Mythology a summary myths we have read
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MYTHOLOGY – A SUMMARY MYTHS WE HAVE READ:
1. JASON + ARGONAUTS The Early Years Jason was the son of the lawful king of Iolcus, but his uncle Pelias had usurped the throne. Pelias lived in constant fear of losing what he had taken so unjustly. He kept Jason's father a prisoner and would certainly have murdered Jason at birth. But Jason's mother deceived Pelias by mourning as if Jason had died. Meanwhile the infant was bundled off to the wilderness cave of Chiron the Centaur. Chiron tutored Jason in the lore of plants, the hunt and the civilized arts. When he had come of age, Jason set out like a proper hero to claim his rightful throne. Unknowingly, Jason was to play his part in a plan hatched on lofty Mount Olympus. Hera, wife of almighty Zeus himself, nursed a rage against King Pelias. For Jason's uncle, the usurper king, had honoured all the gods but Hera. Rashly had he begrudged the Queen of Heaven her due. Hera's plan was fraught with danger; it would require a true hero. To test Jason's mettle, she contrived it that he came to a raging torrent on his way to Iolcus. And on the bank was a withered old woman. Would Jason go about his business impatiently, or would he give way to her request to be ferried across the stream?
The Challenge Under the guise of hospitality, he invited Jason to a banquet. And during the course of the meal, he engaged him in conversation. "You say you've got what it takes to rule a kingdom," said Pelias. "May I take it that you're fit to deal with any thorny problems that arise? For example, how would you go about getting rid of someone who was giving you difficulties?" Jason considered for a moment, eager to show a kingly knack for problem solving. "Send him after the Golden Fleece?" he suggested. "Not a bad idea," responded Pelias. "It's just the sort of quest that any hero worth his salt would leap at. Why, if he succeeded he'd be remembered down through the ages. Tell you what, why don't you go?" The Adventure Begins Argus had divine sponsorship in his task, Hera having enlisted the aid of her fellow goddess Athena. This patroness of crafts secured a prow for the vessel from timber cutat the sacred grove of Zeus at Dodona. This prow had the magical property of speaking - and prophesying - in a human voice. And so one bright autumn morning the Argo set out to sea, her benches crewed by ranks of heroic rowers. And true to Pelias's fondest aspirations, it wasn't long before big troubles assailed the company. Hylas and Lemnos First of all they stopped at an island where Hylas, a close friend of Hercules, wandered off in search of water. He found a lovely pond with still, clear water, and he bent over it to fill his pitcher. The water nymphs in the pond found him so attractive that they wanted to keep him – so they pulled him into the water. This may work okay for nymphs but humans need air so we can presume they drowned him (maybe by accident). Hercules called out his name, and got no reply, and he got so desperate searching for Hylas that he wandered miles away from the boat and the Argonauts, in a rush to leave, couldn’t wait any longer and left him behind. Next, they arrived at Lemnos, an island that only had women. There were no males on the island at all. The women welcomed them warmly, but there are two versions of what happened next. In one version, the women are plotting to kill them, and one man finds out when the woman who has become close to him admits the plan. He manages to alert the rest and they escape. In another version, the women are truly welcoming and they hang around for a couple of weeks enjoying themselves before they reluctantly move on. Then they put in at Salmydessus. The Harpies The king welcomed them but was in no mood for festive entertainment. Because he'd offended the gods, he'd been set upon by woman-headed, bird-bodied, razor-clawed scourges known as Harpies. These Harpies had disgusting table manners. Every evening at dinnertime, they dropped by to defecate [poo] upon the king's meal and hung around making such a noise that he wouldn't have been able to eat had he the stomach for it. As a result, King Phineus grew thinner by the hour. Fortunately two of Jason's crew were direct descendants of the North Wind, which gave them the power to fly. And they kindly chased the Harpies so far away that the king was never bothered again. 
A Farmyard Chore It was no problem at all for the Goddess of Love to arrange that Medea be stricken with passion for Jason the moment she first saw him. And it was a good thing for Jason that this was so. For not only was he spared a kingly tongue-lashing and a quick trip to the frontier, but Medea quietly offered to help him in his latest predicament. For once her father had calmed down, he had turned suspiciously reasonable. Of course Jason could have the Fleece and anything else he required in furtherance of his quest - Aeetes couldn't imagine why he’d been so unhelpful. All he needed of Jason as a simple token of good faith was the small farmyard chore.
Ploughing and Sowing Quite conveniently for Jason, Medea was a famous sorceress, magic potions being her stock in trade. She slipped Jason an ointment which, when smeared on his body, made him proof against fire and bronze hooves. And so it was that Jason boldly approached the bulls and brooked no bullish insolence. Disregarding the flames that played merrily about his shoulders and steering clear of the hooves, he forced the creatures into a yoke and set about ploughing the field. Nor was the subsequent sowing any great chore for the now-heartened hero. Gaily strewing seed about like a nymph flinging flowers in springtime, he did not stop to note the unusual nature of the seed. 
The Dragon's Teeth Aeetes, it turns out, had got his hands on some dragon's teeth with unique agricultural properties. As soon as these hit the soil they began to sprout, which was good from the point of view of Jason accomplishing his task by nightfall, but bad in terms of the harvest. For each seed germinated into a fully-armed warrior, who popped up from the ground and joined the throng now menacing poor Jason. Aeetes, meanwhile, was standing off to the side of the field chuckling quietly to himself. It irked the king somewhat to see his daughter slink across the furrows to Jason's side, but he didn't think too much of it at the time. Having proven herself polite to a fault, maybe Medea was just saying a brief and proper farewell.
View of Medea: [nicer] loves Jason, chooses him over family; saves his life several times; mission could not succeed without her; (later) makes Jason’s dad younger. [nastier] butchers brother – psycho; (later) murders her own children, murders Jason’s new wife; gets daughters to murder their own dad (king)
2.THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR Theseus – the early years and the journey to Athens 
Aegeus, king of Athens, once went to a city called Troizen, and while there had an affair with Aethra, daughter of the local king. They had a son called Theseus. The king of Athens had already left, but he had put a sword under a rock and told Aethra to get her son to lift the rock and bring the sword to his father in Athens. When Theseus turned 16 he was ready. He lifted the rock and took the sword. He had two choices on how to get to Athens – to sail, an easy journey, or to go overland through dangerous bandit-infested country. Nobody dared to travel this way because it had become too risky. But Theseus was a mini-Hercules and liked the idea of killing baddies, so he went overland. First, he met Periphetes, a giant who was son of Hephaestus, god of fire, and carried a huge iron club which he used to beat out the brains of all travellers who went near him. He was big, strong and slow, and Theseus was too fast for him, and he was soon dead. Theseus took the club as a souvenir. Next, he met Sinis the Pine Bender, who used to grab travellers, bend down two pine trees, and tie their arms or legs to both pine trees. Then he would let go, the pine trees would spring back, and the traveller would be ripped in two. Theseus smacked him with the club, tied him to the trees, and pyoing, Sinis was ripped in half. The roads were getting safer! Soon he was walking on a narrow cliff path, and he came across Sciron and his pet man-eating turtle. Sciron would force travellers at knife point to kneel down near the edge of the cliff, in front of a bowl of water. They had to wash his feet, and while they did this he would suddenly kick them over the edge of the cliff into the sea. There they were eaten by a giant turtle that liked human flesh. Theseus had heard of this man, and he pretended to agree to wash his feet. Sciron lifted his foot to kick Theseus over the cliff, but Theseus grabbed the foot and pulled him over the cliff. He ended up as food for his own favourite turtle. Nearing Athens, he came across an inn that he decided to stay in for the night. The inn was run by a strong man Procrustes who had the habit of wrestling travellers onto his bed. If their bodies were too short for the bed he would use a rack (tying ropes to their hands and feet and pulling until the sinews stretched and popped) to make them long enough, and if they were too tall to fit he would chop bits off them until they fit. Theseus wrestled with him for a while and then tied him to his own bed. He fitted exactly, so he just chopped his head off. Finally, just near Athens he heard of a monstrous sow (female pig) which was terrifying the locals. With their sharp tusks they’re more dangerous than they sound, but one whack of his club sorted her out. When he got to Athens Medea, who had fled here after murdering her sons, decided to have him killed. She had a son with Aegeus the king and didn’t want Theseus taking his place. So she pretended to the king that she had found out Theseus intended to murder him. She told him to give Theseus a cup of poisoned wine, which he did, but just as he was about to drink it, Aegeus saw the sword… And dashed the cup from his son’s lips. Medea knew she was busted and fled again, maybe back to Colchis. Theseus had a bit more tidying up to do. First, a hero Pallas with his 50 sons tried to seize Athens, but Theseus with a small band of men defeated them. Next, he captured a bull that was causing mayhem outside Athens, and brought it back in triumph. He was doing tasks similar to Hercules… But next comes the main part of the story, the Minotaur.
The Minotaur was the son of Pasiphae, wife of King Minos of Crete. Queen Pasiphae slept with a bull sent by Zeus, and gave birth to Minotaur, a creature half man – half bull. King Minos was embarrassed, but did not want to kill the Minotaur, so he hid the monster in the Labyrinth constructed by Daedalus at the Minoan Palace of Knossos. According to the myth, Minos was imprisoning his enemies in the Labyrinth so that the Minotaur could eat them. The labyrinth was such a complicated construction that no one could ever find the way out alive. A son of Minos, Androgeus, went to Athens to participate to the Panathenaic Games, but he was killed during the Marathon by the bull that impregnated his mother Pasiphae. Minos was infuriated, and demanded Aegeus the king of Athens to send seven men and women every year to the Minotaur to advert the plague caused by the death of Androgeus. The third year, Theseus, son of Aegeus decided to be one of the seven young men that would go to Crete, in order to kill the Minotaur and end the human sacrifices to the monster. King Aegeus tried to make him change his mind but Theseus was determined to slay the Minotaur. Theseus promised his father that he would put up white sails coming back from Crete, allowing him to know in advance that he was coming back alive. The boat would return with the black sails if Theseus was killed.
Theseus announced to King Minos that he was going to kill the Monster, but Minos knew that even if he did manage to kill the Minotaur, Theseus would never be able to exit the Labyrinth. Theseus met Princess Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, who fell madly in love with him and decided to help Theseus. She gave him a thread and told him to unravel it as he would penetrate deeper and deeper into the Labyrinth, so that he knows the way out when he kills the monster. She also gave him a dagger to stab the Minotaur with. Theseus followed her suggestion and entered the labyrinth with the thread. Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur with the dagger and save the Athenians, and with Ariadne’s thread he managed to retrace his way out. She was waiting for him at the door to the Labyrinth. Theseus took Princess Ariadne with him and left Crete sailing happily back to Athens.
King Aegeus was waiting at Cape Sounion to see the sails of the boat. He saw the black sails from afar and presumed his son was dead. He dropped himself to the waters, committing suicide and since then, this sea is called the Aegean Sea. 3.THE ODYSSEY (** = most likely to turn up in exam) Years after the end of the Trojan War, the Greek hero Odysseus still hasn't come home to Ithaca. Most people figure he's dead. But we don't: Homer lets us know right away that Odysseus is being held as a captive on the island of the goddess Calypso. Oh, and sea god Poseidon is ticked off at Odysseus, and sees no reason to let him get home. Back in Ithaca, Odysseus's wife Penelope is getting swarmed by a horde of unwanted suitors. Odysseus and Penelope's son, Telemachus, now a typically moody teenager, gets a visit from the goddess Athene (who was always chummy with Odysseus). She tells him to go looking for news of his missing father, so he heads to Pylos to visit King Nestor. Nestor takes him in, gives him a dinner—and then tells him to go see King Menelaus in Sparta. Once again, he does as he's told. In Sparta, Telemachus learns from Menelaus that Odysseus is alive and…well, being held captive on Calypso's island. Menelaus also tells Telemachus about how his brother, King Agamemnon, was murdered when he got home from Troy by his unfaithful wife, Clytamnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. It's cool, though: Agamemnon's son Orestes killed the murderers. This fun story raises the question of whether Odysseus will be killed when he gets home, and, if so, whether Telemachus will step up to avenge his father's death. Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Penelope's suitors plot to ambush and kill Telemachus when he returns home. Oh, the tension! Up on Mount Olympus, where the gods all hang out, the goddess Athene asks her father, Zeus, the King of the gods, to have mercy on Odysseus and force Calpyso to release him. Zeus says whatevs, and in no time, Odysseus sails off on a makeshift raft. Unfortunately, Poseidon whips up some storms, and instead of getting home, Odysseus washes ashore in the land of the Phaeacians. Fortunately, Athene makes the resident princess, Nausicaa, develop a crush on him. Nausicaa takes him home to meet her parents, the King and Queen of Phaeacia. In return for their hospitality, Odysseus tells them (and us) everything that's happened to him since the end of the Trojan War, which is this: 
Lotus Eaters Odysseus left Troy with 12 ships of his Ithacan men, and about 50 people in each boat. At their first stop, they plundered the locals' stuff. Several storm-tossed days later, they landed on the island of the Lotus-eaters. The locals were friendly and peaceful and a bit dopy, and offered them something called the lotus flower to eat. A few guys ate this, and discovered it was a strong drug, so strong they forgot their homes and families, and could only think of having more of the drug. They had to be tied up and taken back to the ship by force. **Cyclops The next place they came to was the land of the giant one-eyed Cyclopes. They were careful this time; they kept the boats moored on an island off the mainland and only sent one boat as a small scouting party to the mainland. They stumbled into a Cyclops cave, where they found a well-tended cave with sheep pens and cheese. Thinking the owner might be welcoming they waited, and the resident Cyclops (Polyphemus) sealed the entrance to the cave with a huge boulder and ate one of the crew for supper. The men wanted to kill him at once, but Odysseus realised there was no way they could move the boulder, so they would be trapped. The Cyclops then went to sleep, woke up and ate another man for breakfast before going out with his sheep, closing the door behind him – no escape. He returned that evening and ate another man, but Odysseus had a plan. He introduced himself as ‘Nobody’ and offered the Cyclops wine. The Cyclops had never drunk wine before and was so grateful he offered to eat Odysseus last (how kind). Once he fell into a nice deep drunken sleep, Odysseus used his sword to sharpen a stick lying in the cave, and then he put the point in the fire until it was blackened and nice and hard. This he plunged into the Cyclops’ eye. ‘Nobody has blinded me!’ roared the Cyclops to his not-very-clever brothers. They heard him screaming but thought ‘If nobody has blinded you, then you must have some kind of illness sent by the gods – not much we can do about that. We’ll just go back to sleep.’ The next morning, he and his men escaped by riding under the bellies of Polyphemus's flock of sheep. Odysseus tied them together in pairs and put a man under each pair, and he himself cling under the biggest sheep, who was the ram that led the flock. Ironically the blind Polyphemus, who was feeling the backs of the sheep as they went out, realised his ram was walking unusually slowly, and talked sadly to him about the nasty ‘Nobody’. But as Odysseus was sailing away with his men, his ego got the better of him. He taunted the Cyclops, telling him his real name. Turns out, Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. Oops. This is part of the reason why Poseidon hates our hero so much. The Cyclops aims a couple of rocks at Odysseus’ voice, and he only just misses. Odysseus is too much of a boaster here, even if he has good reason 
Qualities – Good: wise – moors ships away from mainland; clever – ‘No body’ – has worked out there are neighbours; clever – blinding rather than killing Cyclops; clever – wine to make him sleep; calm – no panic even as men are being eaten; loyal – crew get 2 sheep, he gets one. Bad – silly to wait inside cave. Aeolus Next, Odysseus and his men came to the island of Aeolus, god of the wind. He helped Odysseus out by putting all the winds—except for the westbound breeze they needed—into a nice little bag. Unfortunately, Odysseus didn't tell his men what's in the bag. On the way home, they opened it up, thinking it was full of treasure. Big mistake. All the winds jumped out and ran riot, thus driving them first back to Aeolus, who won’t help them a second time. Laestrygonians Next, Odysseus and his men came to the land of the Laestrygonians. All the boats sailed into big bay with a narrow entrance, shaped like a C. Only Odysseus had the sense to land just outside this bay, as it was hard to get out of. Some of the crew went inland to meet the locals, and met a bunch of giants. The giants were man-eaters, and they grabbed the scouts, and also worked out pretty quickly that there must be more people where the scouts came from, so they came pouring down to the seafront, and all the way around the bay. They used huge spears and stabbed all the crew and the boats, sinking them all before they had a chance to escape. Only Odysseus’ one boat managed to escape. Gutted. **Circe Next they came to Circe the witch’s island. When they landed on her island (Aeaea), they stayed on the beach for a bit but decided to look for food, water and people inland. They were a bit wary of strangers now, and Odysseus divided his crew into two and cast lots (e.g. short straw) to see who would go inland. Eurylochus led the other half of the crew inland – they had spotted smoke in some forest inland – and they came to a house with a sweetly singing voice inside. The men thought whoever sung like that must be a Goodie and when she welcomed them in they happily followed her. She offered them sweet wine, which happened to be drugged. All the men were turned into pigs. However, Eurylochus had been a bit more wary and had hidden behind a tree; when he saw what happened he went running back to Odysseus and told him. Odysseus, being loyal to his crew but a bit stupid too, put on his sword and said he go alone to get his men back. He had no chance against a witch, and Hermes was sent to show him a plant, moly, that was the antidote to the drug Circe used. He also told Odysseus to drink the wine, then draw a sword and threaten Circe with death unless she freed his men. He would have to go to bed with her before she would undo the magic. [Imagine Odysseus explaining this one to his wife!] Everything happened as Hermes said; the magic didn’t work, he threatened her, she offered him her bed, he had to say yes, and only then did Odysseus get his men turned back into humans. They stayed with Circe, for a year. Finally, one of his men said, "Can we please get going?" and Odysseus said, "OK." Wait—first they had to go the Underworld and get advice from the prophet Teiresias. 
Good leader? Yes – he cares for his men; he wants to save them; he splits crew in two for scouting trip, which is careful; No – he’s a bit dumb to go alone to a witch who’s turned half his men to pigs At the Underworld, Teiresias prophesied that Odysseus would make it home, but not without difficulty. Odysseus spoke to several other famous dead people (like his war buddies Achilles and Agamemnon). He also met the ghost of his mother, Anticleia, who had died of grief over her son's prolonged absence. Then, after a quick pit stop back at Circe's island for more directions (who says men don't ask for directions?), Odysseus and his men sailed on for a series of adventures: (1) **Sirens When they passed by the Sirens, monstrous bird-like women with beautiful voices who try to lure sailors to their deaths, Odysseus made his men plug their ears with wax and tie him to the mast so he could listen to the song without chasing after it. He became the only man to hear the Sirens' song and survive. He begged his men to release him but he had asked one of his crew to tie the ropes even tighter if he begged to be set free. This the man did, so Odysseus was saved. They were all deaf so rowed happily past the island without hearing a thing. The Sirens committed suicide in one version, as they were fated to die if any man heard their song and lived. (2) **Scylla and Charybdis Next, they met two horrible monsters (weirdly, also female) named Scylla and Charybdis. Circe had told Odysseus not to tell the rest of the crew about the two monsters as they’d be too scared; she also told him to pick Scylla rather than Charybdis. Scylla and Charybdis lived near each other in some narrow waters that they had to sail through. On the left was Scylla, high up in a cave. She had seven heads, and each of them would grab a man and munch him. Charybdis lived a little further on, on the right, and above her on the rocks grew a fig tree. She was a giant monster on the sea bed who sucked all the water down in a giant whirlpool and chomped anything that went down, and then vomited the water (and splintered bits of ships) back up again. So Odysseus’ choice was simple – lose seven men, or everyone. Circe also told him not to bother fighting Scylla, as he couldn’t beat her, but the hero in him couldn’t resist fighting her, so he put on all his armour and waved his sword uselessly at her as her heads swished down and grabbed seven men. She did this twice. Still, they didn’t lose the ship, and they avoided Charybdis, just. Qualities – Good: cunning – doesn’t tell men truth as they would panic; brave – sails into certain death for some men without fear. Bad – a bit reckless – Circe said don’t fight Scylla but he can’t resist it. (3) Cattle of Sun Next, they landed on the island of Helios, the sun god, where his very special cattle were kept. Despite having been warned by Teiresias and Circe not to eat the cattle, Odysseus's men couldn't control their hunger. They’d actually been advised to stay off the island, but the men were so tired from rowing that they begged and pleaded and ended up almost mutinying. Odysseus, with a heavy heart, let them stop off at the island, but warned them to leave the cows alone. It was fine for a while, but the winds were all wrong and they were stuck on the island for day after day. At first they had supplies, then they ran out and resorted to picking up shellfish on the beach. All the while, fat cows were mooing nearby. In the end, the men, who were starving, reckoned they would rather be killed by an angry Sun God than starve to death, so they killed a cow, chopped it up and put it on a spit. The flesh mooed even though it was dead, and they knew they’d done a Bad Thing. Not long afterward, when the winds finally favoured them, they sailed away and zap! everyone drowned in a storm—except for Odysseus. (4) **Calypso But he was in for his own bad luck: winding up on Calypso's island of Ogygia to be held prisoner for seven years. She only saw a mortal very occasionally and as the island was really isolated and had no men on it – she only had nymphs for company – she promptly fell in love with Odysseus. She then tried to make Odysseus fall in love with her, and offered him immortality [if he stayed on the island]. She tried to tell him his wife would be getting old and ugly, his son wouldn’t know him, blah blah, but he kept on sitting on the seashore looking out to home, pining for his family. Still, he couldn’t escape – Calypso wouldn’t let him leave and he had no way of sailing away – and eventually Athene went to Zeus and complained bitterly that Calypso had no right to keep him stuck on the island. Hermes went down and ordered Calypso to let him go or get her island sunk, so reluctantly she told Odysseus she didn’t fancy him any more and he could go. Odysseus was too clever for her and knew she must have been ordered to let him go. She showed him some trees on the other side of the island and gave him an axe to cut them down. He did so, made a little raft, and set sail. He was soon shipwrecked, but landed chez the Phaeacians, where he's telling this story. And that's it for Odysseus's story to the Phaeacians. They're so moved by his suffering that they load him up with treasure and ferry him back to Ithaca. (Unfortunately, in return for their trouble, the god Poseidon turns them and their ship into stone.) But the fun isn't over yet—he still has all those pesky suitors to deal with. Odysseus at home – old man Once Odysseus gets home, Athene disguises him as an old man, a beggar, so he can scope out the situation. Odysseus then recruits the assistance of the swineherd, Eumaeus, who puts him up for the night while Athene flies to Sparta to retrieve Telemachus. When Telemachus gets back, Odysseus reveals himself to his son and then heads to the palace, still disguised as a beggar. Without revealing his true identity, he tries to convince Penelope that Odysseus is on his way home and susses out which of his servants are still loyal to the household and which have joined the suitors. He also watches the suitors to see who’s good and who’s bad – the two leaders, Antinous and Eurymachus, are definitely baddies… Penelope has always hoped that Odysseus will turn up so she comes up with cunning plans to delay the marriage that all the suitors are pressing for. First of all, she says she’ll only be ready when her son reaches manhood (18). Then she says she’ll only be ready to marry when she’s finished the funeral shroud (to wrap a body in) for Odysseus. She works at the loom all day weaving, then secretly unpicks the weaving at night, so it takes ages. Eventually a disloyal maid who fancies one of the suitors grasses her up, and she gets caught out by Eurymachus, the chief suitor. **The Bow Challenge Finally, Penelope decides to take action: she'll marry the winner of a content of physical prowess. The challenge? String Odysseus's old bow and shoot it through the heads of twelve axes. Odysseus hears of this and puts together a Cunning Plan. He has 4 loyal friends: his son; Eumaeus the swineherd; Philoetius the cowherd; and Eurycleia, his nurse (who recognised him by a scar on his knee, but has vowed to keep quiet). They sneak all the weapons out of the hall, so the suitors have nothing decent to fight with, and hide them in the armoury. Then on the day of the trial, when Odysseus gets his hand on the bow, slam! All the doors are shut so there is no way out of the hall. Everyone tries and fails with the bow, until the beggar (Odysseus in disguise) steps up. 
**The death of the Suitors He succeeds, drops the disguise, and, with the help of Telemachus, his loyal servants, and Athene's protection, he kills all the suitors in a massive and bloody slaughter. Not quite all – he spares a minstrel, who just sang songs, and a herald who just made announcements – neither of them are really suitors. The first person to die is Antinous, a main suitor, with an arrow through his throat; Odysseus fires arrow after arrow into them, and his son and servants throw spears into people. The Suitors do fight back a bit – they use the axes, and spears thrown at them. They also get help from a treacherous goatherd (Melanthius) who sneaks into the armoury and gets some swords and shields, but he gets caught by Telemachus when he tries a second time. After the battle, several disloyal maids are hanged, and the goatherd is hanged after having his ears and nose cut off. Not nice. Odysseus reunites with his wife, and everything is back to normal—except that he's just killed all the young noblemen of Ithaca and their parents are furious. 
The next morning, Odysseus leaves the palace, reunites with his father Laertes, and lays low while the angry moms and dads start looking for vengeance. Just when it looks like more violence is on the way, Athene appears and asks why we can't all get along. This sounds like a great idea to everyone, and peace is restored in Ithaca. Mythology Extra: Odysseus getting home, Bow Contest, Penelope ODYSSEUS GETS HOME
ODYSSEUS GETS INTO HIS PALACE
THE BOW CONTEST
Set up a row of 12 axes in the hall Fire an arrow through all of the axes
THE MASSACRE
SUITORS Mainly baddies. Chief baddies Eurymachus and Antinous [Penelope calls him ‘most hateful of all’]. BAD – plot to kill Telemachus on his journey to Sparta. BAD – Antinous wants to kill Telemachus even after the plot fails. Plans to kill him in the countryside. BAD – extravagant, reckless and rude; eat loads of Penelope’s animals BAD – Antinous and others don’t want Penelope, they want the money and power that comes with marriage BAD – Antinous throws footstool at Od-beggar; another throws big bone at Od-beggar
Yes – most of them are guilty of the plot to murder Telemachus; they are planning to take over Od’s possessions; they are greedy and unpleasant; in heroic times death as punishment was much more common No – many of them are just suitors, not involved in worst stuff; many nice to Od-beggar PENELOPE
She is stuck with the suitors. Odysseus vanishes after Troy, and as the years drag on he is presumed dead. Odysseus was king of Ithaca so Penelope is Queen. Lots of people want to marry her. 108 suitors arrive eventually. She cannot send them away, as she has to remarry if Odysseus is dead. She remains LOYAL to Odysseus: 1. She is always thinking of him and hoping he’ll get back. She is always asking travellers if they have heard about him – she even talks about this to Odysseus in disguise 2. She delays the wedding as much as possible – if she wasn’t loyal she would have got married quickly. She is CLEVER and she delays the possible wedding:
She works at her loom all day, and then secretly at night she undoes the work. Eventually she gets busted by the suitors when one of her maids grasses her up.
Only Odysseus is strong enough to string the bow Only Odysseus is a good enough archer to fire an arrow through the axes Her excuse; ‘I want a man who is the equal of Odysseus’ [there isn’t one on Ithaca] She is also CLEVER with Odysseus: 1.When he’s in disguise as a beggar she tests if his stories are true [he claims he met Od, and she asks what clothes he wore; Od describes a brooch that she gave him] 2.Even after the massacre she is not convinced that Odysseus is really back so she says to him, “Go and move my bed”. He gets upset – “What’s happened to the bed? I used a live olive tree as one of the bedposts – how could I move it?” Trick – she was testing him. 4. PERSEUS AND MEDUSA Acrisius, king of Argos, had been told in a prophecy that his grandson would kill him. He locked his daughter Danae in a brass tower, but Zeus sneakily visited her in a shower of golden rain, and she had a baby son, Perseus. Acrisius was angry and wanted to kill them both, but they were his family, so he couldn’t bring himself to kill them directly. Instead, he put them both in an open casket (box with a lid) and put them into the sea, hoping they would drown or starve to death. After a long time they drifted ashore in a new kingdom. Perseus and his mother Danae stayed there while Perseus grew up. But after a while the king of the new place, Polydectes, wanted to marry Danae, but she didn't want to marry him. This king wanted to get rid of Perseus for a while so he could make Danae marry him. So the king sent Perseus on a quest, to kill the Gorgon Medusa and bring back her head. At this point the gods stepped in as he couldn’t do it alone. Hermes gave him a special sword, and winged sandals to wear so he could fly to where the Graeae, Nymphs and then Medusa lived, and fight from the air. And he met the goddess Athena, who gave him a shiny shield. Athena told Perseus not to look at Medusa or she would turn him to stone. Instead he should use the shield as a mirror and look in that to cut off Medusa's head. Her look turned men and animals to stone and her head was covered in snakes instead of hair. She also gave him the first stage of his journey – how to find the Graeae. Off Perseus went and asked the three Graeae. The Graeae were very old and they only had one eye and one tooth between them and they took turns every day, passing the eye and the tooth between them. When Perseus came to them, at first they didn't want to tell him where Medusa was. But Perseus waited until they were passing the eye from one to another, and so none of them could see. Then he quickly grabbed the eye! The Graeae had to tell Perseus where Medusa was in order to get their eye back. They told him to go to the Stygian Nymphs in the North, who knew where Medusa lived. So Perseus flew to where the Nymphs lived. He stayed with them a while and they told him where to go. In one version they then give him a special bag that was Medusa-blood-proof, and a helmet of invisibility from Hades. Then he flew on to where the three Gorgons, Medusa and her sisters, lived. Her two sisters, unlike her, were immortal and had scales on their heads, and wings. When Perseus got there all three sisters were asleep. Perseus remembered not to look at them and he looked in the shiny shield and cut off Medusa’s head! Then Perseus took Medusa’s head and put it in a bag and flew away, chased for a while by her sisters who couldn’t see him but could smell him. Andromeda As Perseus was flying home he heard somebody screaming and crying so he flew down lower to see. It was a woman who was tied to a big rock on the edge of the ocean! Perseus saw that she was screaming because a huge sea monster was about to eat her up. So he flew down to the rock and just as the monster was about to get them he pulled Medusa’s head out of the bag and showed it to the monster and the monster turned into stone, just like that! So Perseus untied the woman. She said her name was Andromeda, and her father, who was king there, had tied her up there so the monster would take her and leave the rest of the family alone. So Perseus took Andromeda with him back to his home, but only after some resistance from her fiancé, Phineus, the brother of the king, who didn’t like Perseus taking his future wife. He stormed into the hall with soldiers, and there was quite a fight. Perseus eventually pulled out Medusa’s head and turned them to stone. When Perseus finally did get home, he found that the bad king was still trying to get Danae to marry him. Perseus was angry about that, so he went right into the palace. The bad king Polydectes asked Perseus why he had come back. Perseus said because he had killed Medusa. The king laughed and said he didn’t believe it, so Perseus showed him Medusa’s head – and the king turned to stone too! So Perseus became the king, and he married Andromeda, and they all lived happily ever after. Ironically, Acrisius, when he had heard of the return of Perseus, ran away from Argos to hide. He went to a place called Larissa that was having an athletics contest. Perseus took part in the discus throwing and a gust of wind caught his discus and blew it smack bang into the head of – you guessed it, his grandpa Acrisius. By trying to escape the prophecy he’d actually brought it to pass.
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