Now that King Odysseus has failed to return from the Siege of Troy, the earls of Ithaca are eager to marry his lovely widow.
Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey tells of the many adventures of Odysseus, King of the island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea, as he returned home from the Trojan War after almost two decades away. Penelope, his grieving queen, has all but given up hope of seeing him again, and is under increasing pressure from Odysseus’s greedy earls to marry again.
Odysseus recalls meeting Tantalus and Sisyphus, for whom relief was everlastingly beyond their grasp.
Odysseus, King of Ithaca, is sailing homeward after taking part in the Siege of Troy. Looking back, he recalls how on Circe’s advice his journey took him to the black rivers of Hades, and how at the confluence of the Periphlegethon and the Cocytus he offered sacrifice. A pale crowd of the shades of men rose about him, and among them were Tantalus and Sisyphus.
After safely negotiating the alluring Sirens, Odysseus and his crew must now decide which of Scylla and Charybdis would do the least damage.
Before Odysseus and his crew set sail from her island, Circe warned them all of the dangers they would face in returning to Ithaca. Assuming they passed safely by the alluring Sirens, they would then have to navigate a course between a gangly, voracious six-headed monster on one side and a ghastly, throbbing whirlpool on the other — a choice between bad and worse.
Armed with a length of stout cord and a large ball of wax, Odysseus and his crew prepare to face the music of the Sirens.
Odysseus and his crew have parted, not without misgivings, from the paradise island of the goddess Circe. Before they set off for home and the island of Ithaca, Circe warned them about the Sirens. The sailor who once listens to their music will be drawn irresistibly into their meadow, there to sit spellbound forever by song among the other little heaps of withered flesh and bleaching bone.
A weary King Odysseus dozes off on his voyage home to Ithaca, but his crew are wide awake, wondering what is in his bag.
Odysseus, King of the island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea, is on his way home after many years away fighting in the Siege of Troy. He has had a little trouble with one-eyed Polyphemus, the Cyclops, and a few weeks rest with the odd but hospitable family of Aeolus is just what he needs.