What happens in the first 4 books of The Odyssey?
Books 1-4 focus upon Odysseus’ son, Telemachos, his efforts to expel the suitors of his mother, Penelope, from their house, and his journey to Pylos and Sparta in search of news of his father. Homer asks the Muse to tell the story of Odysseus and his wanderings.
What is The Odyssey Book 4 about?
Summary: Book 4 Helen recalls how Odysseus dressed as a beggar to infiltrate the city’s walls. Menelaus tells the famous story of the Trojan horse, Odysseus’s masterful gambit that allowed the Greeks to sneak into Troy and slaughter the Trojans. The following day, Menelaus recounts his own return from Troy.
What are books 1/4 of The Odyssey called?
As Professor Mulligan noted, the first four books are often called the Telemachy because Telemachus goes on his own journey. These first four books represent the education of Telemachus, through both divine and mortal means, in absence of the influence of his missing father, Odysseus.
What happens in Part 2 of The Odyssey?
‐ The Phaecians bring Odysseus home to Ithaca. ‐ Odysseus has not been heard from in 20 years, so many believe he is dead. ‐ Penelope has refused to marry any of the suitors, who have overrun her household.
Who is absent from Book 4 of The Odyssey?
1) Despite being the hero of the epic, Odysseus is strangely absent in this part of the story.
What happened in book 5 of the Odyssey?
Summary: Book 5 All the gods except Poseidon gather again on Mount Olympus to discuss Odysseus’s fate. Athena’s 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 at last be allowed to leave so he can return home.
What characters are in book 4 of the Odyssey?
Odysseus.
What is Book 2 of The Odyssey about?
He tells the legendary tale of the shroud that Penelope wove for the eventual funeral of Odysseus’ father, Laertes, the former king now living on a farm where he grieves his son’s absence. Considering the attack on his mother, Telemachus remains surprisingly calm in his rebuttal.
How does book 4 of the Odyssey end?
Odysseus held the soldiers back and saved their lives. After Menelaus finishes the story, everyone retires to different rooms and goes to sleep. Helen displays her cunning both in guessing Telemachus’s identity and in tricking the men into pleasant forgetfulness.
What happened in Book 6 of the Odyssey?
Summary: Book 6 That night, Athena appears in a dream to the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa, disguised as her friend. She encourages the young princess to go to the river the next day to wash her clothes so that she will appear more fetching to the many men courting her.
What happened in Book 7 of the Odyssey?
Summary: Book 7 On his way to the palace of Alcinous, 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 and shrouds him in a protective mist that keeps the Phaeacians, a kind but somewhat xenophobic people, from harassing him.
How does Book 4 of the Odyssey end?
What happens in the Odyssey Part 2?
Odysseus, disguised with the help of Athena, plots his revenge. With Telemachus & a few loyal servants, he defeats the treacherous suitors. Finally the family is reunited. Odysseus has learned that there is a difference between cunning and wisdom, and that the latter is key to life and happiness.
What is the theme of Book 3 of the Odyssey?
In addition to hospitality, two themes dominate the visit with Nestor: loyalty to human comrades and family, and devotion to the gods. Throughout The Odyssey, Homer’s characters refer to Agamemnon’s story several times.
What happens in the Odyssey Book 5?
What happens in Book 1 of the Odyssey?
In Book 1 of The Odyssey, the narrator begins by asking the Muse to help him tell the story of Odysseus, the only Greek hero who has not returned home, or died on the way, after war in Troy. Though he longs to see his wife, Penelope, and home in Ithaca, a nymph named Calypso has fallen in love with him and keeps him captive.
Where does the story of Odysseus begin?
“Start where you will,” says the bard to the muse, and so the story begins in the middle of Odysseus’s long journey home from Troy. The nymph Calypso has held Odysseus captive for seven years on the island Ogygia, and the goddess Athena has come before an assembly of the gods to plead for his release.
What is the story of Odysseus and Penelope?
One is the story of Odysseus who is held captive on Ogygia by Calypso. The other is centered in Ithaca where Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, struggles to ward off a number of suitors and hopes for reliable word from or about her husband.
What happened to Odysseus son in the Odyssey?
Odysseus has incurred the wrath of Poseidon, god of the sea, by blinding his son Polyphemus the Cyclops. Meanwhile, Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, is besieged by suitors at his home in Ithaca. At a divine council on Mount Olympus, Athena pleads with her father, Zeus, to take pity on Odysseus and allow him to return home.