Book Review: The Odyssey Books 13-18

Plot Summary
Odysseus is finally leaving Phaecia. After talking the ears off Alcinous, his niece-wife Arete, and the rest of the Phaecians, O sails away loaded down with gifts, cuz he's just so awesome, and the Phaecian crew drops him off in Ithaca. The interesting part of all this: apparently O suffers from a serious sleeping disorder as it appears he was asleep for the entire trip. The crew actually carries him, still slumbering peacefully, off the ship and lay him down. Then the honest folk unload all of his goodies, hiding them so that they won't be stolen while O spends his remaining time in dreamland. After what I'm sure was a lot of poking O and giving each other questioning looks, the crew ambles back to their ship and take off, leaving the dead-to-the-world O. Seriously people, they left him sleeping! That just amuses me.

When he wakes up he doesn't know where he is due to some mystifying by the enigmatic Athena. The two have a long chat where Athena gets to have THE BIG REVEAL which I summarize as follows:

Athena sees Odysseus sleeping and mists the land so he will not know where he is.

Odysseus wakes up, confused and angry. Where am I? Why have those tricksy Phaecians left me on this unknown land?

Athena saunters up to him, appearing as a shepherd boy. Her thoughts are filled with how freaking cool Odysseus will think she is, how grateful he will be, when she gets to THE BIG REVEAL.

Odysseus: Thank god there are people here! Who are you? Where am I? WTF is going on here?!?

Athena: You are such an idiot to not now this totally amazing land for it is the incomparable ITHACA! (applause, applause for THE BIG REVEAL)

Odysseus cries.

Did she just want to see the look on his face when he found out he was home? Why is she messing with him at this point? I just don't know.

On a side note, Poseidon totally destroyed the Phaecian ship which brought O to Ithaca. He wanted to punish them because they are so nice they always help out the people who land on their island. Yeah, cuz that's bad. I thought hospitality was like a religion in this time. Anyway, following Zeus's suggestion, Poseidon decimates the ship just as it was in sight of everyone in  Phaecia so that they would learn their lesson: don't help everyone cuz Poseidon may be wanting to lay a bit of the smack down on that particular traveler.

After Athena and Odysseus bandy about some words, catching up and the such not, she turns him into an old beggarman and sends him off to his loyal swineherd Eumaeus to wait until she can bring Telemachus back home from Menelaus's home. O and Eumaeus engage in the proper formalities of hospitality and end up spending some quality time eating and exchanging stories - O's are all big fat lies as he is trying to disguise who he really is.

In the meantime, Athena has urged Telemachus home, warning him of the nefarious plot the suitors have concocted to kill him upon his return. One part I had to read twice for hilarity's sake involved Telemachus telling Nestor's son Psistratus: "Hey dude, I think I'm just going to bypass your dad's house cuz like he really likes to talk and be all hospitable and stuff, so if I go there, I'm afraid o'dude just won't let me leave." Psistratus is then all like: "Yeah, he's a real blabbermouth so I totally get it. Just head for the boat and I'll take my sweet time heading home to deliver the news. That way the old man won't like run down and jump in the water and swim to the boat to snatch you back for some more old school hospitality."

And blah blah blah blah, Telemachus arrives home, meets up with O, makes a plan with daddy to kick in the suitors' heads, finally arrives home and gets all "I da man" on Penelope. Odysseus eventually makes his way home, still disguised as an old beggar. Just a little while later, the strangest thing so far in the story happens. See there's this other beggar in Ithaca, Irus, and Irus is none too pleased with O encroaching on his territory, so he tells O to hit the road. The suitors hear the two old beggars getting up in each other's faces, and next thing you know THEY ARE LAYING ODDS ON WHO WOULD WIN IN A FIGHT. I have to admit I busted out laughing at this. The suitors set up some sort of random street fight here, pitting two old men, men who are poor and weak looking and dirty against each other. How horrible is this?!?! I know I just said I was laughing, but the chuckles turned self-consciously guilty quite quickly.

Obviously, O kicks Irus's ass which wins him the respect of the suitors. Despite the respect, the suitors - and even the maids of the house - still get their rocks off by making fun of O (which will cause some serious pain later). And that my friends is where Book 18 ends. I can feel the cage match coming on.


Any intelligent thoughts on this section Trisha?
Er...not really. I was a bit busy this past week, so while I read and enjoyed this section, I didn't spend much time contemplating all that has happened. In other words, plot summary is all you are going to get for this section. Sorry!
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Echoes of Man is my month-long sojourn into antiquity. I plan on entering the ancient world and basking in its glory for the entire month of November.

During this time, I will be reading and reviewing literature of the time and posting about related topics. If you have anything you would like to add - a review, an informative post, etc. - let me know. I would love to have you join in!
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