The next day Alcinous calls an assembly of the Phaeacian counselors. Athena back from Athens ensures attendance by spreading word that the topic of discussion will be the godlike visitor who recently appeared on the island. At the assembly Alcinous proposes providing a ship for his visitor so that the man can return to his homeland. The measure is approved and Alcinous invites the counselors to his palace for a feast and celebration of games in honor of his guest. Theres a blind bard named Demodocus sings of the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles at Troy. Everyone listens with pleasure except Odysseus, who weeps at the painful memories that the story recalls. The king notices Odysseus’s grief and ends the feast so that the games can begin.

To me Odysseus is weeking because the memories are to hard for him to recall. He is being torn up through thinking of it. More and more he does the more and more he hurts. I can relate to this because if something happens to me and it makes me mad or sad I try not to think of it much because if I do I get more and more mad or more and more sad. The king notices this so he tells them to end it and begin the games. The king is looking to be a good man and good king to me throughout of what ive read. He is helping Odysseus out greatly and seems to be really kind and nice towards him

the odyssey

Later that evening when the king and queen are alone with Odysseus Arete recognizes the clothes that he is wearing as ones that she herself had made for her daughter Nausicaa. She interrogates Odysseus alot. While still withholding his name, Odysseus responds by recounting the story of his journey from Calypso’s island and his encounter with Nausicaa that morning, which involved her giving him a set of clothes to wear. Odysseus claims that it was his idea to come alone. Alcinous is so impressed with his visitor that he offers Odysseus his daughter’s hand in marriage. He respectfully declines and says he has a child and wife of his own.

To me when Odysseus declines marriage it is showing his drive or love for his wife. He respects her so much that he hasnt given up on their love. He could of easily had altercations with Nausicaa or even married this girl but he doesnt want to. Even though he was used on Calpysos island he still hasnt given up on his love. This impresses me greatly. Also how he can make up a story to tell Arete and make it sound as if it is true. He is just doing this to pertect himself and the gods.

The odsessy

On his way to the palace of Alcinous who is the king of the Phaeacians Odysseus is stopped by a young girl who is Athena in disguise. She offers to guide him to the king’s house. She keeps him in a mist so that the people dont harass him. She also advises him to direct his plea for help to Arete who is the wise and strong queen who will know how to get him home. Once Athena has delivered Odysseus to the palace she leaves to athens. Odysseus finds the palace. As soon as he sees the queen, he throws himself at her feet, and the mist about him dissapears. At first, the king wonders if this wayward traveler might be a god, but without revealing his identity, Odysseus puts the king’s suspicions to rest by declaring that he is indeed a mortal. He then explains his predicament, and the king and queen gladly promise to see him off the next day in a Phaeacian ship.

This shows that he is on his way home. Athena is a great help to him and he is giving him the directions and is doing everything she can to help him go home. The book has changed from telamachus to now Odysseus. It is changing to how he is going to get back home. This whole book is on how he is trying to get home and all the things that are going to happen on their way there. The king and queen see where Odysseus is comming from and they want to help. They think he may be a god in disguise but he really isnt. Athena may have made him look like one a little but he is immortal.

the odyssey

The gods except Poseidon gather on Mount Olympus to discuss Odysseus’s fate. Athenas speech in support of the hero prevails on Zeus to intervene. Hermes, messenger of the gods, is sent to Calypso’s island to tell her that Odysseus must be allowed to leave so he can return home. . She complains that they are allowed to take mortal lovers while the affairs of the female gods must always be frustrated. In the end she talks to and listens to Zeus. After eighteen days at sea, Odysseus spots Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians, his next destination appointed by the gods. Just then, Poseidon, returning from a trip to the land of the Ethiopians, spots him and realizes what the other gods have done in his absence. Poseidon stirs up a storm, which nearly drags Odysseus under the sea, but the goddess Ino comes to his rescue. She gives him a veil that keeps him safe after his ship is wrecked. Athena too comes to his rescue as he is tossed back and forth, now out to the deep sea, now against the jagged rocks of the coast. Finally, a river up the coast of the island answers Odysseus’s prayers and allows him to swim into its waters. He throws his protective veil back into the water as Ino had commanded him to do and walks inland to rest in the safe cover of a forest.

My personal response to this is that Poseidon is angry that the gods did something without him. He is angry that they made a decision on what he opposed and did the opposite of what he says. He trys to hurt Odysseus this doesnt make snese to me. Why is a god trying to hurt or kill a person. Arent they supposed to be good and not like the underworld gods? Im confused on that but oh well. All of the other gods want him to go back home and claim what is his he is trying to as fast as he can. The other gods seem to help him throughout so he can do his duty or job and that is to reach home. They seem to guide him in what to do and do everything they can to make this come true.

the odyssey

Antinous blames Penelope who he says seduces every suitor but will commit to none of them. He reminds the suitors of a promise that she mentioned to getting married. Penelope maintained that she would choose a husband as soon as she finished weaving a burial shroud for her elderly father-in-law Laertes. But each night, she carefully undid the knitting that she had completed during the day, so that the shroud would never be finished. If Penelope can make no decision, Antinous declares, then she should be sent back to Icarius so that he can choose a new husband for her. The dutiful Telemachus refuses to throw his mother out and calls upon the gods to punish the suitors.



Telemachus is getting angry because the suitors want to just throw his mother out until she picks a husband while they use up all of their food, drinks, and house. This angers him so much he wants them to be punished so he tells the Gods and Goddesses to punish the suitors. Also Penlope doesnt want to get married to one of the suitors because I think deep down she believes that her husband is still alive and doesnt want to give up her love. That is why she undoes the shroud. This shows that she still has hope and that she at all costs does not want to marry again.

the odyssey

When the assembly meets the next day Aegyptius a wise Ithacan elder speaks first. He praises Telemachus for stepping into his father’s shoes mentioning that this occasion marks the first time that the assembly has been called since Odysseus left. Telemachus gives a speech in which he states the loss of both his father and his father’s home his mother’s suitors, the sons of Ithaca’s elders have taken it over. He insults them for consuming his father’s oxen and sheep as they pursue their courtship day in and day out when any decent man would simply go to Penelope’s father and ask him for her hand in marriage.

More and more that I am reading Telemachus is encountering some hardships in order to make things go as planned. People are starting to see the role Telemachus has taken to become the " man of the house." People are seeing him as growing up and taking responsibility. He is growing as a person with this deed. He has some encounters with the suitors and has a few scuffles but all is going well. He is trying to get the suitors to quit using up of all of their wealth and prosperities and leave but the suitors do not wish to leave. I can imagine how he is feeling. Things arent going as fast and how he wants them to. Somtimes I want things to hurry up and just happen but patience is key and is a virtue.

The Odyssey

After a conversation, Telemachus encounters Penelope in the suitors’ quarters, upset over a song that the court bard is singing. Penelope is more miserable than she usually is. Telemachus reminds her that Odysseus isn’t the only Greek to not return from Troy and that, if she doesn’t like the music in the men’s quarters she should retire to her own 'chamber' and let him look after her interests among the suitors. He then gives the suitors notice that he will hold an assembly the next day at which they will be ordered to leave his father’s estate. Antinous and Eurymachus, two particularly defiant suitors dont like this news and ask the identity of the visitor with whom he has just been speaking. Although Telemachus suspects that his visitor was a goddess in disguise, he tells them only that the man was a friend of his father.


My personaly response to this is that Telemachus is taking command of his household and doing everything he can to make everything in order. He calms Penelope down and takes care of the suitors as he is told by Zeus and Athena. He takes command of Antinous and Eurymachus and pursuades them to leave. Time will tell if they do listen to him and follow his orders. Except from the begining this book right now is mostly about Telemachus and what he is doing and how he is listening to Zeus and Athena the God and Goddess.

The odyssey

The story begins ten years after the end of the Trojan War. All of the Greek heroes except Odysseus have returned home. Odysseus lives on the remote island Ogygia with the goddess Calypso, who has fallen in love with him and refuses to let him leave. Meanwhile, a mob of suitors is devouring his estate in Ithaca and courting his wife Penelope in hopes of taking over his kingdom. His son Telemachus who is an infant when Odysseus left but now a young man, is helpless to stop them. He has resigned himself to believe that his father is dead. Zeus, Athena travels to Ithaca to speak with Telemachus. Assuming the form of Odysseus’s old friend Mentes, Athena predicts that Odysseus is still alive and that he will soon return to Ithaca. She advises Telemachus to call together the suitors and announce their banishment from his father’s estate. She then tells him that he must make a journey to Pylos and Sparta to ask for any news of his father.



I chose this book because during freshaman year I read it and I did not really understand much of it. I was confused alot but after reading other books this year I have a new mentality towards harder readings such as this. I understand more when I read than when I was a freshman. To me this book can be confusing. I think that Telemachus has overall concurred that his father is dead. He gets news from Zeus and Athena that his father is not dead and he kind of gets the role of becoming the leader of his family. He has to get all of the suitors out of his house. The book starts off with his father and then later goes on to his son Telemachus. This book is more interesting to me now that I understand it more and can relate things to it to make it make more sense. This looks like a great book.