8th+Modern+Argives+Bk+12



Odysseus and his crew Círcë: Daughter of Hélios Elpénor: He does not do much Sirens: Evil creatures who lure sailors to their doom Scylla: Big scary monster living in caves Charýbdis: Sister to Scylla Hélios: Sun God Lampétië: Messenger Zeus: King God
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Where we are and what is going on: In Circe's house the crew eats after constructing a funeral pyre to honor Elpénor. Then Círcë takes Odysseus off to warn him of his future travels, She tells him of the danger from the sirens as well as Scylla and Charýbdis. She also warns him of the island of Hélios and his sacred cows. Odysseus decides to sail on anyways with plans in place to defeat each danger. =The Sirens:= http://www.pantheon.org/areas/gallery/mythology/europe/greek/sirens.gif The siren's song will lure sailors toward them causing the sailors to either crash on the shore and be pecked apart by birds or to drown. Wise Odysseus manages to survive passing them by stuffing the ears of his crew with wax and then having his crew tie him to the mast. This allows him to hear the song and to tell his men when they are safe. =Scylla and Charýbdis:= Scylla is a six headed monster who lives in the cliffs beside a strait of water. Whenever a ship goes by she will stick out her six heads and snatch men off the deck. On the other side of the strait is her sister Charýbdis who sucks in water and ships and whatever else happens to be there creating a whirlpool and then vomits it all back out again. Odysseus attempts to beat this by standing on the deck of his ship with full armor and spears to try and defeat Scylla. However, she manages to move faster than him and eats three of his men before she retreats into her cave again. Odysseus then manages to sail on from the strait without losing more men. == = = =Hélios' Island:= Hélios has seven herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep each with 50 creatures. The creatures are sacred and bring joy to Hélios .As Odysseus and his crew are sailing past the island his crew implores him to stop for the night that they may rest. Odysseus agrees, however, the next morning there is a wind which prevents the ship from leaving the island. Unfortunately this wind continues on for a long while and the crew's food is running low. Odysseus then heads inland to pray to the gods while back at camp the crew decides to hunt the sacred beasts of Hélios. Lampétië observes this and quickly heads off to inform Hélios who is angered and begs Zeus to destroy the crew. So Zeus lets the wind up and allows the ship to leave the island. However, as soon as the ship has left sight of the island a storm picks up and Zeus destroys the ship. All of the crew are killed except for Odysseus who survives by clinging to the mast. Soon Odysseus begins to drift back towards the strait of the monsters where he floats into Charýbdis' area shortly before she sucks in the water. He only survives this by hanging on to a fig branch until she vomits the water back out again. Odysseus then floats for nine full days until on the tenth day he washes up on the shore of Ogýgia home to Calypso. =Funeral Customs= Because of their belief in an afterlife, the Greeks had elaborate funeral arrangements. In ancient Greece, one of the most important events of your life was passing away, so even if one were poor, he would still receive many lavish gifts from relatives to create a fantastic journey for this great event. The sick man would tell his last will to relatives before he died and this usually was who receives his money, and who gets his wife or takes care of his children. Immediately after he died, the women would take his body and prepare it for the funeral. They would place an obol, or silver coin used in ancient Greece, in his mouth as a fee to Charon the ferryman of Hades. They would bathe his body with perfumed water, dress him in white, tie a woolen fillet around his head, and put a crown of vine leaves over that. He would be laid on a couch in the courtyard, positioned so it looked like he was greeting everyone who walked through the door. Everyone took turns mourning his death with loud, pitiful wailing, for this part took hours.

The actual funeral procession occured on the second day following the man's death. That is one of the more important details, because they didn't want to delay his soul's journey to Hades and because they didn't have any skilled embalmers. The procession was held as early in the morning as possible and started at the man's house and they made their way to the agora. The dead man had a honey cake placed in his hands as a gift to the gods and then the march began. Flute players lead everyone in a march and were closely followed by the youngest and strongest men who carried the recently deceased. For a more elegant look, the carriers could be replaced by a mule car. The last people to come were the relatives, headed by the recent widow and the main beneficiary of the will. When they finally reached the agora, they placed the dead man on a heap of dry wood. They then poured oil and aromatic cedar over the pile and stood in a circle around it. The guy closest to the dead man then set the oil on fire and everyone watched as the flames reached high. When the fire eventually died down, everyone said their last farewells and cooled the ashes with wine. They then scooped the ashes into an urn and moved it into a tomb. On the third, ninth, and thirtieth day after the funeral and many times after that, they visit the tomb with food offerings and libations in small religious ceremonies. =Common Themes in the Odyssey:=
 * Hospitality - When Odysseus and his men go to Círcë's island, Círcë feed them and gives them wine to drink. She lets them spend the night on her island and in the morning she tells them all they need to know about the paths they should take on the open sea.
 * Justice of the Gods - When Odysseus' crew slaughters and eats the sacred cattle of Hélios, the gods destroy all of them except for Odysseus. They did not kill Odysseus because he had not eaten any of the meat from the cattle.
 * Sacrifice - The crew of Odysseus sacrifices the sacred cattle of Hélios to the gods. Hélios however does not take kindly to his cattle being killed and has Odysseus' crew and ship destroyed.
 * The Importance of Prophecy - The prophecies of Tiresias and Círcë both come true. They both prophecised that Odysseus' crew would not live to make it home. The entire crew is killed because they ate the saced cattle of Hélios.