greek mythology stories

pt.3 Odysseus the end

I couldn't find the painter °~°

Weary and tired from the ordeal, Odysseus ordered his ship to weigh anchor at the island of Thrinacia. This island was sacred to the sun god Helios whose cattle grazed freely here. Even though Odysseus had been warned by Tiresius and Circe not to harm any of the cattles, his men defied him and set about slaughtering and feasting on them.

Immediately Helios complained to Zeus, vowing to take vengeance by sending the sun down to Hades, never to rise again. Zeus in response sank Odysseus ship with a thunderbolt as it was leaving Thrinacia and destroyed every man aboard with the exception of the valiant leader. Somehow, a floundering Odysseus was swept past Scylla and Charybdis and washed up ashore on an unknown island.The island that Odysseus found himself was Ogygia and it was there where he spent seven years with the nymph Calypso, who found him unconscious on the beach. She promised him immortality in exchange for his love, but soon Odysseus sensed once again the desire to see Ithaca and his family, his unfortunate wife and his son who would have grown up till then.

Even a beautiful and powerful goddess like Calypso couldn't fill this feeling of the unaccomplished that Odysseus was always carrying into his heart. However, Calypso had fallen in love with him and wouldn't let him go. On the behalf of Zeus, Hermes appeared before Calypso and told her to let Odysseus go. One day finally, on a raft that he built himself, Odysseus set off for Ithaca with a wooden float but once again he was caught in the middle of a storm and shore to another strange land.Telemachus, the son of Odysseus who had just turned twenty, decided to set out in search of his long-gone father. His mother had woes of her own. She was constantly plagued by suitors asking for her hand, since ten years had passed from the end of the Trojan War and her husband had not returned. Day after day, she fended off their advances with an ingenious trick. She told the suitors that she was weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus' father and only when it was complete, would she even think to marry anyone of them.

Penelope's trick was to weave the cloth in the daytime and undo it at night, so the suitors were kept waiting indefinitely, until her husband would return. However, a chambermaid betrayed her to the suitors and soon they were back, asking for her hand and the kingdom of Ithaca.

Knowing that his mother was successfully keeping her 108 suitors away, Telemachus decided to set out on his quest. Aided by goddess Athena and along with some of his faithful warriors, he went to Sparta to meet Menelaus and ask him if he had any news from his father. Unfortunately, Menelaus knew nothing and Telemachus disappointed returned to Ithaca.The land of the Phaeacians, which the historians believe is modern Corfu, was where Odysseus found himself after a terrible storm. Nafsica, the local princess, found Odysseus exhausted and naked on the shore and led him to the palace of her father. While in the court of King Alcinous and Queen Arete, he heard the bard Demodocus sing of the Trojan War.

Odysseus was overcome with grief at hearing stories about the war and of the Trojan Horse that had been his invention. It was then that the emotions came crashing down on him and he broke down into tears. The people gathered around him asked who he really was and why the story affected him. It was then that Odysseus revealed his true identity and his struggles to reach Ithaca.

After listening to his ordeals, the Phaeacians gave him their fastest ship, the best of their provisions and bid him good luck on his way home. And so it was that the hero finally returned to Ithaca, eager to see his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, from both of whom he had been separated for two whole decades.The arrival of Odysseus on Ithaca went unnoticed and, in the guise of a beggar, he approached the palace. He first met his old servants and his beloved son, Telemachus. From them, he learnt about the suitors that have been bothering Penelope for so long. Odysseus, still in the form of a beggar, he met his wife, who didn't recognize him.

He told her about her husband's bravery and how he had helped in winning the Trojan War. These tails brought tears to her eyes. Calming herself, she approached the suitors who were always hanging around the palace and set them a simple task. Penelope would marry any one of them who could string Odysseus' bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe-handles joined together.

The suitors pushed and shoved each other to be the first to succeed but little did they know that the task they faced was impossible. Stringing the bow that belonged to Odysseus was not an easy task for it required not brute strength but dexterity. One by one, each suitor tried his luck but to no avail. Finally, Odysseus picked up the bow, stringing it with ease and in one fluid motion letting fly an arrow that pierced all the twelve axe-handles. After that, there was chaos.

Revealing his true identity, Odysseus began massacring the suitors and, aided by Telemachus and the swineherd Eumaeus, they had soon cleared the court of all 108 of them. The suitors were killed and the maid-servants, who had made themselves the pleasure slaves of the suitors, were all hung. When Penelope heard the massacre, she run to the court. Fazed by the sudden spate of events, she refused to believe that this strange beggar was indeed her long lost husband Odysseus, so she set up another test for him.

In front of Odysseus, Penelope ordered the palace servants to remove the bed from her bed-chamber to the hall outside. On hearing this, Odysseus bristled with anger and opposed the idea, saying that this bed had been fashioned out of a living oak by his own hand and none, save a god, none in the whole world could move it. Joyful, Penelope rushed to Odysseus and hugged him, with big tears in her eyes, for she was reassured that this man was her beloved husband returned to her. Only Odysseus knew the secret about their bed and his words were the proof she needed to believe him.This, however, was not the end of Odysseus' journey. Prophet Tiresius had forewarned him that once he had reasserted himself as King of Ithaca, he should travel inland holding the oar of a ship. Indeed, after a few years, Odysseus crowned Telemachus King of Ithaca and left him and his wife Penelope to travel on the opposite inland.

Many days did he wander with the oar in hand seeking for people who would not know what it was but wherever he went, people recognized it as an oar. One day, far inland, opposite the shores of Ithaca, Odysseus came across those people who had never seen the sea and hence did not know what an oar was. There it was that Odysseus finished his life travel and took a local princess for his bride. For many years, he lived amongst these people and it was here that he breathed his last, far from the sea, his family and his beloved Ithaca.