The Odyssey Begins...
A Postcard by Frida
Dear Classical Kids,
Welcome to our latest postcard. If you are new here, today’s story is actually Part III in a much longer story.
The first part was called The Judgement of Paris. (You can catch up on that one here.) That one involved the goddess Eris, who’s apple started the whole adventure.
The second part is the story of The Wooden Horse. (You can read that one here.)
Today’s part involves the story of their return home, which I believe is the most interesting of all…
After ten whole years of fighting, it was finally time to go home and lay on the couch and drink some hot chocolate. But in the ancient world, life wasn’t so easy... Their return home was full of crazy adventures, monsters and angry gods!
Our main character here, as you probably well know, is named Odysseus. (That’s why his journey is called “The Odyssey.”) The story begins with Odysseus stuck on Calypso’s island. Although it was a pretty island, and he liked his friend Calypso, he still missed his family, including his wife and son and puppy dog.
So he prayed that Zeus would one day let him go... which is exactly what the king of the gods did. But this angered Poseidon, the sea god, because he hated Odysseus’s hair style (nah, just kidding... he just didn’t want him to escape so easily!)
So Poseidon crashed his little barbie doll-sized raft in his giant waves, but Odysseus was able to escape. Actually, he doggy paddled to the nearest shore, where some young ladies were gossiping. There he met a king, who gave him lots to eat and drink. Sooo... he ate like a pig... and told the story of his adventures so far.
First things first, he got stuck in a cave with a giant cyclops who wanted to eat everybody. But, he managed to escape by huddling under a sheep and throwing a burning cinder in the beast’s only eye. (This is the real reason why Poseidon was so mad... and probably still is, to this day.)
The cyclops screamed, “Who blinded me?”
Odysseus replied, “Nobody!”
Then, when he returned to his ship, he foolishly gave away his name, Odysseus. From then on, the gods were after him.
Next, they landed on the island of Aeolus, the keeper of winds. This king was kinder, and gave Odysseus a bag of winds to help him sail on his way. All was going well, until his men opened the bag and let loose a hurricane. Whoopsie!
The waves crashed his ship against the shore of another island, where the Laestrygones lived. There he met a young woman, who invited Odysseus to dinner.
“My parents would like to have you for dinner,” she said... with a very suspicious smile.
Odysseus agreed, and followed the young woman to the palace... only to discover, she meant it literally. They were cannibals. They really wanted to EAT Odysseus for dinner!
Once again, it was time to escape. Odysseus and his men ran for their lives, probably using table knives as swords and plates as shields. Unluckily for Odysseus, the Laestrygones smashed all of his ships... except one.
Phew! All this adventure and we’re not even halfway through the story! We’ll have to continue with the rest next time. Look out for our next postcard to come!
Erroso!
Frida
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