One sunny day a baby was born. His father was king of Ithaca, Odysseus. His mother was Queen Penelope. Odysseus named his son Telemachus. Just days after Telemachus was born Odysseus was summoned to the Council. There they told him that there was to be a war against Troy, because of the kidnapping of Helen. Then the Council told him that they needed his help to fight and he must find a crew and leave on a ship very soon. Before long, Odysseus had located the best men in Ithaca to form a crew.
When Odysseus told Penelope of the appalling incident. She wept for him. He told her that he would come back. Then he made her promise that if he did not come back by the time that their infant was a man; then he wanted her to marry another man, so that she would not be lonesome. She told him not to think like that and to think positive thoughts, but Odysseus still made her promise.
They reluctantly said their fare wells and gave plenty of hugs and kisses. Odysseus said a mournful good-bye to his infant son. Then he hopped on the large ship and sailed out to sea with his trusty crew. The sail to troy was easy to some extent, but of course, they had storms and light wind.
Once they arrived in Troy, it was total chaos. Blood shed and heads flying in they air. There was one certain man named Hector, he was the most powerful man in Troy. He commanded the armies also. However, even the mighty Hector could not stand as a match to the brave, loyal, vigorous Achilles. With one swift through of his spear, Achilles killed Hector! Then Achilles took hectors body and drug it with a chariot on the ground. As a toddler drags a dirty blanket around with it threads coming out, so, Achilles drug the blood dripping corpse over the stony ground.
After ten years of hard battle, the Greeks were just about to give up hope, since their best warrior was dead. {Achilles} Odysseus didn’t want to give up, he knew that there had to be a way of conquering the battle. As he thought an ides popped into his head. He explained his plan to the rest of the army and they all agreed that this was the only way to win. Here’s the plan: they were to build a COLOSSAL horse and hide all the best men in it. Then they are to hide all the ships on a near island to make it look as if they have go back to Greece. Then they leave behind one of the men on the island to tell the king that it is a gift from the Greeks. When every one is sleeping the men will jump out of the horse and kill all the people of Troy.
This was the plan, and on the certain day that they had planned, they wheeled the massive horse towards the gates of Troy. Then they climbed in. Once the guards found the Enormous Horse and the left behind soldier, they went to the king, Piram. The soldier told them that they and left him here and they didn’t want him any more. He explained to the king that in honor of winning the war the Greeks had made this Mammoth Horse as a gift of friend ship. The Trojans bought the fake story and even offered the soldier to become a Trojan. Then they all had a feast, and became drunk. They fell fast asleep. When they all were sleeping the Greeks came out of the Immense Horse and slaughtered all the people. Screams and cries could be heard all the way in Sparta, and the Greeks finally won.
Odysseus packed all of his belonging into a sack and climbed aboard on his about with his fellow companions. {Yet if he and known the troubles he would have to endure then he probably would have stayed in Troy.}
Odysseus’ first danger comes when he comes to the land of the Cyclops and they all are tired and starving ! So Odysseus decides to go up to the houses of the Cyclops. He comes to one and sees that the bolder is rolled out so he and the twelve men that he brought with hin. They eat and drink the Cyclops food and wines. Once the Cyclops enters the room he roles the bolder over the opening. Then the Cyclops {whose name is Polyphemus} finds out that Odysseus and his men are eating his food. So he eats two of Odysseus’ men. They get Polyphemus drunk and they blind him with a spear by shoving it into his eye. Poluphemus screams in anguish as he tries to catch some of the men. Luckily, most of them escape alive. The dangers are still to come.
They sail away as fast as they can, and come to the land were the god of the wind lives. He says to Odysseus that he will help them, so he gives them the North, south, and East winds but leave the West free. They sail freely at amazing speed thanks to the god of the wind. He come in seeing distance of Ithaca, but some of the men get curious and want to know what is in the bag so they open it when Odysseus is sleeping and the sail in complete opposite direction.
Then they crash into a strange island. An evil witch named Circe captures some of the men and makes them animals. Odysseus doesn’t know what to do. So Hermes the messenger God tells him what he must do to get his men back to real form. So he follows his orders by sleeping with Circe, but time goes by quickly on that island. He spent five years with her. He asks Circe what he must do and which way is it to go to Ithaca. She say he must first go to the under world and talk to a certain shade.
So Odysseus makes that long and horrifying journey to the underworld. He is not frightened of the dead slimy souls that float around. He talks to the shade and then he starts leaving when he see the shade of his mother. Tears swelled to his eyes and he could not bear it, when she told him that she had taken her life when he did not return on the tenth year. She told him of how Penelope had longed for his touch, and how Telemachus is strong, and has a mind like Odysseus. They said their farewells and Odysseus returned to the upperworld and onto Circe’s island.
Circe told him that there was two ways to go. The first thing is to sail past the singing Sirens. They will woo his men and then force them to sail to their island. Then once the men were at the island she would kill them. So the alternative is to put soft wax in their ears as they sail past. If Odysseus wanted to listen to the harmonious voices he was to have, his men bind him with rope to the mast of the ship. When he tells them to untie him and sail to the island, they are to bind him even more so. Then they must pass through the clashing rocks, which only one other ship had passed through. After they do that, they must either go through the channel of Scylla. She is the six-headed serpent that kills every thing in her path. The other way is to go the way of Charybdis she is a whirlpool. If you catch her at the time she is sucking in then not even Poseidon the lord of the sea could save you and your ship.
So it came time for Odysseus to leave that reached island, which he had been held captive for five dire years. They sailed toward the Sirens and Odysseus put soft wax in all the ears of the crew members except his own. He had his men strap him to the mast, and when he said for them to untie him, they would bind him even tighter.
They got past the Sirens just fine but the clashing rocks would be a lot harder only one other ship had sailed safely through its gnashing mouth. That ship was the Argo, and the lovely Hera had loved Jason so they crossed safely. They rowed with all their might struggling to get out of the rock's boundaries. Magically they made it across.
Now it was time to decide which way to go Scylla or Charybdis! Odysseus decided to go with Scylla for it is better to lose six men to Scylla and all to Charybdis.
They left toward the channel. When they cross it in the dark when…! A huge six-headed monster comes and eats six of the crew. They row out fast. At the end of the channel is were Charybdis is, and she kill all of the men. Just as Odysseus was about to fall to his death, He grabbed the vine that was above him in-the-nick-of-time.
Odysseus floats on a piece of a the ship. He is very tired when he comes to the Island were the nymph Calypso lives. She and her servant girls tend to his wounds. Calypso becomes in love with Odysseus and they keep him on that island for many years. One day Hermes the messenger came to Calypso, and told her that she must let Odysseus go it was the will of Zeus. If she didn’t then Zeus would have Poseidon flood the island and sink it to the ground. Therefore Calypso reluctantly to Odysseus to leave. Odysseus built a raft, and from there sailed to the Phaeacian Island.
Back in Ithaca Telemachus is going crazy. Suitors came from all over, trying to get Penelope’s hand in marriage. They used up all of the food in the palace, and trashed the rooms. So now, Telemachus was sailing to Sparta to search for his father.
Telemachus comes home after a year of being in Sparta. He is empty handed and miserable. He tells his mother not to marry and other person but since she promised Odysseus, and Telemachus had his beard {meaning he was a man}.
[to be continued]