Myth Final

Front 1

“We were persuaded by this appeal to our honor.
Every day she would weave at the great loom,
And every night she would unweave by torchlight.
She fooled us for three years with her craft”

Back 1

Suitors discussing Penelope's deception of the shroud

Front 2

“All the gifts Athena has given her,Her talent for handiwork, her good sense,Her cleverness—all of which go far beyondThat of nay of the heroines of old,Tyro or Alcmene or garlanded Mycene,Not one of whom had a mind like Penelope’s,Even though now she is not thinking straight”

Back 2

Antinous talking about penelope

Front 3

“… At first she [x] refused
The whole sordid affair. She had good sense
And with her was a singer whom Agamemnon,
When he left for Troy, had strictly ordered
To guard his wife. But when the gods doomed her
To be undone, Aegisthus took the singer of tales
To a desert island and left him there
For the dogs and birds”

Back 3

Nestor talking about Agamemnon and his wife clymenestra

Front 4

“In the eighth year, though,he [x] met his doomIn the person of Orestes, come back from Athens.Orestes killed his father’s murderer,The treacherous Aegisthus, and, having killed him,Invited all the Argives to a funeral feastFor his hateful mother and her craven lover.On that very day Menelaus arrived, Bearing all the treasure his ships could hold.”

Back 4

nestor referring to the agamemmnon/clymenestra/aegisthus situation

Front 5

“May Zeus cripple him before he reaches manhood!”

Back 5

Suitors plotting against Telemachus

Front 6

And now my beloved son has gone away
In a hollow ship, a mere child, who knows nothing
Of the world of men. I grieve for him even more
Than for my husband

Back 6

Penelope talking about Telemachus leaving

Front 7

I don’t know what kind of send-off you have in mind,Goddess, telling me to cross all that open sea on a raft,Painful, hard sailing. Some well-rigged vesselsNever make it across with a stiff wind from Zeus.You’re not going to catch me setting foot on any raftUnless you agree to swear a solemn oathThat you’re not planning some new trouble for me.

Back 7

Odysseus to Calypso, questioning her directions

Front 8

Goddess and mistress, don’t be angry with me.I know very well that Penelope,For all her virtues, would pale beside you.She’s only human, and you are a goddess, Eternally young. Still, I want to go back.My heart aches for the day I return to my home.

Back 8

Odysseus to Calyspo, when she asks him to stay

Front 9

And the White Goddess saw him, Cadmus’ daughterIno, once a human girl with slim, beautiful anklesWho had won divine honors in the saltwater gulfs,She pitied Odysseus his wanderings and pain,And rose from the water like a flashing gull,Perched on his raft, and said this to him.

Back 9

Ino sees odysseus

Front 10

Artemis sometimes roams the mountains—Immense Taygetus, or Erymanthus—Showering arrows upon boars or fleet antelope,And with her play the daughters of ZeusWho range the wild woods—and Leto is gladThat her daughter towers above them allWith the shining brow, though they are beautiful all—So the unwed princess among her attendants

Back 10

Poem about Nausikaa and her relation to Artemis before she gives a bath to Odysseus(wild)

Front 11

“I implore you, Lady: Are you a goddessor mortal? If you are one of heaven’s divinitiesI think you are most like great Zeus’ daughterArtemis. …Thrice blest is your father, your queenly mother,Thrice blest your brothers! Their hearts must alwaysbe warm with happiness when they look at you,Just blossoming as you enter the dance.And happiest of all will be the lucky manWho takes you home with a cartload of gifts.I’ve never seen anyone like you,Man or woman. I look upon you in awe.Once, on Delos, I saw something to compare—A palm shoot springing up near Apollo’s altar.”

Back 11

Odysseus to Nausikka

Front 12

Then Athena, born from Zeus, made him lookTaller and more muscled, and made his hairTumble down his head like hyacinth flowers.Imagine a craftsman overlaying silverWith pure gold. He has learned his artFrom Pallas Athena and HephaestusAnd creates works of breathtaking beauty.So Athena herself made Odysseus’ head and shouldersShimmer with beauty

Back 12

Athena makes odysseus better looking

Front 13

The piece that he sang was already famed
Throughout the world—the quarrel
Odysseus once had with Achilles,
Going head to head at a feast of the gods
With violent words, and Agamemnon,
The warlord, rejoice that these two,
The best of the Greeks, were at each other’s throats.
For long ago, when he crossed the stone threshold
In sacred Pytho to consult the oracle,
Apollo has prophesied that this would happen.

Back 13

First song @ demodocus

Front 14

That’s an ugly thing to say, stranger.
And it makes you look like a reckless fool.
The sad truth is that the gods don’t give anyone
All their gifts, whether it’s looks, intelligence,
Or eloquence. One man might not have good looks,
But the gods crown his words with beauty,
And men look at him with delight. He speaks
With unfaltering grace and sweet modesty,
And stands out in any crowd. When he walks
Through town, men look upon him as a god

Back 14

Odysseus talking to Euryalus

Front 15

I don’t know whether it was the Muse
Who taught you, or Apollo himself,
But I praise you to the skies, Demodocus,
When you sing about the fate of the Greeks
Who fought at Troy, you have it right,
All they did and suffered, all they endured.
It’s as if you had been there yourself,
Or heard a first-hand account…

Back 15

Odysseus' praise for demodocus

Front 16

The song went on. The Greeks poured outOf their hollow ambush and sacked the city.He sang how one hero here and another thereRavaged tall Troy, but now Odysseus went,Like the War God himself, with MenelausTo the house of Deiphobus, and there, he said,Odysseus fought his most daring battleAnd won with the help of Pallas Athena

Back 16

Song about odysseus

Front 17

And we came to the land of the Cyclopes,
Lawless savages who leave everything
Up to the gods.These people neither plow nor plant,
But everything grows for them unsown:
Wheat, barley, and vines that bear
Clusters of grapes, watered by rain from Zeus.
They have no assemblies or laws but live
In high mountain cave, ruling their own
Children and wives and ignoring each other.

Back 17

Odysseus talking about cyclopses

Front 18

Now we are here, suppliants at your knees,
Hoping you will be generous to us
And give us the gifts that are due to strangers.
Respect the gods, sir. We are your suppliants,
And Zeus avenges strangers and suppliants,
Zeus, god of strangers, who walks at their side.”

Back 18

Odysseus to the cyclops

Front 19

You’re dumb, stranger, or from far away,
If you ask me to fear the gods. Cyclopes
Don’t care about Zeus or his aegis
Or the blessed gods, since we are much stronger.
I wouldn’t spear you or your men
Our of fear of Zeus. I would spare them only
If I myself wanted to

Back 19

Cyclops to Odysseus

Front 20

And I was left there, brooding on how
I might make him pay and win glory from Athena.
This was the best plan I could come up with:
Beside one of the sheep pens lay a huge pole
Of green olive which Cyclops had cut
To use as a walking stick when dry. Looking at it,
We guessed it was about as large as the mast
Of a black ship, a twenty-oared, broad-beamed
Freighter than crosses the wide gulf

Back 20

Odysseus regarding the olive tree he will poke out the cyclops eye with

Front 21

Ships, agriculture, commerce, social organization and social stability, leadership, piety, and Athena—all the themes of the exposition come together in a staff of olive wood and are brought to bear against Polyphemus. It is with culture that Odysseus blinds Polyphemus, which culture that he protects himself from the progeny of reified natural force [I.e. Poseidon

Back 21

Odysseus uses culture to stab cyclops

E. Cook

Front 22

For one agonizing moment in the doorway, all that is interposed between the wrath of Polyphemus and its object is a ram, which Odysseys shall presently sacrifice to Zeus

Back 22

E Cook on the odyssey - 1

Front 23

Odysseus has insisted on the prerogatives of Greek culture in an antithetical realm, and although the Cyclopeia [Cyclops episode] clearly depicts the success of the civilized over the savage, the moral is not so simple as this. Odysseus’ position reverses once more, and now Polyphemus is replaced by a more universal threat, his father Poseidon. Now there can be no victory, only propitiation for the temerity of surviving. By his wits man saves himself from the force of hostile nature, but to do so is an offense, a violation of nature.”

Back 23

E Cook on the odyssey - 2

Front 24

Opposing the wild and far-off land is the power of justice at home; opposing the man-eater’s greed, the cruel but just vengeance; opposing the predator’s attack at close quarters, the technology of weapons that can be used at a distance. In either case, there is, of course, killing…. Even culture, in its antithesis to anit-culture, is based on sacrifice.

Back 24

Burkert on the odyssey

Front 25

a dread goddess with richly coiled hair
And a human voice. She is the sister
Or dark-haired Aeetes, and they are both sprung
From Helios and Perse, daughter of Ocean

Back 25

description of circe

Front 26

And she lace this potion with insidious drugs
That would make them forget their own native land.
When they had eaten and drunk, she struck them
With her wand and herded them into the sties outsides.
Grunting, their bodies covered with bristles,
They looked like pigs, but their minds were intact

Back 26

circe's potion

Front 27

He had a golden wandAnd looked like a young man, a hint of a moustacheAbove his lip—youth at its most charming.He clasped my hand and said to me.“Where are you off to now, unlucky man,Alone, and in rough, uncharted terrain?

Back 27

Odysseus describing encounter with hermes

Front 28

When Circe strikes you with her magic wand,Draw your sharp sword from beside your thighAnd rush at her with murder in your eye.She’ll be afraid and invite you to bed.Don’t turn her down—that’s how you’ll getYour comrades freed and yourself well loved.But first make her swear by the gods aboveShe will not unsex you when you are nude,Or drain you of your manly fortitude

Back 28

Hermes gives advice to odysseus about circe

Front 29

Then you must go off again, carrying a broad-bladed oar,
Who eat their food unsalted, and have never seen
Red-prowed ships or oars that wing them along.
And I will tell you a sure sing you have found them,
One you cannot miss. When you meet another traveler
Who thinks you are carrying a winnowing fan,
Then you must fix your oar in the earth,
And offer sacrifice to Lord Poseidon,
A ram, a bull, and a boar in its prime

Back 29

Teiresias’ prophecy to odysseus

Front 30

He paused, and they sat hushed in silence,
Spellbound throughout the shadowy hall.
And then white-armed Arete began to speak:
“Well, Phaeacians, does this man impress you
With his looks, stature, and well-balanced mind?
He is my guest, moreover, though each of you
Shares in that honor. Do not send him off, then
Too hastily, and do not stint your gifts
To one in such need. You have many treasures

Back 30

after Odysseus tells about hades

Front 31

Odysseus, we do not take you
For the sort of liar and cheat the dark earth breeds
Among men everywhere, telling tall tales
No man could ever test for himself.
Your words have outward grace and wisdom within,
And you have told your tale with the skill of a bard—
All that Greeks and you yourself have suffered.
But tell me this, as accurately as you can:
Did you see any of your godlike comrades
Who went with you to Troy and met their fate there?

Back 31

Alcinous asks Odysseus about hades

Front 32

[x], most glorious of men.There is a time for words and a time for sleep.But if you still yearn to listen, I will not refuseTo tell you of other things more pitiable still,The woes my comrades who died after the war,Who escaped the Trojans and their battle-cryBut died on their return through a woman’s evil.When holy Persephone had scattered The women’s ghosts, there came the ghostof Agamemnon, son of Atreus,Distraught with grief. Around him were gatheredThose who died with him in Aegisthus’ house

Back 32

Odysseus to Alcinous

Front 33

Aegisthus was the cause of my death.
He killed me with the help of my cursed wife
After inviting me to a feast in his house,
Slaughtered me like a bull at a manger.
…..
But the most piteous cry I ever heard
Came from Cassandra, Priam’s daughter.
She had her arms around me down on the floor
When Clytemnestra ran her through from behind

Back 33

Agammemnon's ghost talking to odysseus

Front 34

Nothing is more grim or more shameless than a womanWho set her mind on such an unspeakable actAs killing her own husband. I was sureI would be welcomed home by my childrenAnd all my household, but she, with her mind setOn stark horror, has shamed not only herselfBut all women to come, even the rare good one

Back 34

Agamemmnon to Odysseus

Front 35

Ah, how broad-browed Zeus has persecutedThe house of Atreus from the beginningThrough the will of women. Many of us diedFor Helen’s sake, and ClytemnestraSet a snare for you while you were away.”

Back 35

Odysseus to Agamemnon

Front 36

So don’t go easy on your own wife either,Or tell her everything you know.Tell her some things, but keep some hidden.But your wife will not bring about your death,Odysseus. Icarius’ daughter,Your wise Penelope, is far too prudent

Back 36

Agamemmnon to Odysseus

Front 37

But no man, [x],
Has ever been as blessed as you, or ever will be.
While you were alive the army honored you
Like a god, and now that you are here
You rule the dead with might. You should not
Lament your death at all, Achilles

Back 37

odysseus to achilles

Front 38

Don’t try to sell me on death, [x],
I’d rather be a hired hand back up on earth,
Slaving away for some poor dirt farmer,
Than lord it over all these withered dead

Back 38

achilles to odysseus

Front 39

“Ajax, son of flawless Telamon,
Are you to be angry with me even in death
Over that accursed armor? The gods
Must have meant it to be the ruin of the Greeks.
We lost a tower of strength to that armor.
We mourn your loss as we mourn the loss of Achilles himself”
……
“I spoke, but he said nothing. He went his way
To Erebus, to join the other souls of the dead

Back 39

Odysseus talking to/about ajax

Front 40

Son of Laertes in the line of Zeus,
Crafty Odysseus—poor man, do you too
Drag out a wretched destiny
Such as I once bore under the rays of the sun?
I was a son of Zeus and grandson of Cronus,
But I had immeasurable suffering

Back 40

Heracles to odysseus

Front 41

Come hither, Odysseus, glory of the Achaeans,Stop your ship so you can hear our voices.No one has ever sailed his black ship past hereWithout listening to the honeyed sound from our lips.He journeys on delighted and knows more than before.For we know everything that the Greeks and TrojansSuffered in wide Troy by the will of the gods

Back 41

Sirens to odysseus

Front 42

I went off by myself up the island
To pray to the gods to show me the way.
When I had put some distance between myself
And the crew, and found a spot
Sheltered from the wind, I washed my hands
And prayed to the gods, but all they did
Was close my eyelids in sleep

Back 42

Odysseus on Trinacia

Front 43

Seven herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep,
Fifty in each. They are immortal.
They bear no young and they never die off,
And the shepherds are goddesses,
Nymphs with gorgeous hair

Back 43

Circe on Helios' cattle

Front 44

“Alas for the prophecy of old that I heard
From my father. He said that Poseidon
Would be angry with us for giving safe passage
And that one day he would wreck a beautiful ship
As it sailed for home over the misty sea.
And he would hem our city in with a mountain.
What the old man said is all coming true.

Back 44

alcinous

Front 45

I’ve heard of Ithaca, of course—even in Crete
Far over the sea, and now I’ve just come ashore
With my belongings here. I left as much
To my sons back home. I’ve been on the run
Since killing a man, Orsilochus,
Idomeneus’ son, the great sprinter.
No one in all Crete could match his speed
He wanted to rob me of all the loot
I took out of Troy—stuff I had sweated ofr
In hand-to-hand combat in the war overseas

Back 45

Odysseus, first Cretan lie

Front 46

Only a master thief, a real con artist
Could match your tricks—even a god
Might come up short. You wily bastard,
You cunning, elusive, habitual liar!

Back 46

?? athena to odysseus

Front 47

Never mind about that though. Here we are.
The two shrewdest minds in the universe,
You far and away the best man on earth
In plotting strategies, and I famed among the gods
From my clever schemes

Back 47

athena to odysseus

Front 48

Then, sitting at the base of the base of the sacred olive,The two plotted death for the insolent suitors.Athena began their discussion this way:“Son of Laertes in the line of Zeus,Odysseus, the master tactician—consider howYou’re going to get your hand on the shameless suitors,Who for three years now have taken over your house,Proposing to your wife and giving her gifts,She pines constantly for your return,But she strings them along, makes little promises,Sends messages—while her intentions are otherwise.”

Back 48

athena to odysseus

Front 49

“Ah, I’d be heading for the same pitiful deathThat Agamemnon met in his houseIf you hadn’t told me all this, Goddess

Back 49

odysseus to athena

Front 50

With Zeus above all gods as my witness
I swear, by this table of hospitality,
And by Odysseus’ hearth, to which I have come
That this same Odysseus, mark my words,
Is at this moment in his own native land,
Sitting still or on the move, learning of this evil,
And he is sowing evil for the suitors

Back 50

Theoclymenus the prophet

Front 51

Well, look at this, trash dragging along trash
Birds of a feather, as usual. Where
Are you taking this walking pile of shit,
You miserable hog-tender, this diseased beggar
Who will slobber all over our feasts?
How many doorposts has he rubbed with this shoulders,
Begging for scarps? You think he’s ever gotten
A proper present, a cauldron or sword? Ha!

Back 51

Melanthious the goatherd

Front 52

Lady, no one on earth could find fault with you,For your fame reaches the heaven above,Just like the fame of a blameless king,A god-fearing man who rules over thousandsOf valiant men, upholding justice.His rich, black land bears barley and wheat,The trees are laden with fruit, the flocksAre always with young, and the sea teems with fish—Because he rules well, and so his people prosper

Back 52

odysseus as the beggar to penelope

Front 53

But he lost his trusty crew and his hollow ship
On the wine-dark sea. As he was sailing out
From the island of Thrinacia, Zeus and Helios
Hit him hard because his companions had killed
The cattle of the Sun. His men went under,
But he rode his ship’s keel until the waves
Washed him ashore in the land of the Phaeacians,
Whose race is closely akin to the gods

Back 53

odysseus as begggar to penelope lying about himself

Front 54

Of all the travelers who have come to my house,
None, dear guest, have been as thoughtful as you
And none as welcome, so wise are your words.
I do have an old and trustworthy woman here,
Who nursed and raised my ill-starred husband,
Taking him in her arms the day he was born

Back 54

penelope to odysseus

Front 55

[x], rise and wash the feet of this man,
Who is you master’s age,
Odysseus’ feet and hands are no doubt like his now,
For men age quickly when life is hard

Back 55

Penelope to Eurycelia

Front 56

And I suppose, stranger, women mocked him, too,
When he came to some man’s gloried house
In a distant land, just as these cheeky bitches
All mock you here. It is to avoid their insults
That you will not allow them to wash your feet

Back 56

Eurycelia to odysseus

Front 57

But listen now to a dream I had
And tell me what it means. In my dream
I have twenty geese at home. I love to watch them
Come out of the water and eat grains of wheat.
But a huge eagle with a hooked beak comes
Down from the mountain and breaks their necks,
Killing them all. The lie strewn through the hall
While he rides the wind up to the bright sky.
I weep and wail, still in my dream,
And Achaean ladies gather around me
As I grieve because the eagle killed my geese.

Back 57

Penelope's dream

Front 58

Then the eagle comes back and perches uponA jutting roof-beam and speaks to meIn a human voice, telling me not to cry: “Take heart, daughter of famed Icarius.This is no dream, but a true visionThat you can trust. The geese are the suitors,And I, who was once an eagle, am nowYour husband come back, and I will deal out doom,A grisly death for all of the suitors

Back 58

penelope's dream

Front 59

Lady, there is no way to give this dream
Another slant. Odysseus himself has shown you
How he will finish this business. The suitors’ doom
Is clear. No one will escape death’s black birds

Back 59

Odysseus to penelope about her dream

Front 60

Dawn is coming, the accursed dawn of the day
Which will sever me from the house of Odysseus.
I will announce a contest. …. And whoever
Can bend that bow and slip the string on its notch
And shoot an arrow through all twelve axes,
With him will I go, leaving behind this house

Back 60

Penelope to odysseus(beggar)

Front 61

Revered wife of Laertes’ son, Odysseus,
Do not put off this contest any longer,
For Odysseus will be here, will all his cunning,
Handling that polished bow, before these men
Could ever string it and shoot through the iron

Back 61

Odysseus to penelope

Front 62

Now look, today is a holiday,
Throughout the land, a sacred feast
In honor of Apollo, the Archer God.
This is no time to be bending bows.
So just set it quietly aside for now.
As for axes, why don’t we leave them
Just as they are? No one is going to come
Into Odysseus’ halls and steal those axes.
So we can forget about the bow
And pour libations. Come morning …
…
We can finish this business with the bow.”

Back 62

Antinoos to Eurymachus

Front 63

But even if, as seems likely, he [Odysseus] is dead,
And will never return, his son, Telemachus,
Is now very much like him, by Apollo’s grace

Back 63

Odysseus talking to a maid

Front 64

And I will tell you exactly what happened to us
And how it ended in our bitter death.
We were courting the wife of Odysseus,
Long gone by then. She loathed the thought
Or remarrying, but she wouldn’t give us yes or no.
Her mind was bend on death and darkness for us

Back 64

Amphimedon to Agamemmnon

Front 65

That’s how we died, Agamemnon. Our bodiesStill lie uncared for in Odysseus’ halls.Word has not yet reached our friends and family,Who could wash the black blood from our woundsAnd lay us out with wailing, as is due the dead

Back 65

Amphimedon to Agamemmnon

Front 66

Well done, Odysseus, Laertes’ wily son!
You won a wife of great character
In Icarius’ daughter. What a mind she has
A woman beyond reproach! How well Penelope
Kept in her heart he husband, Odysseus
And so her virtue’s fame will never perish,
And the gods will make among men on earth
A song of praise for steadfast Penelope.
But Tyndareus daughter was evil to the core,
Killing her own husband, and her song will be
A song of scorn, bringing ill-repute
To all woman, even the virtuous

Back 66

Agamemmnon (to?) odysseus

Front 67

And Athena came
And made the shepherd of the people
Taller than before and added muscle to his frame.
When he came from the bath, his son marveled
At his deathless, godlike appearance

Back 67

about laertes

Front 68

And Minos’ heart was pricked by lust, the holy giftof Aphrodite, goddess diademed with desire.No longer did he keep his hand away from the girl,but touched her white cheeks

Back 68

king minos gettin frisky with the girl on the ship theseus is on before theseus regulates

Front 69

Therefore I urge you, warlord of the Cnossians, to curb your arrogance, which will otherwise be cause of many groans

Back 69

Theseus to king minos on the ship in bacchylides