After reading books V-XII in The Odyssey, I feel like the story is a lot more exciting and has a lot more action. There were, however, quite a few confusing parts to this chunk of reading. Also, there were a lot of interesting things I found out about this week.
The fifth book was all about how Ulysses was being detained by Calypso, on the island where she lived. Mercury was told to force Calypso to let Ulysses go, which she did, and he ended up on the island where the Phaecians lived. Books VI-VIII was all about his encounter with the Phaecians. He meets their king and queen, and is treated very kindly. While they are entertaining Ulysses, however, Euryalus offends him greatly, and Ulysses gets the most angry I have ever seen him in the story so far. Later, King Alcinous asks to here his story, who he is and why he got so sad when hearing the bard sing of the return of the Acheans from Troy. In books IX-XII, Odysseus tells of his journey, and everything he encountered up until coming to Calypso. This part of the reading is a flashback in a way.
One thing that I found confusing was that Ulysses talks about how Jove was trying to destroy his ships and didn't want him coming home. He usually talks about Neptune doing this, but why would Jove also do this? Jove had even said earlier that he thinks highly of Ulysses and that it was time for him to come home. Also, it was confusing how rosy-fingered dawn is referred to as a real goddess when Calypso was talking about goddesses that were in love with mortals. Before then I thought that rosy-fingered dawn was just a more interesting way to say that it was morning. Another confusing part was how Elpenor died of a broken neck, which really doesn't make any sense. I didn't think people died of broken necks.
There were so many interesting parts to these books. First, it was interesting to me how mad Ulysses got when Euryalus called him unskilled in sports. Ulysses was so angry, so he threw a huge disc farther than any of he Phaecians had ever thrown one, and told the men of his athletic abilities. He was trying to prove his skill in sports, but it seemed that he had gotten too mad about it. Also, it was interesting to read about Ulysses' encounter with the king of the winds, and how his men didn't trust him enough, and opened up the sack that held in all of the bad winds. They thought he might have treasures in there that he was keeping all to himself. It seems like they would trust him more. Also, I loved hearing about the Cyclops. It was hilarious when Ulysses told Polyphemus his name was Noman, and then when the other cyclops asked him if any man was trying to kill him, Polyphemus shouted, "Noman is killing me by fraud, Noman is killing me by force!" Ulysses was so clever when he came up with that name so that none of the Cyclops would think anyone was doing anything to the Polyphemus. It made me so angry when Ulysses told the Cyclops his real name, because it was a huge mistake, and started the hate that Neptune had for Ulysses. Also, it was interesting and surprising that Ulysess and his crew stayed on the island where Circe lived for a whole year! That seems like a long time to me. Finally, it was very weird and creepy when Ulysses was surrounded by the ghosts in Hades, and they are all trying to get to the blood.
This weeks reading was very lengthy and hard to finish, but also very exciting. The active reading is getting easier, and I'm continuing to enjoy the story of Ulysses.
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