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Complete Summary of Homer's Odyssey
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A complete chapter-by-chapter summary of 'The Odyssey'. Themes are colour coded and everything is highlighted. Quotes and general events are included
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Odyssey SummaryAeneid Chapter Summary
Key
Fate and the power of the gods
Women
Familial relationships
Odysseus and his heroic traits (+how they appear on Telemachus)
The suitors
Ritual + xenia
Homeric features and parallels
Kleos
Telemachus and his good traits
Book 1 Athene visits Telemachus
Homer starts with an introduction to Odysseus and his journey’s, whereas Virgil's
introduction is more about the promise of Rome rising.
➔ ‘Resourceful man’
➔ ‘He learnt their ways’
➔ Blames the comrades death entirely on them and not Odysseus
Odysseus is referred to but we don’t meet him until later
‘All the gods pitied him, except Poseidon’
Athene laments to Zeus about Odysseus being unlucky and suffering, like Venus does for
Aeneas
‘It is his daughter [Calypso] who is keeping the unhappy man from home’
Athene says all he can do ‘is yearn for death’ (same with Aeneas!)
Athene asks if Zeus has a problem with Odysseus, same with Venus, insinuating the men
are being stopped by Zeus as opposed to fate
Zeus praises Odysseus, says he is ‘the wisest man alive’ and has been ‘the most generous
in his offerings’
Explains it is Poseidon who delays Odysseus, just like Jupiter explains it is Juno who stops
Aeneas
Athene says she’s gonna go encourage Telemachus
She takes on the appearance of ‘a family friend, the Taphian chieftain Mentes’
‘Telemachus, the godlike youth’
Telemachus practises good xenia
Paragraph of domestic details
The Suitors come ‘swaggering in’
The minstrel is ‘forced’ to play for them
Athene makes up a big lie about her origin, like Odysseus would
Athene points out Telemachus’ likeness to Odysseus ‘you have his head and fine eyes’
‘No man can be certain of his parentage’- women cheat
Telemachus says Odysseus would have been ‘left a mound and would have left a great
name for his son to inherit’
‘They are eating me out of house and home’
Athene plans with Telemachus:
➔ Go to Pylos to see Nestor
➔ Then go to Sparta to see Menelaus
, Odyssey Summary
➔ If you find your father is dead, marry off Penelope
Telemachus offers the guest both a bath and a gift, Athene denies a bath but asks for a gift
‘the best you can find, and you won’t lose by exchange’
Telemachus realises she was a god
Penelope comes downstairs, veiled, and maids either side of her
She ‘burst into tears’ and asks the minstrel to stop singing
Telemachus tells her to stop crying, and to go to her own quarters, ‘for i am master in this
house’
The suitors pray they might sleep with her
Telemachus basically tells the suitors to leave by morning, they’re all appalled
Antinous [bad suitor] hopes Telemachus may never be king of the house
Eurymachus [ok suitor?] says Telemachus is right, and asks about the guest, Telemachus
doesn’t reveal that she’s a god (he’s like his father!)
They eat and sleep, we learn Eurycleia’s worth of 20 oxen, and Telemachus plans his
journey
Book 4 Helen mentions how alike Telemachus looks to Odysseus
Book 5 Calypso
Athene talks to Zeus again about Odysseus’ suffering (always the female gods
complaining…)
Zeus sends Hermes to tell Calypso ‘of the plaited tresses’ to free Odysseus
Zeus explicitly says no god nor man will help him (unlike lame Aeneas whose almost
handheld through his journey)
Calypso is found weaving
In depth description of the island and Calypso’s cove, sounds like a paradise, even Hermes
stops to ‘gaze in wonder and delight’
We finally meet Odysseus ! He’s ‘tormenting himself with tears and sighs’
Calypso offers xenia to Hermes - even the gods practise xenia
Calypso is upset that all the female goddesses are scorned for falling in love when the gods
may do as they please
Calypso refuses to help him further than giving him directions
Calypso gives Odysseus bread, water, wine and clothing
Odysseus makes sure not to anger her and admits Penelope’s ‘looks and stature are
insignificant compared with yours’
They ‘found pleasure in love making’ one last time
Long description of boat making and tools
Four days later his work is done and on the fifth day he actually leaves
Poseidon ‘roused the stormy blasts of every wind that blows’
Ino saves Odysseus from the storm by giving him a veil to wrap around his waist which
divinely protects him
Odysseus ‘I shall do what I myself think best’
Odysseus is ‘driven by the heavy seas’ for ‘two nights and two days’
Athene gives him the idea to grab a rock
Odysseus supplicates to the River, and it gives him a smooth passage to shore
Deliberates what to do next, decides to rest in an Olive-tree grove
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