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Structure in the Odyssey
1-12. From Troy to the shores of Ithaca
1-4: Telemacheia
1. Council in Heaven
- The case of Aegisthos
- Hermes dispatched to Ogygia
- Athena appears to Telemakhos as "Mentes" ("inspirer" cf. "mental).
- Hopsitality for Mentes/the Suitors' banquet
2. Tel. calls assembly.
Day 2
- Anti-noos ("opposed mind") speaks for Suitors
- Omen mocked by Eurymakhos ("wide battler")
- Mentor closes assembly
- Athena appears as Mentor ("mentor"), then as Telemakhos, Mentor
3. Tel.+ Mentor visit Nestor at Pylos.
- Sacrifice to Poseidon
- Nestor's reminiscences-- Ajax and Cassandra; Agamemnon and Aegisthos
- Tel. and Peisistratos depart.
Day 3
4. Tel. + Peis. visit Menelaos at Sparta
- Menelaos on limits of human happiness; reminiscences
- Helen and her drugs; story of Odysseus the beggar
- More tales (Proteus saw Od. on Ogygia). Gifts + Departure
Day 4
- Suitors lie in wait for Tel. Penelope in despair.
5. Odysseus begins his return: from Ogygia to Phaeacia
- Olympos again; Athena renews pleas of bk. 1.
- Hermes and Calypso
- Odysseus builds a raft
4 Days
- 20 day trip; Poseidon nails him; Ino-Leucothea saves him.
20 Days
6-12: Phaeacis
6. Landing on Phaeacia
- Nausikaa, daughter of Alcinoos ("valourous in mind") and Arete
- Od. makes way to palace, prays to Athena.
7. Od. presents himself at court
8. Contests and Songs.
Day 29
9-12: The epic within the epic: Od's
wanderings
9. Kikones (loses six men). Lotos Eaters. Kyklops (- six more
men).
10. Aeolos. Laestrygonians (- all but O's ship). Circe on
Aiaia.
11. Nekuia (Descent to Hades)
- Elpenor
- Teiresias
- Anticleia
- Achilles
- Ajax
12. Back to Aiaia, warnings from Circe.
- Sirens; Scylla and Charybdis (- 6 men).
- Thrinakia: Cattle of the Sun. Zeus sends a bolt (all but
Odyssus gone now.)
13-24. From the Shore to the Palace
13. Back on Ithaca.
- Od. and Athena. Cretan Tale.
- They plan to test Pen. O disguised as old man.
14. Od. and Eumaios. Stories and the test of Hospitality: the
cloak.
15. Athena visits Tel. in Sparta.
- Tel. and Theoklymenos set off for Ithaca.
- Od. questions Eumaios about affairs in Ithaca. E's life story.
- Tel. lands in Ithaca and makes for E's hut.
16. Od. tests Tel.; Athena transforms Od. back; recognition of Od.
by Tel.
- Od. + Tel. plan his return to palace
- Suitors discuss foiled plot vs Tel.
17. Eumaios + Od. as beggar set off for palace.
- Melanthius the goatherd insults the new beggar.
- Arrival at palace. Argus the dog. Antinoos throws a stool.
18. Inhospitable incidents: Iros the beggar; Eurymakhos the
prince
19. Od. + Tel. remove armor from hall.
- Pen. + Eurykleia receive the beggar. More Cretan tales.
- Recognition of Od. by Eurykleia.
20. Od. inflamed by faithless maidservants.
- Remembers his cunning.
- Faithless and faithful servants.
- Ktesippos and Theoklymenos.
21. The contest for Penelope begins.
22. Epiphany of the real Od.
- Revenge vs. Suitors and maids.
23. Penelope descends to hall
- Tests the stranger Od.
- Od. and wife to bed. "The telos of the Odyssey."
- Next morning, Od. off to see Pa.
24. "Second Nekuia" and Resolution
- Agamemnon discusses Fame and Wives with Achilles.
- Od. tells yet another tale to Laertes.
- Ithacans rise up at slaughter of Suitors. Zeus and Athena/Mentor
settle peace.
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