Book Review: The Odyssey Books 7-12

Plot Summary
In the first six books, we meet Telemachus, Penelope, and Odysseus, each doing their own thing. Books 7 through 12, however, are entirely focused on Odysseus. Once he enters the palace and is given the royal treatment as all suppliants (guests) do, The Big O (as Jill calls him) launches into a riveting and extremely long-winded tale.

First up, he lets Alcinous know how he arrived in Phaecia. He waxes poetic about Calypso that silly tramp who kept him weeping by day and performing most admirably by night for seven years, and then he talks about his heroic battle with the elements at sea before he finally landed in the perfect spot to watch Nausicaa getting her laundry on. Alcinous laments that Odysseus, this man he does not know at all, like not even his name, cannot marry his daughter Nausicaa. Seriously. Odysseus must be like all kinds of gorgeous to inspire such admiration and respect so quickly with everyone he meets. I get why people would be all over him after hearing about his daring exploits, but why the googly eyed adoration at first sight?

In keeping with ancient customs on hospitality, Alcinous sets up a day of singing and competition. The men of Phaecia entertain Odysseus with singing, wrestling, jumping, boxing, running, and the such not. But then - dum dum dum - one young hothead insults Odysseus when he declines to join in the games. So then The Big O has to get his game face on and decimate in all the competitions Terminator style. At which point his says boo-yah, cocks his head, and raises his eyebrows.

Once Odysseus has reasserted his dominance, the bard sings yet again, a soft tale of Aphrodite and Ares, two gods in love, defying Hephaestus (Aphrodite's husband) in his own marriage bed. How wrong is that? H gets his though when he traps the two mid-coitus and then calls down all of the gods to laugh at them making the two-backed monster. Ouch. After the bard sings his ditty, the dancing begins and apparently the Phaecians are quite the steppers and would kill on Dancing with the Stars. Yet again, the bard plies his trade, this time singing of the Trojan horse. Odysseus cries, sobs actually, throughout the song, and so Alcinous FINALLY ASKS O WHO HE IS. Crazy right? Two days of honor and they still haven't asked him his name.

Instead of just saying his name, he tells them his story from the time he left Troy to when he washed up in Phaecia. Over the next four books, we hear about the not-so-famous escapades such as: the sacking of Ismarus; the mutiny which turned them from Ithaca at the last moment; the conversations with dead folk; and so on.

We also hear about the famous stories: the Lotus-Eaters, the ancient world's druggies; the daring sheep escape from the Cyclops, a cannibal; the Laestrygonians, who are giant cannibals; the first of O's goddess-lovers, Circe; and the killing of Helios's cattle an unbelievable act of idiocy.

I would love to recount for you each of these events in excruciating detail, but that's probably a bad idea. Instead, I will just urge you once again, to read the book. At the end of Book 12, I believe we are finally up to date. Odysseus has regaled the Phaecians with his travels and adventures from the time he left Troy all the way up to the present.

Strange Tidbits

• Alcinous, king of Phaecia married Arete - HIS NIECE!
• In Aeaea, the king had six sons and six daughters, so obviously, he paired them off in marriage.
• Heracles is married to Hebe, "famed for her lithe, alluring ankles." LOL!
• Prophets and gods keep telling O what not to do, and some how what not to do keeps being done.
• "But now I cleared my mind of Circe's orders - cramping my style, urging me not to arm at all." Cramping my style!?!?!

Dante and Homer
I recently read Inferno for the second time, and once again I fell in love with the horrifying and appropriate punishments doled out. Book 11 of The Odyssey includes some of the same fun. At this point in the story, Odysseus is telling Alcinous et al. about the time he went to the House of the Dead. While there he saw, Tityus, Tantalus, and Sisyphus, all three being perfectly punished.

Tityus was born of the goddess Earth, sort of. Apparently, he is Zeus's son, born of Hera, whom Zeus entombed deep in the Earth. And he wasn't really born... See, he grew to such alarming proportions when inside Hera that he ripped her apart and Gaia (Earth herself) had to finish out the nine months. Nasty. He made his big oopsie when he tried to rape Leto, one of Zeus's baby mommas. As punishment, his body is staked to the ground, covering nine acres, and he is made to lie there while two vultures eat his liver, "beaking deep in the blood-sac, and he with his frantic hands could never beat them off."

Tantalus, beloved of the gods, sat in Olympus and feasted, but then he made two big oopsies. First, he stole nectar and ambrosia from the gods and brought them back to his kingdom. Then, he committed the Big Nasty. He chopped up and cooked his own son and tried to feed the human flesh to the gods, most of whom saw through the little trick. What's up with the eating of children? Oddly enough, Tantalus is rumored to be the ancestor of the House of Atreus, descendants of which were Aegisthus and Agamemnon. Now in Tartarus, the lowest part of the underworld, he stands neck deep in a pool of water, but whenever he tries to get a drink, the water flows away from him. Above him, within reach, hangs beautiful fruit from leafy trees, but when he reaches up to grab one, they fly from him.

Sisyphus, as we all know, is doomed to forever push a gigantic boulder up a hill, but when the boulder gets to the very edge of the peak, it always rolls back down to the valley and poor Sisyphus has to start all over again. Sisyphus's sin, causing this torment, is Trickery. One of his tricks involved violations against hospitality where instead of feeding and entertaining his supplicants, he would kill them (I talk about hospitality in my review of books 1-6). Sisyphus also seduced his niece in order to become king and escaped from the Underworld twice through tricks. Tricksy little bugger.


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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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