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A summary of Book 9 in Homer's The Odyssey. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Odyssey and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.
- Full Text
(1) that the "Odyssey" was written entirely at, and drawn...
- Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas...
- Character List
The Odyssey characters include: Odysseus, Telemachus,...
- Genre
The Odyssey, like its companion poem, The Iliad, is an epic...
- Key Facts
Full title The Odyssey. Author Homer; some critics argue for...
- Suggestions for Further Reading
The Art of The Odyssey. London: Bristol Classical Press, new...
- What Does The Ending Mean
The Odyssey takes place in a patriarchal world where the...
- Related Links
Coates, Steve. “ A Long Strange Trip.” New York Times Sunday...
- Full Text
- Summary: Book 12
- Summary: Book 13
- Summary: Book 14
- Analysis: Books 12–13
Odysseus returns to Aeaea, where he buries Elpenor and spends one last night with Circe. She describes the obstacles that he will face on his voyage home and tells him how to negotiate them. As he sets sail, Odysseus passes Circe’s counsel on to his men. They approach the island of the lovely Sirens, and Odysseus, as instructed by Circe, plugs his ...
The account of his wanderings now finished, Odysseus looks forward to leaving Scheria. The next day, Alcinous loads his gifts on board the ship that will carry Odysseus to Ithaca. Odysseus sets sail as soon as the sun goes down. He sleeps the whole night, while the Phaeacian crew commands the ship. He remains asleep even when the ship lands the nex...
Odysseus finds Eumaeus outside his hut. Although Eumaeus doesn’t recognize the withered traveler as his master, he invites him inside. 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. Od...
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 temptation...
Full Poem Summary. Ten years have passed since the fall of Troy, and the Greek hero Odysseus still has not returned to his kingdom in Ithaca. A large and rowdy mob of suitors who have overrun Odysseus’s palace and pillaged his land continue to court his wife, Penelope. She has remained faithful to Odysseus. Prince Telemachus, Odysseus’s son ...
The Odyssey is an epic poem written by the celebrated Greek poet in approximately 700 B.C. The companion poem to The Odyssey is The Iliad which was published around 750 B.C. This work follows the brave and famed hero, Odysseus, who is trapped far away from his family with the nymph Calypso. Held hostage out of obsessive love, Odysseus is unable ...
The Odyssey Summary. Next. Book 1. The story begins twenty years after Odysseus left to fight in the Trojan War, and ten years after he began his journey home to Ithaca. We enter the story in medias res – in the middle of things: Odysseus is trapped on an island with the lovesick goddess Calypso, while his wife and son suffer the ...
The Trojan War and its aftermath took place in the late Bronze Age, which began around 1550 BC, the date of the very wealthy burials found by Heinrich Schliemann in Grave Circle A at Mycenae in ...
Analysis. Homer begins by asking the Muse, the goddess of poetry and music, to sing to him about Odysseus and his travels. Odysseus and his crew have seen many strange lands and have suffered many trials. Their careless behavior has sometimes angered the gods, who have prevented their safe return to Ithaca. Like The Iliad, The Odyssey begins ...
