book 9-13

• Cyclopes, Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis are fantastic creations
• Scylla (12) has 3 rows of teeth, 6 heads and 6 arms
• even the scylla has recognisable behaviour
• she barks like a puppy and can be pacified only by her mother
• whirlpool literally swallows ships
• to give it the name Charybdis and develop a personality was a natural step
• the possibilities for reinterpreting Homer's creations make them attractive to study
• the fear of being imprisoned by a powerful woman is an explanation for the portrayal of Circe, both because of her sexual powers and her magic ability to inflict a locked-in syndrome
• the lotus eaters, whom are told nothing about apart from their effect of their diet, strike a chord for anyone would wants escapism
• Homer's Sirens seem just to collect men, and leave their strangely mummified remains in heaps
• they have provided yet more scope for societies to interpret over the last 2,500 years
• the Phaeacians live in their own fantasy world
• their ships pick up directions from the sailors' minds and sail themselves
• gardens produce fruit whatever the season
• the gods appear undisguised
• their society is underpinned by Greek values
• the family unit is strong
• xenia is all-important
• girls remove their headgear only when out of sight of men and women weave
• they are touchingly human
• Nausicaa leavers her clothes all over their bedroom floor and has to get round her father to borrow the cart
• Odysseus' gifts have to be paid for by a tax on the people
• Cyclopes combine the familiar with the fantastic
• his good housekeeping skills make his appearance and cannibalistic behaviour more sinister
• the Laestrygonians are from a fantasy land which knows no night time
• they some some civilised behaviour - have pathways, a palace and farming
• the local chief's daughter can respond only by pointing - a far move from the articulate Nausicaa
• they devour the men from 11 ships