patronized Odysseus. Telemachus followed her advice. He ends up in Pylos with Nestor. The elder says that Odysseus is alive and is with Calypso. Telemachus decides to return home, to please his mother with good news and to drive away annoying applicants for the royal place. The events of the poem convey a brief summary. Odyssey Homer draws as a fairy-tale hero who has gone through terrible trials. Zeus, at the request of Athena, sends Hermes to Calypso and orders Odysseus to be released. He builds himself a raft and sets sail. But the god of the sea, Poseidon, again interferes with him: in a storm, the logs of the raft are broken. But Athena saves him again and brings him to the kingdom of Alcinous. He is received as a guest, and at the feast Odysseus recounts his adventures. Homer creates nine fantastic stories. "Odyssey" (short)content and conveys these stories) is a fabulous setting of real historical events.

The Adventures of Odysseus

First, Odysseus and his companions ended up on an island with a magical lotus that deprives memory. Local residents, lotophages, treated the guests to a lotus, and they forgot about their Ithaca. Odysseus hardly led them to the ship and went on. The second adventure is a meeting with the Cyclopes. With difficulty, the sailors manage to blind the main Cyclops Polyphemus and, hiding under the skins of sheep, exit the cave and escape from the island. You can find out about further events by reading the summary. Homer's "Odyssey" leads the reader after his hero, covers a long period of time - about twenty years. After the island of the Cyclopes, Odysseus ended up on the island to the god of the winds, Aeolus, who gave the guest one fair wind and hid three more winds in a bag, tied it up and warned that it was only possible to untie the bag in Ithaca. But Odysseus's friends untied the sack while he slept, and the winds brought their ship back to Aeolus. Then there was a collision with cannibal giants, and Odysseus miraculously managed to escape. Then the travelers visited Queen Kirka, who turned everyone into animals, in the kingdom of the dead, by cunning they managed to get past the seductive Sirens, swim in the strait between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis on the island of the Sun. This is the poem, its summary. Homer returns the Odyssey to his homeland, and he, together with Telemachus, expels all the "suitors" of Penelope. Peace reigns in Ithaca. The ancient poem is of interest tocontemporary reader as both historical and classic fiction.