![]() ![]() Little do they know that Odysseus is among them in disguise. In Book 21, Penelope brings out Odysseus' bow and challenges each of the suitors to shoot an arrow between two axes. In Book 13, Homer compares him to a farmer who has been working all day: "As one who has been all day ploughing a fallow field with a couple of oxen keeps thinking about his supper and is glad when night comes that he may go and get it, for it is all his legs can do to carry him, even so did Ulysses rejoice when the sun went down." Even though Odysseus (also known as Ulysses) is a great hero, Homer shows that the king of Ithaca can have the same feelings as a humble farmer. Homer compares the sound that the pierced eye made to the sound of cooling a new-made weapon in water: "As a blacksmith plunges an axe or hatchet into cold water to temper it - for it is this that gives strength to the iron - and it makes a great hiss as he does so, even thus did the Cyclops' eye hiss round the beam of olive wood." Here, Homer can show off his mixed-bag knowledge of trades.Īfter 10 years of wandering, Odysseus is eager to leave the court of Alcinous and return home to Ithaca. Blacksmith's ToolsĪfter festivities at the palace of Alcinous in Book 9, Odysseus tells the story of how he blinded the Cyclops. She becomes so sick with worry about the fate of her son that her mind turns wildly until she exhausts herself: "Like a lioness caught in the toils with huntsmen hemming her in on every side she thought and thought till she sank into a slumber, and lay on her bed bereft of thought and motion." Homer is comparing Penelope's frenetic thoughts to those of a lion surrounded by hunters. A servant overhears their plans and tells them to Penelope. In Book 4 of "The Odyssey," the suitors who have been occupying Odysseus’ house during his absence learn of Telemachus’ voyage, and they prepare an ambush for his return.
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