The Odyssey
Lately i have been on a bit of an ancient Greek kick.I am not talking about the classical age of Greece,with Athens and sparta and the panthenon.Rather before that,almost pre-history,around 12000 BC.TheTrojan war happened then and it was bloody,and long and,it’s basically an ancient world war,because most of the known world(Greece,the middle east,and Africa)where involved to some extent.All you need to know about the Trjan war can be summed up like this: It was over a women,Helen,doubly married to Menelaus ,King of Sparta and Paris,prince of Troy.Fighting between the generals(Agamemnon,the leader,and Achilles the best fighter)almost cost the spartans and their allies the war, and guile saved them and won the war(the Trojan war.)That in a nutshell is the trojan war.Now the Odyssey is not about the Trojan war exactly, it’s about the aftermath of the Trojan war and the struggle of Odyseus to get home and his wife,Penelpe to keep her suitor from marrying her.In the olden days if someone was dead,then the eligeable bachelors would compete and win the hand of the widow.Now,the only problem is that Odyseus isn’t dead,but no one knows this.Odyseus is tying to get home but is shipwreacked on the island of Circe,a shape shifter,he then stays with her for a year,then goes to the underworld to consult a sage on how to get home. He then goes on and get’s trapped in a cycolps’s lair,manages to blind him using a stick,he gets to the Lastrygonians who try to eat him and then he eats the sun god’s sheep,ends up in Calypso’s lair for a decade.He finally get’s home.He weeds out and kills all the suitors with Athena’s help.This book has many Feminnist points in it,for example,Penelope keeps things together on the home front using wit,cunning and a lot of luck.Athena prods things along and controls everyhing like a pupeteer would.These powerful women populate the Odyssey .This book is about the far reaching effects of war,as well as Men, Women and their roles in Society and challenging those roles.This book is wonderful,yet a little gorey for my taste, as Bronze age Greeks where just a tad bloodthirsty,so be prepared to be grossed out,but just keep reading,it’s worth it.
