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.