Then, being much troubled in mind, I said to my men, 'My friends, it is not right that one or two of us alone should know the prophecies that Circe has made me, I will therefore tell you about them, so that whether we live or die we may do so with our eyes open. First she said we were to keep clear of the Sirens, who sit and sing most beautifully in a field of flowers; but she said I might hear them myself so long as no one else did. Therefore, take me and bind me to the crosspiece half way up the mast; bind me as I stand upright, with a bond so fast that I cannot possibly break away, and lash the rope's ends to the mast itself. If I beg and pray you to set me free, then bind me more tightly still.'

"'You dare-devil,' replied the goddess, you are always wanting to fight somebody or something; you will not let yourself be beaten even by the immortals. For Scylla is not mortal; moreover she is savage, extreme, rude, cruel and invincible.≤

Technically, Odysseus can never be beaten, ever. For one, he is under constant watch by the gods, and will never be killed or punished for an unlawful deed. Second, the story wouldnπt unfold as it did if Odysseus never confronted his greatest enemies, which in this case is the Scylla. Claiming that Odysseus is a dare devil by wanted to ≥beat the two monsters with one stone≤ isnπt much of an honor, since he is a hero on a HERO path. It seems weird that Homer would add an invincible monster to the story. He builds Odysseus to be the most amazing hero ever, who can defeat anyone. By adding a monster that kills six of his men, and canπt be stopped seems like both the climax of his hero path and the ending. He canπt stop the monster, yet he canπt turn back with his boon and finishing by returning to the normal world back at Ithaca. Overall, Odysseus, even though he is mortal, is technically an immortal. He basically has all the powers of the gods, just needs some assistance from time to time. Its kind of anti climactic that he is able to escape Scylla without any harm done to himself, just his men. Oh well.

Meanwhile Eurylochus had been giving evil counsel to the men, 'Listen

to me,' said he, 'my poor comrades. All deaths are bad enough but there

is none so bad as famine. Why should not we drive in the best of these

cows and offer them in sacrifice to the immortal Rods? If we ever get

back to Ithaca, we can build a fine temple to the sun-god and enrich it

with every kind of ornament; if, however, he is determined to sink our

ship out of revenge for these homed cattle, and the other gods are of

the same mind, I for one would rather drink salt water once for all and

have done with it, than be starved to death by inches in such a desert

island as this is.≤

Why did Eurylochus trick the men into eating the cattle?

Eurylochus had a tricky way of talking to people in order for them to do

what he wanted. He did it with Odysseus in order to stop on the island

of the Sun, and now he did it again in order to get some more food.

Odysseus warned him and the rest of the crew about how the gods would

punish them if they took the cattle; why would he push his luck and try

this? It seems like he did it because he is greedy and wanted more food,

and he didn't really care that the other crew members would also get

screwed for helping him. Also, although Eurylochus buttered up what

would happen, and why they would be spared, the crew must have been

really dumb in order to not follow Odysseus' orders. I thought they

considered Odysseus god-like? Why wouldn't they obey a ≥god?≤ I guess

they could have overlooked the consequences, but that still doesn't make

it a good idea. Oh well, I guess that I probably would have followed

Eurylochus too; he did make it sound like it was going to be good for

themãeat a feast of delicious cattle and have to build a temple to honor

the god who they stole it from, or starve on an island and slowly die. I

felt bad for Odysseus at the end of the passage as well; although Zeus

killed his non-loyal crew members, he didn't help him get away from that

crazy monster with six heads. Its not like Odysseus did anything wrong

here, he gave his men orders, but they were the ones who disobeyed him.

≥Peace, Helios: shine on among the gods, shine over mortals in the fields of grain. Let me throw down one white-hot bolt, and make splinters of their ship in the wine dark sea.≤

-Zeus

This quote is found on page 222 of book 12 of the odyssey. At this point in the story Odysseusπ men eat the cattle of Lord Helios. This is not good because earlier on lady Kirke said to Odysseus that if he was to eat those cattle that his entire crew would die at sea and only he would live. This obviously happens when his men eat the cattle while he is sleeping. The thing about this quote that I donπt understand is, why is Zeus doing this to Odysseus? I mean he was the person who gave Athena permission to start the story off by giving some confidence to T-Mac, so why the hell would he be like alright forget that plan. I know Helios is a god and all but isnπt Athena more important to him. Who cares about some stupid cows anyways? Big deal his men were hungry, and they ate. I donπt think they deserve to drown in a storm because some poor little nobody god lost a few cattle. Zeus is a god and should learn how to be loyal to his commitments

            I choose this quote by Ulysses because it shows his personal traits that make him the strong and powerful man that he is.  First off, he tells the crew about the prophecies that Circe has made which shows good leadership.  Ulysses does not keep these important words to himself because he knows the crew should know and be aware of what lies ahead.  By doing so he keeps the crew alive through the first attack, the Sirens.  However, he does not tell them about Scylla, the twelve misshapen foot, six neck monster.  This is because he does not want to put fear into the minds of his crew so that they continue to row and persevere through these tough obstacles facing them on their way to Ithaca.   That is a true leader who instills his men to the best of their abilities.  He also mentions that he will tell them "we live or die we may do so with our eyes open."   This just means he wants them to be aware and to be brave to what lies ahead.  He also places a lot of trust into his crew by telling them what is going on and not worrying that he will not panic.  I think it is odd however that he admits he may be vulnerable to the Sirens and no one else will be.  Being a strong man that he is, it seems like he is lowering himself to his crew by saying he is weak.   It is good he is ready for the worst but should not by all means have the crew believe that something will happen to him because if something does happen, all of them will panic.  But I guess if it is for the best of the ship, then he should tell them the dangers of the Sirens.

The goddess Circe tells Odysseus all of the things that still stand in his way on his journey home and ways to defeat them. He thanks her and he and his men leave the island. They come across the island of the Sirens, who are goddesses that sing a song that will make anyone stop and do what they want. Already knowing this would happen, Odysseus plugs his menπs ears with beeswax. He then has his men tie him to the front of the ship so he will not be tempted to leave. He is the only one to hear the song that the Sirens sing of love and hope for the future. Odysseus becomes restless and asks to be let off the ship to go see the Sirens who sing such beautiful words. His men stay strong though and remember what he said in the beginning about not letting him off the ship so they donπt. After the Sirens, the crew must sail around Scylla & Charbdis. Scylla & Charbdis is a monster with six heads who swallows ships as they pass by. Charybdis is the giant whirlpool part. Only six men are lost during this. The next stop on the journey is Thrinacia or the island of the Sun. Odysseus tries to ignore this island completely, but one of the Eurylochus tells him to go there. A violent storm keeps them there for weeks and the crew starts to run out of food. The men go against Odysseus and eat the cattle of the sun. The sun gets mad and tells Zeus to punish Odysseus and his crew. Zeus does so by starting another storm after the crew leaves the island. The storm kills the whole crew except Odysseus. The waves bring his back to Charybdis and he just barely gets away again. He ends up wrecked on Calypsoπs island again. This book has way too many stops and islands in it. It would be nice to see a map so you can see how close these places are to each other and what they look like. I just want Odysseus to get home! This book is just lagging now why canπt they just send him to Ithaca already?

Jeez this book goes into way too much gross detail haha with the killing of the men and the slaughtering of the animals. GROSS, but anyways, it seriously seems that whenever Odysseus is just about to make it home yet another challenge or obstacle is preventing him from doing so and its getting real old. All he does is travel to one island, meet a god, they tell him another story and how he can make it back to ithaca, then a storm comes, he gets delayed a few months, then does the same thing all over again. But anyways here's my quote ""'When your crew have taken you past these Sirens, I cannot give you coherent directions as to which of two courses you are to take; I will lay the two alternatives before you, and you must consider them for yourself. On the one hand there are some overhanging rocks against which the deep blue waves of Amphitrite beat with terrific fury; the blessed gods call these rocks the Wanderers. Here not even a bird may pass, no, not even the timid doves that bring ambrosia to Father Jove, but the sheer rock always carries off one of them, and Father Jove has to send another to make up their number; no ship that ever yet came to these rocks has got away again, but the waves and whirlwinds of fire are freighted with wreckage and with the bodies of dead men. The only vessel that ever sailed and got through, was the famous Argo on her way from the house of Aetes, and she too would have gone against these great rocks, only that Juno piloted her past them for the love she bore to Jason."  This is when Circe is giving Odysseus advice about what voyage he needs to go on now to continue his homecoming. But the thing is either path he chooses, he is still going to run into some type of monster, or trouble, and has to somehow find a way out of it. This always happens, it's like the gods know he is going to fail somewhere and they sort of just set up that path for him. And if he is wise enough or intelligent, he will outsmart them all and get around it. Which so far, he has done every time. But i thought if he could see the future supposedly then why does he choose the paths he will fail on? Why doesnt he just avoid them all? SO many questions haha sorry

"Then she stood in the midst of us and said, 'You have

done a bold thing in going down alive to the house of

Hades, and you will have died twice, to other people's

once; now, then, stay here for the rest of the day,

feast your fill, and go on with your voyage at

daybreak tomorrow morning."

Here circe, the once very cunning godess, compliments

Ulysses about his journey in hades. I wonder if she is

being nice to ulysses because he was the only guy who

wasn't affected by the potion,or is she in love with

him? She seems like she loves Ulysses because she is

feeding his men and taking good care of them. On the

other hand she could just be being a good host like

everyone else in the books. I still don't think that

she is a trustable character. How can Ulysses be with

the godess when she tried turning him and his men into

pigs. Not only that, he can be with her while he knows

that he has a wife at home. His wife is taking her

time and holding back on the suitors, while he is with

some godess not thinking twice about her. I wonder why

everyone trusts eachother so much. Ulysses's men are

still following him after so much conflicts. Ulysses

lied to his comrades because he didn't mention the six

headed monster living in the rocks. He didn't mention

them because he thought that if he did, his men would

leave him and become frightened. I do not believe that

they would have done that because they have followed

him this far so I feel that they would have continued.

Its so strange that all of ulysses' men are dying, but

Ulysses stays strong. Its like he can't die or

something. I also think that Ulysses is a great

motivational speaker. He always gets his comrades

spirits up when they are feeling low, or when someone

has died.