Odysseus and His Journey

Odysseus was the king of Ithaca.He was one of the famous heroes in the Trojan War and his adventures are toldin detail in the famous work called the Odyssey.

There came a time for Helen of Troy to choose a husband, Odysseus was one of thosewho wanted to be the chosen one. He proposed that all should take an oath to protectthe interests of the one she chose. It was Menelaus was the one that was chosenfor Helen, however Helen ran off with Paris to Troy, basically a coward he pretendedto be mad to avoid the war. He ploughed and scattered salt instead of graininto the field. But when Palamedes placed his infant son, in front of the plow,quickly turned the plow away and his sanity was shown to be false.

In war Odysseus was courageousand used all of his power to defeat his enemies.  He devised the masterpiece of tricks: theTrojan Horse, without which the Greeks would have never won the war. 

After the war, Odysseus had a challenging time getting home. While sailing homehe encountered natives who offered visitors the fruit of lotus.  After eating the food some of his crew becamederanged and. could not remember what their mission was about.  Odysseus had to drag them back to theships. 

He sailed to another island and met the one eyed giants known as Cyclops. Heand twelve of his crew were trapped in a cave inhabited by one of the giants,Polyphemus.  Polyphemus ate men aliveafter bashing their heads against the rocks of his cave. Odysseus escaped byblinding the giant and tying his remaining men and himself to the undersides ofram of the giant’s flock to trick the giant who was now blind felt only therams wool and so the rams were going out to the field. 

In his travels he came to another island, where he met the sorceress Circe whotransformed men into swine unfortunately some of his men were converted. Withthe help of Hermes, Odysseus forced Circe to change his men back. Circe becamehis mistress. She stayed with Odysseus and his crew. After which, he traveledto the Underworld for guidance from Teiresias, Circe warned him about moredangers: the Sirens and the Wandering Rocks. 

 The Sirens, know for their mysterioussinging which lured men to and caused them to forget their intentions and objectives. Odysseus had his crew members seal theirears with beeswax and had himself bound to the mast; this way he could hear theseductive songs of the Sirens without falling prey to it and live to tell thetale. After they escaped from the Sirens, they headed for the Strait of Messinato avoid the Wandering Rocks. While journeying through the whirlpool Charybdis,several of his men were eaten by the Scylla: the long-necked, six headedbeast. 

After this traumatic escape, the crew stopped for rest in the island ofThrinacia. Odysseus warned his men not to eat anything from the island. Butwhen their food supply was low, they killed some of the cattle of the Sun god,in order to keep from starving. This enraged the daughters of Helios theSun-god.  Zeus sent a violent storm thatkilled everyone except Odysseus.

He was eventually washed ashoreon the island of Calypso, who became his lover and wanted him to remain withher forever. He stayed for seven years until Zeus ordered Calypso to let himgo. Odysseus sailed away on a tiny boat, but was shipwrecked by another stormsent by Poseidon. He swam ashore on the island of the Phaeacians, where he wascared for and escorted home to Ithaca, after 20 years.

During Odysseus' absence, his wife, Penelope, who had remained faithful to him,was under pressure to remarry. Upon his return, Odysseus killed the all of themen who had lived off his wealth for years while waiting for his wife to chooseone of them as her second husband.

Here the journey of Odysseus cameto an end for a time and the term odyssey in our language comes from his nameand his famous adventures.