The adventures of Odysseus near the island of the Sirens. The voyage of the Odysseus past the island of the Sirens and past Scylla and Charybdis. Soon the travelers survived mortal danger. Their ship sailed between the cave where Scylla lived and Charybdis on the other side, three times a day.

Hero of the mythology of the ancient Greeks, king of the island of Ithaca, participant in the Trojan War, brave warrior and skillful speaker. In The Iliad he is present as a key character. In the poem "Odyssey" - the main character. Odysseus's peculiarity is his resourceful character, the ability to use cunning to get out of dangerous situations, saving himself and his comrades. Therefore, “cunning” became one of the hero’s constant epithets.

History of creation

The image of Odysseus became a reflection of the era of the Greeks' exploration of the sea. Situations when warriors set sail on their ships and their connection with their families was severed for a long time found their mythological embodiment in the story of Odysseus’s wanderings. Homer (“Iliad”, “Odyssey”), (“Hecuba”, “Cyclops”), (“Ajax”, “Philoctetes”) and other authors wrote about the hero’s adventures and his journey home to his wife Penelope.

Various episodes from the hero's life are captured in the form of drawings on Greek vases. Using them, you can restore the expected appearance of the hero. Odysseus is a mature, bearded man, often depicted wearing an oval cap, which was worn by Greek sailors.

Biography

Odysseus was born from the marriage of Argonaut Laertes, king of Ithaca, and the granddaughter of the god Hermes, Anticlea. The hero’s grandfather, Autolycus, bore the proud nickname “the most thieving of men,” was a clever swindler, and personally from Hermes, his father, received permission to swear in the name of this god and break oaths. Odysseus himself is married to Penelope, who gave birth to the hero’s son Telemachus.


Odysseus met his future wife Penelope in Sparta, where he arrived to woo Helen the Beautiful, among other suitors. There were many people who wanted to get married, but Elena’s father was afraid to make a choice in favor of one, so as not to incur the wrath of the others. The cunning Odysseus came up with a fresh idea - to give the girl the right to vote, so that she could choose the groom herself, and to bind the suitors with an oath that, if necessary, they would all help Elena's future husband.

Helen chose Menelaus, the son of the Mycenaean king. Odysseus had his eye on Penelope. Penelope's father promised that he would marry his daughter to the one who wins the running competition. When Odysseus became the winner, his father tried to dissuade Penelope from this marriage and stay at home. Odysseus repeated his trick and allowed the bride to choose for herself - to stay with her father or go with him, and she, despite the persuasion of her parent, chose the hero. After the wedding, Odysseus and his young wife returned to Ithaca.


When Paris kidnapped Helen, the former suitors got ready for the Trojan War. The oracle predicted to Odysseus that if he went to Troy, he would return home 20 years later, beggars and without companions. The hero tried to avoid this event. Odysseus tried to pretend to be crazy, but was exposed.

The man began to sow the field with salt, harnessing an ox and a horse to the plow, but when his newborn son was thrown under the plow, he was forced to stop. So it became clear that Odysseus was fully aware of his actions, and the hero had to go to war. According to Homer's version, the hero was persuaded to go to Troy by King Agamemnon, who came to Ithaca for this purpose.


Odysseus comes to Troy with 12 ships. When the ships land on the shore, no one wants to get off. Another prediction promises that the first one to set foot on the land of Troy will certainly die. No one wants to be the first, so Odysseus jumps off the ship, and people follow him. The cunning hero makes a deceptive maneuver and throws a shield at his feet, so it turns out that it was not he who first stepped on Trojan soil, but the one who jumped after him.

During the war, Odysseus manages to settle personal scores by framing the man who threw his son under the plow as a traitor, thereby forcing the hero to go to war. A number of conditions are necessary for victory, and Odysseus fulfills them one after another. He gets a bow, which was left with Philoctetes, who was abandoned on the island at the beginning of the war and was embittered towards the others. Together with Diomedes, he steals a statue of the goddess Athena from Troy. Finally, Odysseus comes up with the idea of ​​​​the famous Trojan horse, thanks to which he, along with other warriors, ends up outside the walls of the city.


After the victory at Troy, the ships turn back and Odysseus’s wanderings across the sea begin. The hero experiences many misadventures, during which he loses his ships and crew, and returns to Ithaca 10 years after sailing from the shores of Troy. In Ithaca, meanwhile, the suitors besiege Penelope, claiming that Odysseus died long ago and she should remarry, choosing one of them. The hero, turned into an old man by Athena, comes to his own palace, where no one recognizes him except the old nanny and the dog.

Penelope offers the suitors a competition for her hand - to string Odysseus's bow and shoot an arrow through 12 rings. The suitors insult Odysseus in the guise of an old man, but none of them can handle the bow. Then Odysseus himself shoots an arrow, thus revealing himself, and then, together with his grown-up son Telemachus, organizes a bloody massacre and kills the suitors.


The hero's journey, however, does not end there. The relatives of the suitors he killed are demanding trial. Odysseus, by decision of the arbitrator, is expelled from Ithaca for 10 years, where the son of the hero Telemachus remains king. In addition, God is angry with the hero, whom the hero insulted by blinding the son of the god Polyphemus, the giant Cyclops.

To appease the god, Odysseus must walk with an oar on his shoulders through the mountains to find a land where people have never heard of the sea. Odysseus finds land where his oar is mistaken for a shovel and stops there. Poseidon forgives the hero after he makes sacrifices, and Odysseus himself marries the local queen.


Further fate The hero is described differently in different sources. Odysseus either died in foreign lands (in different versions - in Aetolia, Etruria, Arcadia, etc.) without returning home, or returned after the expiration of his exile to Ithaca, where he was mistakenly killed by his own son, born of the sorceress Circe. There is even a version according to which Odysseus was turned into a horse and died in this form from old age.

Legends

The hero’s most famous adventures happened on his way home from Troy and are described in Homer’s poem “The Odyssey.” Returning, Odysseus' ships land first at one island, then at another, inhabited by mythological creatures, and each time the hero loses some of the people. On the island of lotophages, lotuses grow, granting oblivion to those who eat them. On the island of the Cyclops lives the one-eyed cannibal giant Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon. The heroes try to find shelter for the night in Polyphemus' cave, and he eats some of Odysseus's men.


The hero and his surviving companions blind Polyphemus by gouging out the giant's only eye with a sharpened stake, and then escape with the help of sheep. The blind giant examines the sheep by touch before releasing them from the cave, but does not find the heroes clinging to the wool of the animals from below, and so they get out of the cave. However, Odysseus tells the giant his real name, and he screams for help to his father Poseidon. Since then, Poseidon has been angry with Odysseus, which does not make the hero’s journey home by sea any easier.


Having escaped from Polyphemus, the heroes find themselves on the island of the wind god Aeolus. He presents Odysseus with a fur, inside of which the winds are hidden. The hero must not untie this fur until he sees the shores of his native Ithaca. Odysseus and his crew almost reach home, but his people, thinking that there is a treasure hidden inside the fur, untie it while the hero is sleeping, release the winds, and the ship is carried far out to sea.


On the island of the sorceress Circe, Odysseus's companions turn into animals after tasting the treats, and the hero himself conceives a son with the sorceress, who, according to one version, will cause his death. The hero spends a year with Circe, and then goes further and passes the island of the sirens, who enchant and destroy sailors with their singing, and then swims between the huge whirlpool Charybdis and the six-headed monster Scylla, which devours six more crew members.


Gradually, Odysseus loses all his companions and finds himself alone on the island of the nymph Calypso. The nymph falls in love with Odysseus, and the hero spends 7 years with her, because there is not a single ship on the island to sail away. In the end, Hermes appears to the nymph and orders her to release the hero. Odysseus is finally able to build a raft and sail away.

  • The hero's name has become a household name. The word "odyssey" means long journey with many obstacles and adventures and is often found in contexts far removed from ancient Greek realities. For example, in the title of the film "2001: A Space Odyssey", filmed in 1968 based on the story by Arthur C. Clarke, or in the title of the adventure novel "Odyssey".
  • In the literature of modern times one can often find the image of Odysseus - processed or taken “as is”. In the book Eric, a character named Vindrisseus appears - an ironically reimagined variation on the theme of Odysseus. In 2000, Henry Lyon Oldie’s two-volume novel “Odysseus, Son of Laertes” was published, where the narrative is told from the hero’s point of view.

  • The image of Odysseus also penetrated into cinema. In 2013, the French-Italian series “Odyssey” was released, where it is not about the hero’s wanderings, but about the family that awaits his return, about the intrigues and conspiracies of the suitors who want to seize the throne, and about the events that occur after the king returns to the island. In 2008, Terry Ingram's adventure film Odysseus: Journey into the Underworld was released, where the hero was played by the actor.
  • Odysseus is one of the characters in the strategy computer game Age of Mythology, released in 2002.

Sweet songs of the sirens. Odysseus knew from the words of Kirk that he would soon sail past the island where the sirens, half-women, half-birds, lived. With sweet-sounding songs they lure sailors to their island, and then tear them apart with sharp claws. Not a single person has ever passed this island alive.

Odysseus wanted to listen to extraordinary songs. And so he covered the ears of his comrades with wax so that they would not hear magical voices, and ordered himself to be tied to the mast with strong ropes and, no matter what he did, in no case to untie. The ship quickly rushed past the island, and wonderful sounds were heard from it:

To us. God-like Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans, come to us with a ship; Enjoy the sweet singing of the sirens.

Here not a single sailor passes with his ship without listening to the heart-melting song in our meadow. But whoever heard us returns to the house, having learned a lot: We all know what is happening in the bosom of the multi-talented land. So the sirens sang; Odysseus was subdued by their singing, began to break free of the ropes, and made signs for his comrades to free him. But they leaned even harder on the oars, and only then untied Odysseus when he disappeared from sight. scary island

and the singing was no longer heard. Scylla and Charybdis.

And then a terrible noise was heard in the distance: it was Charybdis raging. Odysseus ordered his companions to stay close to another cliff, but did not say a word about Skill. Pale with horror, the travelers looked at Charybdis; waves bubbled around her mouth, and in her deep belly, like in a cauldron, sea mud and water boiled. At this time, the terrible Skilla stretched out all her necks and grabbed six of Odysseus’s comrades; their legs flashed in the air, a drawn-out scream died away... But now the terrible strait was left behind, and again there was a calm sea ahead.

A month on the island of Trinacria. Odysseus did not want to stop on the island of Trinacria, remembering what Tiresias warned him about. But Eurylochus said on behalf of the other sailors: “You are acting cruelly, Odysseus! You yourself seem to be cast from copper, you do not know fatigue - we are simple people, we have been sleeping on the ship for many nights, and now we want to go ashore, rest there and refresh ourselves. And tomorrow at dawn we will continue our voyage.”

Odysseus understood that they could not avoid trouble, but did not argue with his comrades. They landed on the island and pulled the ship ashore. We spent the night here, but in the morning a terrible storm began, and there was no way to go out to sea. The winds blew for a whole month. Odysseus and his companions ran out of all their supplies; They were increasingly tormented by hunger. But Odysseus made sure that they did not touch the bulls of Helios. One day Odysseus fell asleep, and in the meantime his companions decided to kill the bulls, and so that Helios would not be angry, they would take the precious gifts to his temple after returning.

A crime against the gods. Odysseus woke up, smelled the smell of fried meat and realized that his companions had committed a crime before the gods and doomed themselves to death. He was especially convinced of this by the terrible sign that the gods sent: the skins of the bulls moved as if alive, and the meat emitted a plaintive moo. Odysseus's companions were saved from hunger, and soon the storm stopped, and they could set off.

But as soon as the island disappeared from view, the thunderer Zeus gathered heavy clouds over the ship. The wind came howling, the mast broke like a reed, lightning flashed - and only splinters remained from the ship. Odysseus managed to grab onto a piece of the mast and was carried along the waves. For nine days he carried him from end to end across the boundless sea, he almost fell into the mouth of Charybdis, and, fortunately, Skilla did not notice him. Finally, he washed up on some shore.

She told what further dangers lurk on the way:

First of all, you will meet sirens who are singing
Everyone deceives people, no matter who meets them.
Whoever, unknowingly approaches them, hears their voice,
He will never return home. Neither spouse nor children
They will never run towards him with a joyful cry.
The sirens will enchant him with their sonorous song,
Sitting on a soft meadow. All around there are huge smoldering
Piles of human bones covered with wrinkled skin.
Drive your ship past. Cover your comrades' ears,
Softened the honey-sweet wax so that no one could hear them
Satellite. And if you want, you can listen.
Let only your comrades tie your hands and feet tightly,
Standing, they will tie you to the base of the mast,
So that you can enjoy, both listening to the sirens.
If you start asking and order them to untie yourself,
Let them wrap even more belts around you.

(Homer "Odyssey", canto 12)

In ancient Greek mythology, sirens are demonic creatures born of the river Achelous and one of the muses (sirens inherited a divine voice from their mother). Sirens were half-birds, half-women (or half-fish, half-women). The first ship that sailed safely past the island of the Sirens was the Argo with the Argonauts, among whom was Laertes, the father of Odysseus. The Argonauts were saved by Orpheus, who was sailing with them, and drowned out the singing of the sirens with his singing and playing the lyre.

To save himself from death, Odysseus did as Circe advised: he covered the ears of his companions with wax, and he himself ordered himself to be tied to the mast. Odysseus heard this song of the sirens:

Come to us, Odysseus of great fame, great pride of the Achaeans!
Stop your ship to listen to our singing.
For no one in his ship will pass us without this,
So as not to listen to our flowing sweet songs from our lips
And you won’t return home delighted and having learned a lot.
We all know the works that are in extensive Troy
By the will of the gods, the Argives, as well as the Trojans, suffered.
We also know what is happening throughout the land of life.

Odysseus ordered to untie himself, but his companions only tied him tighter. After this, Odysseus's ship sailed safely from the island of the Sirens.


After the island of the Sirens, there was a new danger on Odysseus’s path - Scylla and Charybdis, about whom Circe also warned:

Two on the road, the second one has a cliff. One reaches
The sharp peak of the sky, the clouds crowd around it
Black. They never go away, at the top
The air there is never clear either in summer or autumn.
A mortal could not ascend the cliff or descend back.
Even when I could control twenty arms and legs, -
This rock is so smooth, as if it had been hewn by someone.
Gloomy there is a large cave in the middle of the cliff.
Its entrance faces the darkness, to the west, towards Erebus.
Send your ship past her, noble Odysseus.
Even the strongest shooter, aiming his bow from a ship,
I could not reach the hollow cave with my arrow.
The terribly growling Scylla lives in a rock cave.
Her voice sounds like a young puppy. The very same -
Evil monster. There is no one who, having seen her,
I felt joy in my heart, even if God had encountered it
Scylla has twelve legs, and all of them are thin and liquid.
Six long necks writhe on the shoulders, and on the necks
On the head of a terrifying, in the mouth of each in three rows
Abundant, frequent teeth full of black death.
In the lair she sits half her body,
Six heads protrude out over the terrible abyss,
They fumble along the smooth rock and grab the fish under it.
There are dolphins and sea dogs here; they grab big ones too
Monsters that Amphitrite grazes in abundance.
None of the sailors could boast that they passed
He and the ship passed unharmed: he's missing his husband
With each head she draws you into her cave.
There is another rock, Odysseus, you will see, lower,
Close to that one. He is only a bow shot away from her.
A fig tree with lush foliage grows wildly on that rock.
Directly below it from the divine Charybdis are black waters
They are raging terribly. She eats them three times a day
And it spews out three times. Look: when it absorbs -
Don't come any closer! Even the Landlord himself couldn’t save you here!
Stay close to the rock towards Scillina and as soon as possible
Drive a fast ship past. It's incomparably better
To lose six people from a ship is to lose them all.

Odysseus asked Circe if it was possible to repel Scylla’s attack without losing six comrades, to which he received the answer:

Know this: not mortal evil, but immortal Scylla. Fierce,
Terribly strong and wild. Fighting her is impossible.
You can't take it by force. The only salvation is in flight.

When Odysseus's ship found itself not far from Scylla and Charybdis, Odysseus told the helmsman to avoid the whirlpool generated by Charybdis, and ordered the rowers to row with all their might, while Odysseus hid the existence of Scylla from his comrades, fearing that, having learned the danger awaiting them, they would hide inside the ship and refuse row. When the ship sailed past Scylla's cave, the monster grabbed six sailors, but the ship and the rest escaped.

The intended location is the Galli Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the travelers were leaving the island of Aea, Circe warned of the danger awaiting the heroes near the island of the Sirens. These creatures mesmerize mortals with their wonderful singing, and they remain in their power forever. Approaching the island, Odysseus ordered his companions to plug their ears with wax, and tied himself to the mast. As soon as he heard the sirens singing, Odysseus tried to free himself, but his companions did not allow him to do this. The ship safely passed the dangerous island.

Homer was the first to mention sirens. But in the Odyssey all that is said about them is that sailors must be wary of the singing of the “wonderful voices,” otherwise they will not return to their homeland. This barely outlined image inflamed the imagination of the listeners of the poem. IN Ancient Greece The myth of the sirens acquired more and more new details. Firstly, they had a pedigree. They inherited the siren's voice from their mother-muse and at first were no different from ordinary women. But the aunt-muses, fearing for their position on Parnassus, disfigured the newly-minted warblers, turning them into a hybrid of humans and birds.

According to another version, the sirens became friends with Persephone, whom Hades dragged into the kingdom of the dead. The friends did not suspect this and begged the gods to give them the opportunity to look for the missing one on earth, in the sky and under water. So the sirens divided into half birds and half fish. The following string of myths explained why sirens are dangerous to people. Mortals refused to help them look for Persephone, and then the sirens decided to take revenge. The fish maidens, singing, drew the sailors into the depths of the sea. The winged maidens sucked the blood of those who stopped to listen to them.

With this, the plot suggested by Homer was exhausted. And then the myth of the death of the sirens was born. Odysseus was declared the savior from this scourge. He was the only one who did not land on the island; this was the first time the songbirds had made a mistake. Out of despair, the bird maidens rushed into the sea and turned into rocks. At first they forgot about the fish maidens, but in the Middle Ages the peoples of Europe borrowed this image in tales about treacherous mermaids and undines. The siren birds also resurrected, turning, for example, into the characters of Slavic legends - the birds Sirin and Phoenix.

Where did the events that gave rise to the myths about the sirens take place? You can, of course, look for their “graves” in the Mediterranean Sea - rocks sticking out alone from the water. But a much more interesting version is that Homer could consider the sounds associated with the singing of sirens natural features specific place on the coast. For example, in the Gulf of Salerno there is the Galli Archipelago. The configuration of the coastal rocks here is such that they amplify the sounds coming towards the sea. The cries of the seals that have taken a liking to the islands, passing through this megaphone, can easily be mistaken for the sounds of a human voice...

Homer did not specify how many sirens there were on the island. The Greeks usually depicted three. The myth says that they drowned themselves after a mishap with Odysseus. The body of one of them washed ashore where Naples is now located.

As soon as Odysseus passed the ominous island of the Sirens, troubles began again. It was necessary to swim between the rocks, where the bloodthirsty monster Scylla with six dog heads and the goddess Charybdis lived, drawing in and then spewing out sea waters. The ancient Greeks believed that these creatures lie in wait for sailors on both sides of the Strait of Messina: Scylla off the coast of the Apennine Peninsula, Charybdis off the island of Sicily.



Homer's poem "Odyssey"

Lesson plan.

  • 2.On the island of the Cyclops.

  • 3. Meeting with sirens.

  • 4.Between Scylla and Charybdis.

  • 5. Return to Ithaca.

  • 6. Reprisal against the Grooms.


Lesson assignment

  • Prove that the Odyssey can be used as a historical source?


1. Odysseus finds shelter with Alcinous.

  • Homer's second poem, "The Odyssey", is dedicated to the wanderings of Odysseus, returning home to the island. Ithaca, from near Troy.


1. Odysseus finds shelter with Alcinous.

  • After 10 years, Odysseus ended up on the island where Alcinous ruled. Odysseus was found by Nausicaä, the king’s daughter. Alcinous kindly received the travelers. At the feast, the storyteller sang about the exploits of Achilles, Odysseus burst into tears and told Alcinous his story.


2.On the island of the Cyclops.

  • Once, having gotten lost, he landed on the island of the Cyclopes. The Greeks entered the cave where Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon, lived. He drove sheep into the cave, blocked the exit with stones and ate 2 people. Odysseus gave Polyphemus wine and blinded him .


2.On the island of the Cyclops.

  • The Greeks tied up the rams in threes, hid under them, and when Polyphemus felt those coming out, they turned out to be unnoticed. They boarded the ship and sailed away. Odysseus shouted and said his name, and then Polyphemus asked Poseidon to punish Odysseus.


3. Meeting with sirens.

  • One day, Odysseus sailed near the island of Sirens. These half-birds, half-women, with their singing, lured travelers in and ate them. Odysseus ordered the rowers to cover their ears and tie him to the mast. Thus, he heard beautiful singing and was able to remain alive.


4.Between Scylla and Charybdis.

  • Soon the travelers survived mortal danger. Their ship sailed between the cave where Scylla lived and on the other side was Charybdis, who sucked in water three times a day. But Odysseus was able to guide his ship past the monsters.


5. Return to Ithaca.

  • After listening to Odysseus's story, the Phaeacians equipped a ship and sent it to Ita-ku. At this time, in his house, suitors pestered his wife Penelope. But she believed that Odysseus was alive and announced that she would marry when she weaved a shroud for Odysseus’s father, who was dying. All day Penelope weaved the fabric, and at night she unraveled it.


6. Reprisal against the Grooms.

  • The maid revealed this deception to the suitors. Penelope had to announce that she would marry the one who wins Odysseus's huge bow in shooting. But none of the suitors could even bend the bow. Then Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, took his bow and shot and then killed all the suitors.

 

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