Journey Home
"Good morning, kids. Yesterday I
told you about Circe, and how helpful and hospitable she was after I
beat her all by myself. She told me that the only way to get home was
to go see Tiresias, the blind prophet in the underworld, and have him
show me the way. Are you ready to begin?"
"Yes, Grandpa."
"Okay. Now, we had just left Circe,
heading for the underworld. The only problem was that in order to get
to the underworld we had to sail to the very edge of the world. We set
our heading towards the sun in the morning, and away from the sun in
the evening, and eventually we made it to that dreadful place. I was
not afraid, and even put down a payment on a nice plot of land by the
River Styx. Anyway, once we arrived, we sacrificed a lamb, and let the
blood drain into a pool. We did this because the only way that we can
communicate with the dead is if they drink fresh blood. We used a lamb
because none of the men were willing volunteer their own blood. We
pushed the other souls back
until Tiresias came and drank the spilled blood. He told us how to get
home, and told me of some things that we should not do, or else we
would be putting ourselves in great danger."
"Grandpa, did you see anyone you
knew while you were in the underworld?"
"Why yes, as a matter of fact I
did. Most notably, Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors at
Troy. He seemed happy to be away from all of the
war and death, or at least the killing side of death.
"After we had left the underworld
and arrived back on the ocean, we passed by our first of the obstacles,
the Sirens. The Sirens were beautiful women who would sing wonderful
songs, causing an entire crew of sailors to fall in love with them,
causing the sailors to drive their boats into the rocks leading to
their untimely deaths. I was told to put wax in the ears
of my men so they could not hear the songs and accidentally kill us. As
for myself, I knew no Sirens could tempt me so left my ears open and
listened to their songs. It was like a sweet, gentle, lullaby. The
closer you get, the more beautiful it sounds, and once you start to
pull away the more intense the urge to seek the source of the music
becomes. For good measure, I was tied to the mast, and
my men swear that as we passed the Sirens, I was screaming my head off
trying to get them to follow the
music. This of course could never have happened, because I was never
tempted by the Sirens. I just listened to the music and enjoyed it.
Once we had passed the Sirens, my
men and I sailed through more treacherous waters before finally coming
up
on the Island of the Sun. On the island, my men sacrificed the cattle
that were grazing there, offering them to Zeus for safe travel. Zeus
did
not like that they made an offering using stole cattle, and when we
were back at sea he hurled lighting at us,
destroying our boat and killing all on board. I was the only survivor.
"I washed up on the Island of
Phaeacia, and told the Phaeacians my story, much as I am telling you
children now. Moved by all of my misfortune in trying to get home, the
King of the Phaeacians ordered that I be put on a ship and that
a bed be made for me on board. They charted a course directly to
Ithaca, they say I slept the whole journey.
"When I woke up, I was on a
beach, and I did not know where I was, for a great fog made it
difficult
to see more than a few inches in front of me. The goddess Athena then
appeared, and
the fog faded. She then told me that she had cast the fog to protect
me. I
then recognized where I was, I was home. I kissed the ground for a good
hour before Athena turned me into an old man, so that I could not be
recognized, and she sent me to find my pigs, which would put me on the
road home.
"Now that I was home, I did
whatever the gods and goddesses commanded. Next time, I will tell you
what I found when I arrived back at my home. Now, run along children.
Come back after you have finished your chores, and we will finish this
story together."
Sirens
Paper Castle Press
"The Illustrated Odyssey" by Joel Skidmore Website: Mythweb Web Source: The Illustrated
Odyssey: Book
Eleven-Thirteen
Author's Note: This was originally supposed to be part of the second
story, but I decided that it would be best to separate them into two
different parts of the story, which I think worked out to my advantage.
In this part we follow as he goes to the underworld, passes the Sirens,
and gets his ship destroyed. He finishes with his washing up on the
shores of Phaeacia and telling them his story. That is something
that I changed. In the book, Odysseus has been telling them his story
this whole time, but I left that part out because it seemed unimportant
at the time, and I feel that the story has flowed much better than if I
had included that in my retelling. In this part, I had a little less
audience interaction. I guess they are beginning to behave. I also,
again,reemphasized Odysseus' arrogance and ego. One exapmle is how I
said he was not
afraid was in the Underworld, and how he even got some land down there
is
one example. Another exaple is how he does not remember screaming as he
and his crew sailed past the Sirens. He has such a view
of himself that of course he did not need to be tied to anything, and
was just fine standing there listening. This part ends with him being
sent back to Ithaca, which will lead into the finally next time.
Back to Grandpa's Odyssey