The Great Adventures of Odysseus

Prologue • After their triumphant victory

over the Trojans, the Greeks went “mad with victory, and did not give the gods their due.

• Athena and Poseidon were especially angered by the actions of the Greeks and made the Greek’s journey home more miserable and dark than any battle could compare

• One Greek general, Ajax ransacked Athena’s temple which angered Athena and Poseidon provoking them to send the different Greek fleets into different directions. • Though most of the ships

made it home, they lost many men and hundreds of ships.

• Odysseus in particular had the worst journey; it was a journey that would take nearly ten years. • Penelope, Odysseus’s wife

was proclaimed to be a widow and men from all over Greece flocked to woo her into marriage• but she refused, holding

on to the hope that Odysseus would return home.

• After a long time of anger, Athena’s anger towards Odysseus had faded and she had grown fond of his cunning and determination.• While Poseidon was away,

Athena went before the counsel of Olympians and pleaded for them to help Odysseus to go home. • All of the Olympians agreed

and vowed to help Odysseus home

• Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, was prompted by Athena to find his father’s fate and to find out if he truly was dead. • Telemachus went to the house of Nestor and then onto

the house of Menelaus in Sparta to find news of his father. • Menelaus told Telemachus of his father’s plight with

Calypso and how she had been holding him there for years.

• Zeus made Calypso let Odysseus go and she did, as well as sends him along in a special raft with food and water. • Poseidon finds Odysseus

heading home and sends another great storm to sink his raft, he succeeds• Odysseus survives and swims

for two days to land

• Odysseus is found and is sent back on his journey home• When Odysseus arrived

home he meets up with his son and makes preparations to return to his rightful place at the throne• Odysseus enters his

palace disguised as an old beggar

The ending • Penelope gives her suitors a

challenge, if they could shoot Odysseus’s bow through 12 golden rings, then she would be their wife.

• Every suitor failed, Odysseus gave it a try and shot through the rings perfectly.

• He and his son slaughtered every suitor in the palace

• Odysseus was once again King of Ithaca and husband to Penelope.

Odysseus’s Journey