STORIES OF ODYSSEUS (HOMER: ABOUT 800 B.C.)

Whatever country you live in you will be sure to have been told stories about the early days of your people. These stories are so old that they go back to the days before our forefathers learnt to write and they were learnt by heart and handed down by story-tellers, until one day somebody who could write wrote them down so that they should not be forgotten.

We do not always know whether the tales they tell really happened or not, or even sometimes if the people about whom the stories tell were real people, but they are wonderful stories and we still love to hear them and to tell them to our children when we grow up. They often tell us of the wonderful deeds of heroes whom we admire and from whom we can learn a great deal.
Some of the finest stories that have ever been writ- ten down are those told by a people called the Greeks about the early days of their nation. The Greeks lived in southern Europe and their country was called Greece.

Many of them were brave adventurous sailors who travelled far and wide in their ships over the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the best of their stories were told about a Greek chief called Odysseus. The stories tell how he was one of the men who went with the Greeks when they fought against the city of Troy in Asia Minor. Paris, the son of Priam, King of Troy, had stolen a very beautiful Greek princess called Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. She was the wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, one of the Greek cities, and after they had seized her, they car- ried her off to Troy, so that Paris could have her for his wife. So the Greeks sent a great army to fight the Trojans and to bring her back. The story of their ad- ventures was told in two long poems called The Iliad and The Odyssey. Among the men who went were Achilles, who was famous for his bravery; Nestor, who was the oldest and most experienced of them all; and Odysseus, who had more wisdom than any of the other Greeks.

When they reached Troy they could not get into the city. All round it had high walls, which were very strong, and they could neither break through them, nor climb over them. For ten long years they tried to break into the city but at the end of that time they were no nearer taking Troy than they had been when they first came. At last Odysseus thought of a clever plan. He told the Greeks to make a huge wooden horse. It was hollow and its inside was filled with soldiers dressed in their armour with their weapons in their hands. When the horse was finished and the soldiers were safely inside it, the rest of the Greek soldiers got into their ships and pretended to sail away. But they only went just out of sight of the city behind a big rock. The people of Troy were very pleased and thought their enemies had gone away. So they opened the city gates and drew the great horse inside, and when night came they went off to their houses to sleep, thinking that at last they were safe from their enemies.

But when everything was quiet, the Greek soldiers who were hidden inside the horse crept out of it and opened the city gates. Meanwhile in the darkness their comrades had sailed back to Troy and had landed from their ships and come quietly up to the city gates. So they got into Troy at last by means of a trick and tured the city and took Helen back to her husband, cap- King Menelaus, in Greece. You can read the story of all that they did during the siege of Troy in the poem called The Iliad.

Odysseus was longing to return to Greece to see his wife, Penelope and his little son, Telemachus. But he did not manage to do this for a very long time because as he was sailing home in his ship, a fierce storm arose and blew his ship far out of its course away out to sea. He had many exciting and terrible adventures before he got back to his homeland again. It is the story of these adventures that is told in the poem called The Odyssey, which was called by that name because it tells the story of all that befell Odysseus. He was driven right across the Mediter- ranean Sea, till he came to the island of Sicily, many miles away from home. He and his men landed on the island and as they were wandering about looking for food and water to take on board their ship, they came to the entrance to a huge cave, and on the floor of the cave they saw some huge pans of milk. Now the cave belonged to a fierce one-eyed giant called Poly- phemus. He seized Odysseus and his men and shut them up in his cave, rolling a great rock across the entrance. There he kept them, till they should grow fat enough for him to kill and eat them. Each night he took two of them and ate them for his supper. Day by day their number grew less.

At last Odysseus thought of a clever plan by which they could escape. Polyphemus kept a flock of giant sheep in the cave and let them out each morning when it was light to go and find pasture. One night Odysseus pretended to be very friendly and he gave Polyphemus a huge skinful of wine to drink, which they had brought with them from the ship. This made the giant sleep very heavily, and when he was fast asleep Odysseus crept up to him and drove a burning wooden stake into his one eye and blinded him. Then Odysseus tied himself and each one of his men to the sheep under- neath their bodies. In the morning Polyphemus rolled away the rock from the door of the cave and because he could not see he stood by the door feeling the sheep with his hands as they ran out. But Odysseus and his men were tied under the bodies of the sheep so that Polyphemus could not feel them and did not know they were getting out of the cave, so they escaped and got safely back to their ship.

Another time Odysseus and his men sailed past the shores of a land where some beautiful women were sitting combing their long hair and singing. They were called sirens and Odysseus knew that they were trying to tempt the sailors to sail to their shores so that their ships would be wrecked on the rocks. He ordered the men to put wax in their ears, so that they should not hear the songs of the sirens and be tempted to go near the land, and by that means he got them safely past the place of danger.

In the end his ship was struck by a thunderbolt and it was wrecked and all the sailors were drowned. Odysseus himself managed to get to land. He lay al- most dead on the shore, and there he was found by a princess of that land who was playing there with her maidens. They were very sorry for him and they took him home to the king’s palace and the king gave him food and clothes and at last sent him home to Greece in one of his own ships. It was twenty years since he had left home to go and help King Menelaus win back Helen from the Trojans. All this time his wife, Penelope, had been waiting for him at home. When the other ships got home from Troy, bringing Helen with them, the men told her about the terrible storm that had ‘swept her husband away, and they said that Odysseus had been drowned. They went and told her to choose a new husband from among them and said that whoever she chose should be king in Odysseus’ place. But she did not believe that Odysseus was dead and she refused to do what they asked. When they pressed her she told them that she had vowed not to marry again till she had woven a long piece of cloth. This was only a trick and each night, when it was dark, she undid all that she had woven during the day, so that the piece of cloth was never finished.

When Odysseus landed at last in Greece he was afraid that no one would know who he was because he had grown so old and was so changed in appear- ance. So he disguised himself as an old beggar man and made his way to the palace gates to see what had happened. The doorkeeper would not let him in, but an old dog was lying outside the door in the sun, and although he was now very old and weak he had once been Odysseus’ hunting dog, and he knew his master. Instead of barking at him as if he were a stranger he wagged his tail and went up to Odysseus and licked his hand. The doorkeeper was so sur- prised that he sent a messenger to tell Penelope what had happened. She did not know who the beggar was but she sent out Odysseus’ old nurse to take him some food.

When the nurse saw Odysseus she recognized him by a scar on his leg, and she brought him to the palace and took him to Penelope. So Odysseus’ troubles came to an end at last, and he and his wife were together again once more. Penelope’s faithfulness to him was rewarded and they lived happily together with their son, Tele- machus, who was now a grown-up man, for the rest of their lives.

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