Odysseus with Phaiakians (Phoenicians)

1
Odysseus with Phaiakians (Phoenicians)

• Nausikaa Phaiakian princess who finds Odysseus
  falls for him
• Alkinoos K of Phaiakians
• Arete Q of Phaiakians famed as wise judge
• Demodokos blind bard of Alkinoos
• Phaiakia is where Odysseus is reborn, where he
  returns from imprisonment with the goddess
  Kalypso to the world of living men.

2
Magic of Phaiakia

• Phaiakia midway between home of gods and world of
  men its people are semi-divine
• Palace of Alkinoos like the halls of Olympus
  (7.86-118)
• Gardens of Alkinoos bloom continually year
  round--its always perpetual harvest and bounty
  (7.119-141)
• Ships of Phaiakians need no steersmen one tells
  them where to go and they respond
• All this magic is jeopardized by anger of
  Poseidon when they help Odysseus

3
9 Odysseus becomes a bard

• plunder the Kikones
• escape the Lotus-Eaters
• blind Polyphemos, the Kylopes
• given all the winds by Aiolos, save the west wind
  which will take them home to Ithaka
• run into cannibal Laistrygonians
• half turned into pigs by Kirke Hermes helps
  Odysseus save them

4
Kirke sends Odysseus to Hades

• Odysseus must learn way home from Teiresias, the
  blind seer
• Encounters all the queens and noble women
• Why does this poem emphasize noble women?
• Meets his mother, Antikleia, who died at the
  grief of his going to Troy
• Learns Agamemnons fate on his return
• Learns Akhilleuss attitude towards death
  (11.536-546)

5
Kirkes Warnings of Future Perils

• Seirenes (Sirens) who sing men to their deaths
• Clashing or Prowling Rocks which smash ships that
  sail between them
• Skylla six headed man-eating monster
• Kharybdis whirlpool
• Cattle of sun-god Helios, which are immortal and
  non-breeding, so irreplaceable