Okay, I really wanted to get this done tonight (I have a retreat all weekend) so thankfully these were almost the shortest chapters yet.
YESS!!! THANK GOODNESS!!!! IT'S MY MAN, ULYSSES!!! (Odysseus)
Sorry Telemachus, you rock too, but frankly I prefer Ulysses (Odysseus). It's just the way it has to be.
So, as you can see, the spotlight's back on ol' Ulysses (Odysseus). Minerva (Athena) goes to Olympus once again to persuade Jove (Zeus) to make Calypso let Ulysses (Odysseus) off her island. Jove (Zeus) agrees, and sends Mercury (Hermes) to Calypso's island. Calypso doesn't want to let her little mortal pet go, but she complies and sends Ulysses (Odysseus) away with a nice little raft with plenty of wine and food. Question: why does he bring wine? If Ulysses (you get the point) was going to be on float in the sea for a week or two (a sea that happes to be made of salt), they wouldn't it be more smart to send water? I dunno. Call me crazy.
But anyways, Neptune sees Ulysses from afar and is all, "Say what now?" and he sends this huge storm to send Ulysses adrift in the endless sea to the rest of his days. But, a sea-goddess Ino sees him and is all like, "That ain't nice," and she grants him this magical scarf to wear so that he doesn't drown. So Ulysses swims to this island with Minerva's help and meets this girl named Nausicaa who takes him to her father, Alcinous, who is king of the island. Alcinous is a nice guy and agrees to send him back to Ithaca.
I'm really excited to see my pal Ulysses, but this book is sort of repeating himself a lot. Minerva does something good for Ulysses or Telemachus, Neptune does something bad for them, and a kind ruler saves them or is nice to them. I guess what I'm really excited for is when Ulysses tells his whole story.
HILARIOUS!! So true! I like how you showed the Greek names, because I didn't know who Mercury was after the character guide. Plus, this is totally how these people are reacting to everything, just with you adding modern terms to it. I was surprised to hear such voice applied to your writing! Just one question - why are you narwhal?
ReplyDeleteI think that Ulysses brought wine because it was safer to drink than water back then. But if he was going from Calypso's island, then it would make sense for him to take fresh, clean, water, as she has lots of it!
ReplyDeleteInteresting observation! I didn't notice that about the wine!
ReplyDeleteNice that you enjoy the narration by Odysseus - I thought that was the most exciting part of the book too.
There is a constant rivalry between gods, which you did well in noting that some are against Odysseus and some support him.
Good job of summarizing all the craziness that happens.
ReplyDeleteI thought Calypso did send him with both water and wine. She gave him a lamb-skin of wine, and a bigger skin of water. And maybe the wine is for offerings to the gods? Ulysses isn't really on their good side at the moment.
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