Odyssey Fill in the Blank Notes
An Odyssey is an extended ______trip. It is also a ______or ______quest: an odyssey of ______.
Homer:
Homer was a Greek ______, to whom are attributed the great epics, ______, the story and siege of Troy, and ______, the tale of Odysseus and his wanderings.
The Odyssey
The story begins with ______, the most beautiful woman in all the land. When Paris, Prince of ______, was asked to decide who was the fairest among the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, he chose ______because she promised to give him Helen. Helen’s escape from her husband, Menelaus, King of Sparta, sparked a ten-year battle between the ______and Trojans.
To recover Helen, Menelaus with the help of other Greek kings and warriors like Diomedes, Ajax, ______, Nestor and Odysseus launched an expedition under the command of Agamemnon, the most powerful man in ______. King Priam of______, his eldest son Hector and Aeneas organized the defense and Troy resisted for ten years.
The gods also took sides: Hera, Athena and Poseidon sided with the ______and Apollo, Ares and Aphrodite, sided with the ______. Zeus remained impartial and asked the gods not to interfere.
The Land of the Lotus Eaters
Odysseus and his men angered ______by ransacking a city named Ismarus. Zeus sent a storm which sent Odysseus and his crew sailing across the sea to the land of the ______. The men who tasted the lotus, a strange plant, lost all desire to ______.
The Cyclops
For many days Odysseus and his men were lost at sea. One night they arrived on an island and discovered a cave full of goats and ______. It was the domicile of the Cyclops, ______—son of ______. He was a giant with only one eye. Soon they were trapped because the Cyclops had closed the cave entrance with an enormous rock. Not before long, Polyphemus had eaten two men for dinner.
Island of the Winds
Next they met ______and his family who lived on the island of Aeolia. Odysseus told Aeolus about his adventures and after a month, they finally left the island. As a present, Aeolus gave Odysseus a bag which contained all the winds except the one that would take them to Ithaca. But, while Odysseus was sleeping, his men ______- the bag and a terrible storm swept them away from the shores of Ithaca.
Land of the Laestrygones
After sailing for many days, Odysseus and his men ended up among the Laestrygonians. They desperately needed to escape because the Laestrygonians were unfriendly ______who killed most of Odysseus' men and destroyed many of their ______.
Land of Circe
The survivors ended up at Aeaea, the island of the sorceress, Circe. She transformed most of the men into ______. The god ______gave Odysseus a herb to help him in the task of rescuing his crew. They spent a month with her. Finally, she told them they had to travel to the ______. There, Tiresias, a dead blind ______who had accompanied them to Troy, could tell them how to get home.
The Land of the Dead
The mysterious and horrible Land of ______is the underworld where people go when they die. Odysseus found there the spirits of people he knew, like Achilles and his ______. Tiresias, a blind prophet who had gone with them to Troy, showed him the way to reach Ithaca safely. He also told him that ______has decided to revenge Polyphemus and provided him many other warnings—one of which included the sirens.
Sirens
Odysseus explained to his men what Tiresias had told him. Before the sirens appeared he put ______in the ears of the men and asked them to tie him to the ______of the ship so he could listen to the sirens' attractive songs.
Charybdis and Scylla
Immediately after the sirens, Odysseus and his men saw a cloud of black smoke on the top of a mountain. It was Scylla, a horrible monster with ______legs and ______long necks ending in ugly heads with mouths full of teeth. They could not avoid Scylla without falling into a terrible ______, Charybdis, that swallowed the sea and spit it up again.
Land of the Sun God
On Thrinacia, after one month of continuous bad weather and no more food to eat, Odysseus' men—despite the warnings of Tiresias—decided to sacrifice and eat some of the ______of ______, the Sun God. When they were finally back at sea, Zeus sent them his eternal enemy: Poseidon, the ruler of the sea, who, with a violent storm, obliterated the ship.
Island of Calypso
Odysseus climbed on the wreckage of the ship and after rowing for nine days, he got to Ogygia, the island of ______. Calypso, the charming nymph who lived on the island, saved Odysseus' life and offered him immortality if he stayed with her. Instead she held him captive for ______years until Zeus sent Hermes, his messenger, who ordered her to let him free. Then he built a ship and sailed for seventeen days. After another encounter with Poseidon, exhausted, he reached the land of the Phaecians: the island of Scheria.
Phaeacians
Odysseus arrived at the islandPhaeacia. At the palace, Alcinous, the King of the Phaeacians, invites Odysseus to an athletic competition and a banquet where songs of the Trojan War made Odysseus sad. ______asked him who he was. Odysseus then told his real name and the whole story of his life. As Ithaca was not far from Phaeacia, Alcinous helped him to reach Ithaca.
Ithaca
Odysseus finally reached his homeland of Ithaca only to find his palace overrun with ______who were spending his ______, slaughtering his ______, and courting his wife, ______. After many years, Penelope could no longer hold off the suitors. After almost ______years away, Odysseus returned to Ithaca, his island home where he met Eumaeus. He was his swineherd who did not recognize him at first because he was disguised as an old ______. Only Argo, Odysseus's old dog, knew who he was. Telemachus, his son, had sailed to seek news of his father. He went for advice to King Nestor in Philos and to Menelaus in ______. Menelaus informed him that Odysseus was, against his will, held by Calypso. Athena then told him to go back to Ithaca.The suitors were waiting to kill him but he managed to escape and went to Eumaeus' farm. There, he finally met his father. They planned to get rid of the suitors who were celebrating a constant banquet at their palace.Odysseus disguised as a beggar got rid of one of the suitors without revealing his identity. Penelope thanked him for that and asked Eurycleia, an old maid, to wash Odysseus' feet. Eurycleia had been Odysseus' ______and recognized him at once by a scar he had above his ______. She promised to marry the suitor who could string Odysseus’ ______and shoot an arrow through a line of______axes. Disguised as a beggar, and with the help of his son, Telemachus, he planned to recapture his throne as King of Ithaca.