Stories from the Odyssey

Stories from the Odyssey

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Stories from the Odyssey, by H. L. Havell
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Stories from the Odyssey
Author: H. L. Havell
Release Date: October 12, 2004 [eBook #13725]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES FROM THE ODYSSEY***
E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Fred Robinson, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

STORIES FROM THE ODYSSEY
Retold by
H. L. HAVELL B.A.
Late Reader in English in the University of Halle Formerly Scholar of University College Oxford
Author of Stories from Herodotus, Stories from Greek Tragedy, _Stories from the ?neid_, Stories from the Iliad, etc.

[Illustration: Reading from Homer]

"O well for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long; He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong: For him nor moves the loud world's random mock Nor all Calamity's hugest waves confound Who seems a promontory of rock, That compass'd round with turbulent sound In middle ocean meets the surging shock, Tempest-buffeted, citadel-crown'd." TENNYSON

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
TELEMACHUS, PENELOPE, AND THE SUITORS
THE ASSEMBLY; THE VOYAGE OF TELEMACHUS
THE VISIT TO NESTOR AT PYLOS
TELEMACHUS AT SPARTA
ODYSSEUS AND CALYPSO
ODYSSEUS AMONG THE PH?ACIANS
THE WANDERINGS OF ODYSSEUS
THE VISIT TO HADES
THE SIRENS; SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS; THRINACIA
ODYSSEUS LANDS IN ITHACA
ODYSSEUS AND EUM?US
THE RETURN OF TELEMACHUS
THE MEETING OF TELEMACHUS AND ODYSSEUS
THE HOME-COMING OF ODYSSEUS
THE BEGGAR IRUS
PENELOPE AND THE WOOERS
ODYSSEUS AND PENELOPE
THE END DRAWS NEAR; SIGNS AND WONDERS
THE BOW OF ODYSSEUS
THE SLAYING OF THE WOOERS
ODYSSEUS AND PENELOPE
CONCLUSION
PRONOUNCING LIST OF NAMES

ILLUSTRATIONS
READING FROM HOMER (L. Alma Tadema)
PENELOPE (The Vatican, Rome)
TELEMACHUS DEPARTING FROM NESTOR (Henry Howard)
ODYSSEUS AND NAUSICA? (Charles Gleyre)
ODYSSEUS AND POLYPHEMUS (J. M. W. Turner)
CIRCE (Sir E. Burne-Jones)
THE RETURN OF ODYSSEUS (L. F. Sch��tzenberger)
ODYSSEUS AND EURYCLEIA (Christian G. Heyne)

INTRODUCTION
The impersonal character of the Homeric poems has left us entirely in the dark as to the birthplace, the history, and the date, of their author. So complete is the darkness which surrounds the name of Homer that his very existence has been disputed, and his works have been declared to be an ingenious compilation, drawn from the productions of a multitude of singers. It is not my intention here to enter into the endless and barren controversy which has raged round this question. It will be more to the purpose to try and form some general idea of the characteristics of the Greek Epic; and to do this it is necessary to give a brief review of the political and social conditions in which it was produced.
I
The world as known to Homer is a mere fragment of territory, including a good part of the mainland of Greece, with the islands and coast districts of the ?g?an. Outside of these limits his knowledge of geography is narrow indeed. He has heard of Sicily, which he speaks of under the name of Thrinacia; and he speaks once of Libya, or the north coast of Africa, as a district famous for its breed of sheep. There is one vague reference to the vast Scythian or Tartar race (called by Homer Thracians), who live on the milk of mares; and he mentions a copper-coloured people, the "Red-faces," who dwell far remote in the east and west. The Nile is mentioned, under the name of ?gyptus; and the Egyptians are celebrated by the poet as a people skilled in medicine, a statement which is repeated by Herodotus. The Phoenicians appear several times in the Odyssey, and we hear once or twice of the Sidonians, as skilled workers in metal. As soon as we pass these boundaries, we enter at once into the region of fairyland.
II
In speaking of the religion of the Homeric Greeks we have to draw a distinction between the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the Iliad the gods play a much livelier and more human part than in the latter poem, and it is highly remarkable that the only comic scenes in the first and greatest of epics are those in which the gods are the chief actors--as when the lame Heph?stus takes upon him the office of cupbearer at the Olympian banquet, or when Artemis gets her ears boxed by the angry Hera. It would almost seem as if there were a vein of deliberate satire running through these descriptions, so daring is the treatment of the divine personages.
In the Odyssey, on the other hand, religion has become more spiritual. Olympus is no longer the mountain of that name, but a vague term, like our "heaven," denoting a place remote from all earthly cares and passions, a far-off abode in the stainless ether, where the gods dwell in everlasting peace, and from which they occasionally descend, to give an eye to the righteous and