Reading Notes: Homer's Odyssey, Part B

Image Source. Odysseus
speaks with countless
spirits, Teiresias the
seer being one of them.

Homer's The Odyssey continues with Odysseus and his men following Circe's instructions. They perform some sort of ritual and sacrifice sheep, summoning ghosts of the dead. Odysseus speaks with his late comrades, beginning with Elpenor. Next, he speak with Teiresias, a famous seer. Teiresias tells Odysseus many things, among them that he still must watch out for Poseidon's wrath because the sea god is angry that his son, Polyphemus, was blinded. Additionally, Odysseus should expect to find several men attempting to court his wife when he returns home. The next ghost Odysseus gets to speak with is his mother. They talk about Odysseus' wife, father, and how she died.

Next, the hero of our story sees the ghosts of a bunch of notable women in mythology: Tyron, Antiope, Jocasta (Oedipus' mother), and many more. I really have no idea what's going on here. He is just meeting this celebrity line-up of female ghosts, it seems. Then he speaks with Agamemnon, son of Atreus, who tells Odysseus of his own past fate: he was murdered by his own wife and her lover, who stabbed him. Given Agamemnon's terrible experience with his wife, he gives Odysseus some advice on returning home to his own wife after a long journey away.

Our next mythology celebrity goes appearance is Achilles; Odysseus likens Achilles to a living god as he praises him, but Achilles just wants to know how his son, Peleus, is doing - like whether or not he became a leader or warrior. Odysseus has no idea, but he does know Neoptolemus, another son of Achilles', is a brave warrior. This news makes Achilles happy. Odysseus then talks with the ghost of Ajax and sees a bunch more random, famous ghosts before this whole ghost thing is finally over and they get a move-on with the journey.

Image Source. Scylla, the six-headed monster

The crew passes the Sirens without being lured to their death, so that is good news. The next challenge that lies ahead is Scylla and Charybdis, a monster and a whirlpool. Trying to avoid getting sucked in by Charybdis, the ship's path runs into Scylla instead, who grabs six crewmen from the deck of the ship, and eats them all with each of her six heads. The story ends on a terribly sad note, with Odysseus making the remark: " It was the most pitiable sight of all I saw exploring the pathways of the sea."