book ten

• Odysseus arrives on the island of Aeolia, home of Aeolus
• Aeolus shares his home with six daughers and six sons who have married each other
• The Aeolians are civilised -> they are "always feasting" and offer xenia to Odysseus and his men
• The "courtyard echoes to the sounds of banqueting within"
• Odysseus stayed with Aeolus for a month before he asked him for help geetting home and he gave it "willingly", giving him a leather bag containing "the boisterous energie of all the winds"
• Odysseus blames "our own senseless stupidity" for the reason they did not go home following Aeolia
• After ten days of sailing, they near Ithaca but Odysseus falls asleep, he was exhausted because he "handled the sheet of my ship myself without a break, giving it to no one else"
• His crew plot while he sleeps

  • Think in the bag there is "a fortune in gold and silver"
  • Open it to discover what he is hiding for them -> "not fair!" "what a captain we have" who lets them come home with "empty hands"
  • The winds rushed out from the bag and blew them away from Ithaca and back to Aeolia
• Odysseus wakes up with profound grief, "my spirit failed me"
• Aeolians shocked at their return - "what evil power has dealt you this blow"
• Odysseus says his "downfall" was an "untrustworthy crew and a fatal sleep"
• Aeolus refuses to help Odysseus, as his return "shows" he is "detested by the blessed gods"
• Blames himself and his crew - "our own stupidity" even though he was sleeping
• After seven days at sea, they come to the land of the Laestrygonians, initially seeming civilised as they herd cattle and sheep
• Laestrygonian land not civilised - "no cultivate fields or herds of cattle were visible"
• Odysseus a bad leader - sent a party to find out what "sort of people" were living there
• His men came across the daughter of the Laestrygonian chief, Antiphates - some sort of government but seems barbaric
• They questioned her who ruled this land and what the people were called, and she pointed to her father's "dwelling" where Odysseuss men are confronted by Antiphates' wife
• Laestrygonians barbaric + othered

  • His daughter a "strong girl"
  • His wife "a woman of mountainous proportions", the "sight" of her "appaled" the men
  • Antiphates "pouncing on one of my men to eat him for supper"
  • "more like Giants than men"
  • Pelt Odysseus' ships with rocks an "ordinary man could barely lift"
  • Carried men off like "fishes on a spear to make their loathsome meal"
• Other two men not eaten go back to the ships, while Antiphates raised a "cry" which summoned other Laestrygonians
• Odysseus' men die from rocks, and being eaten by the Laestrygonians. Odysseus then unmoors and tells his remaiing crew to row and they leave the land behind
• Grieve for the loss of their crew and arrive at Aeaea - the home of Circe
• Circe's initial introduction - "formidable goddess with a mortal woman's voice", sister of Aeetes, "children of the Sun...by...Perse the Daughter of Ocean"
• Odysseus looks for "signs of civilisation" and "men's voices", and after climbing he saw Circe's house in a "clearing among the dense oak-scrub and forest trees"
• Odysseus doubts whether to seek out Circe, and decides to send out an "exploring party" - COWARD
• A god sends a "great antlered stag" in Odysseus path, which he kills and takes to his men to eat
• Calls his crew "comrades in suffering"
• Odysseus tells them of the "wisp of smoke" he saw and his men break down, remembering the massacre just before, but he still forces them to go. They create two groups, led by himself and Eurylochus and draw lots to see who will go. Eurylochus goes
• Around Circe's house -> "moutain wolves and lions...bewitched with her magic drugs", which did not attack but rose on "hind legs" to "fawn" like "dogs"
• Could hear Circe within singing "in her beautiful voice" as she "went to and fro at her great and everlasting loom"
• Polites says because Circe is weaving and has a "lovely voice" she must be a "goddess or a woman"
• The men called and Circe lets them in, but Eurylochus alone "suspected a trap" and stays outside
• Circe feeds them with a "noxious drug" so they lose "all memory of their native land" -> obstructing nostos + they turn into pigs
• Eurylochus returns to report about the men now being pigs, saying how Circe had been weaving at her "great web", and not a man had returned
• Odysseus arms himself and asks Eurylochus to show him the way to Circe, but Eurylochus refuses, supplicating Odysseus to leave him behind and not go himself but Odysseus refuses. "I have no choice"
• Hermes appears to Odysseus

  • Gives him a drug which makes him "immune from evil"
  • Tells him how Circe will try to poison him - prepare a mixture with drug inside
  • When Circe strikes him with her "long stick" he is to "rush her as though you mean to kill her"
  • Circe will "shrink from terror" and "invite you to her bed"
  • Instructs Odysseus to not refuse her to free his men, but must also make her sign an oath to not do any tricks or else she may castrate him while naked
• The herb Hercules gives him is moly, a dangerous plant for mortals to give up but "the gods, after all, can do anything"
• Circe does her routine but Odysseus does not turn into a pig. He follows Hermes' instructions and "rushed at Circe". She "slipped below my blade, clasped my knees and burst into tears"
• Circe questions Odysseus "amazed" to see the drug has had no effect on him, concluding he is Odysseus because of a prophecy Hermes told her
• "Now put up your sword and come with me to my bed, so in making love we may learn to trust one another", but Odysseus refuses saying he cannot be "gentle" with her whilst she has his friends locked up as pigs and he coulld cut his penis off. Nothing could "induce" him into sleeping with her but a "solemn oath" that she has no mischief in store for him