Summary12

Summary:Book XII

Odysseus returns to Aeaea to stay one more night with Circe before continuing with his journey home. Odysseus has a lengthy conversation with Circe in which she describes the obstacles that he and his crew will face during his voyage home and how he will have to deal with them. Circe tells him about Seirenes, the crying beauty which bewitches men that sail near her with her chant. To avoid this, Odysseus must plug his crew's ears with beeswax so that no man hears Seirenes song. He must also tell his men to tie him up in the lugger to avoid being carried away by the creature's enchantment. After such task has been completed, Oddyseus must take one of two courses. In one of the paths, lays Amphitrite which are gigantic mountains that no man has been able to cross except Argo with the help of Hera. On the other path, there is a giant peak that no one can scale, and in within this peak, there lives a creature called Skylla, who roams the sea around her cave and feeds on sailors while they are trying to cross such path. On the other side of such path, there lays Kharybdis, who creates gigantic mealstroms and swallows entire ships. Circe gives Oddyseus one last advice. She tells him that he must take the path of Skylla, for he will lose some men, but not his entire ship. Once they have crossed such path, they will come ashore Thrinakia, the island where Helios' cattle live. She warms him and tells him that these cattle is not to be eaten or disturbed for if they do, they shall all be punished.

Once this conversation is over, and Odysseus completes all that Circe has instructed, he and most of his crewmen arrive at Thrinakia, where he tells all of his men not to eat the cattle. Eurylokhos, upset by the lack of food and comfort, ignores Odysseu's orders and convinces the rest of the crew to feast on the cattle as an offering to the gods without knowing that they have caused their own doom. Once they have had their feast, they return to their ships to continue with their journey, even though Odysseus knows that something bad is going to happen.As a punishment for having eaten the cattle, Zeus, being conviced by Helios, throws lighting to Odysseus' ship and destroys it completely. With this attack, all of his men died and only he was left floating on a piece of wood until the winds took him to the Ogygia Isle where Kalypso lives. With this arrival, Kalypso falls in love with Odysseus and he must remain in the island.

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