| Why has Odysseus returned to Aeaea (Circe’s island)? | Odysseus goes back to Aeaea to give Elpenor a proper burial. They bury Elpenor with his armour and put his oar on top of him like he asked. |
| How does Circe help him? | Circe helps Odysseus by telling him how to get home and what will happen at each island. She tells him he will come to the island of sirens (p. 272) where he will be lured in, then he will go to the cave of Scylla, and then he will go to Thrinacia where there will be a lot of sheep but he must not slaughter them. |
| How do Odysseus and his men get past the Sirens? | They get past the sirens because only Odysseus listens to them. The shipmates use wax and hold Odysseus back with ropes from the sirens as he listens. Odysseus does not let them overtake him and eventually they get past the Sirens. |
| What advice does Odysseus take that Circe gives him about Scylla and Charybdis? What does this tell us about leadership? | Odysseus takes the advice about Scylla to just flee Scylla even if she takes his men, he must not fight back. He takes the advice about Charybdis to not be in the whirlpool when it swallows down because they will get killed. Charybdis gulps the water down and vomits it up three times a day. This tells us that Odysseus follows orders because he really wants him and his men to make it home. (p.277) Odysseus doesn’t tell his men about Scylla and Charybdis because if they know then they will probably try to fight Scylla or they will be scared. This shows his cleverness but is also a hard decision for him to make. |
| Why are the cattle of Helios’ island so tempting? | The cattle of Helios’ island are very tempting because the men have been there for a while and are getting very hungry. It is not very easy for them to hunt fish and birds; so they want to eat the cattle. They stop at his island in the first place because they are very worn out and hungry. Towards the end they start to run out of food and then they eat the cattle. |
| What warning does Odysseus give his men? | Odysseus warns the men to not slaughter the cattle because Helios is the god of the sun who sees everything and will find out that his cattle have been slaughtered, and he will kill them. |
| How does Odysseus end up alone at the end of Book 12? | Odysseus ends up alone because after Eurylochus and the men slaughtered the cattle, Helios lets them go because Zeus tells him that if he doesn’t kill them, he will create a storm for Odysseus and his men when they are sailing. Zeus creates a storm for them and Odysseus survives by getting on a raft alone. |
Odyssey 12
April 19, 2020