Book 21

Hello mates, great news to report, but we'll get into that later. So as I told you last week, Penelope is having a contest to see who will marry her. I know it is very saddening for me to hear. So for this competition the person will need to string MY bow and shoot through the hole of twelve axes lined up in a row. At first I thought this was going to be a piece of cake, but then remembered that it’s been a long, long time since I've used this bad boy. Take a wild guess as who is the first person to try this, TELEMAKHOS, my son, wanting to marry his own mother. Well I understand I guess, if you've been living in the shadow of your dad your whole life, you might want to show people that you’re even better than your dad. He was so close to getting it, as he was almost there he glanced toward me and suddenly failed, I was quite impressed on how close he had come. After many suitors have tried and failed I stepped up to the bow and asked for a try. At first it was a little tricky, I don’t know why but it felt a little more slippery than years before. So I strung the bow with ease, pull the arrow back, BAM, right through all the heads... just like in the good ole days if you know what I mean. haha

Book 20

Last night I had a really hard time going to sleep. I kept thinking that Telemakhos and I won’t be able to conquer so many suitors. So I pray to big Zeus and ask if he could just send me down an Omen. Right then I heard this big clasp of thunder and I knew everything is going to be alright. Sometimes you just need a little reassurance to help put your mind at ease. I met this very kind Suitor named Philoetius. I was very honored when I heard him say that he still has hope that Odysseus will come home, I hope I don’t have to kill him. Then all the suitors entered the palace and they immediately started to talk of plans to kill Telemakhos. I was about to jump up and slit all their throats, how can they say such a thing in MY palace. I don’t understand how they can plan to marry Penelope after they kill her son. Later at the diner table one of the suitors threw a pig’s hoof right at my feet. Telemakhos stood up and threatened to kill the man, I had never been so proud of my son in my entire life, (partly because I had just met him). Then the ignorant suitors started laughing at him, we’ll see whose laughing when I murder all of you… sorry that was a little uncalled for. Strangely everything then started to be covered with blood, first the suitors then all of the walls. I’m not sure what it means, but I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of deaths soon, and I hope I’m not one of them.

BOOK 19

Hello readers, Odysseus here to report. We have now just removed the weapons from the suitors reach and hid them away, with some provided light from Athena. After my boy went off to bed, I sat with Penelope. She questioned me on things about me; I tried to be modest so I mainly gave physical descriptions. After describing, “him” Penelope immediately started crying. I felt so sad watching her cry, after a loved one is gone and you are worried of their condition, all you want to hear is that they are ok. I told Penelope that Odysseus was doing well and I had heard that he was going to return home soon. Then Eurykleia was to clean my feet, while she was doing that she noticed the scar from my childhood hunting accident on my leg. Immediately she started shouting and beckoning toward Penelope, thank god Athena was there, (no pun intended) she had distracted Penelope long enough for me to convince Eurykleia to not tell anyone about me being here. After that near catastrophe, Penelope describes to me her strange dream; I then interpreted it to her. None the less she said she will MARRY, THE FIRST GUY WHO CAN SHOOT AN ARROW THROUGH THE HOLES OF TWELVE AXES!!! Did I not just tell her that her husband was coming home in a month, jeeze. Then again, I’m not the most loyal husband.

Book 18

Alright, today I had quite a day today. First off some slime ball homeless man who thinks he runs this palace challenges me; I finished him off quick (with a little help from Athena). Then Penelope walked down to check on things in the courtyard, she was lookin’ soooo fine, I just wanted to run up and kiss her. Then I pulled an Aristotle and had quite the philosophical speech, there were probably many suitors who were confused about my speech. I started off by saying about how humans depend far too much on the gods. If we think the gods are on our side we think we can do anything. Some of our lives are run by gods, because we have no drive to do anything. We feel that our fates are sealed by the gods and we can’t change anything, the gods will take care of everything.
I then talked about my adventures; I had always depended on myself and at first was really happy. Then I proceed to fall into a string of bad events, because I thought of myself as a god.
There are certain boundaries you cannot cross with the gods; you cannot take advantage of the gods. You need to honor the gods and treat them, well, like gods. At the same time if they give you an opportunity you should seize it.
Haha then I started making some harsh warnings. I just wanted to give them all a fair chance before I slaughtered them all. I told them once Odysseus came home he would slaughter them all until he had conquered his home. Can’t say I didn’t warn them.

Book 17

Hey its Telemachus here, sorry my dads busy working on our plan, he’s dressed as a beggar right now but will be back soon I think. So now that my dad and I have a plan to kill the suitors I'm getting really excited. I left my uncles house to say hi to my mom, she must be really worried about me, I haven’t seen her in a long time. I was also very happy to see Eurycleia. I told mom news of my trip, but did not tell her about dad being here. I told her that she must pray for the return of Odysseus. Meanwhile my dad was walking through the palace to see which suitors were kind. Almost all of the suitors gave him bread, which I was surprised about, although Antinous instead insulted him. Odysseus retaliated and insulted him back, and then Antinous hit him across the back with a chair. I could tell Odysseus wanted to fight back, but he restrained himself, I was very proud of his self control. Although Antinous didn’t know who this beggar was, you should always treat strangers respectively because you can never tell how important they might be. After their scuffle Penelope wanted to call the beggar (Odysseus) up to her room to question him, be he declined so now we’re stuck sitting with all these suitors.

Book 11

Thank you Kirke, she really told me everything I needed to know. It is strange even though I left her; she was still very kind to me and helpful. Speaking of which, so was kalypso when she was forced to let me leave. I guess, when you love someone you just want what’s best for them, even if it means letting them go. So after I sacrificed the sacred animals, the ghosts all came to me. First I saw the woman I came to see, the Theban prophet Tiresias. She told me that Poseidon has hated me because of when I blinded his son, and also that, I WILL GO HOME AND GET PENELOPE BACK. First I have to go home kick the suitor’s butts, then I need to go to this island and sacrifice an animal to Poseidon so he’ll stop hatin’ on me. Then I can go home and live my life. She also warned me not to touch the flocks of the sun, if I did, my trip home would become a nightmare. At first I automatically thought ok well I’m defiantly not going to touch them now. Then I started thinking of everything that has happened to me recently; being seduced by Calypso, taunting the Cyclops, being seduced by Kirke, my men opening the bag. I started to realize that temptation can overrule your self control very easily, so I had to be careful. I was so sad to see my mother here in hell, especially when I heard that she had died because her mourning of me. She gave me the 411 on what’s happening at home. I then saw the ghost of Elepanor, my crew mate who had broken his neck. He asked us to give him a proper burial, but we just couldn’t, it would be far too dangerous, I felt so bad for him but I couldn’t do anything. I started seeing more and more familiar faces of other war heroes, Achilles, Agamemnon and others who told me of their lives and of their deaths. After a while the ghosts started to close in on me so I ran back to my ship and we headed out for our journey home... again.

Book 10

Now I've really gotten good at this story telling thing. These guys must all think I'm the man or something cus these stories are pretty heroic. So here’s the story I told them... After we left the island of Kyklopes, we were sailing around and decide to hit up Aeolus's crib, turns out this guy is like the king of the winds or something, and he has some connections with the gods. He gives us this bag of wind, ya pretty strange but it really helped. We were traveling towards for about ten days AND WE CAN SEE ITHICA. But of course, my idiot crewmates had to open it just because of curiosity. Sometimes when people don’t know about something their curiosity takes over and no matter the consequences they need to know about it. Once the bag was opened we flew all the way back to Aeolus's house. He didn’t give us any more wind because he thought I was cursed by the gods, I don’t blame him. We then had to row all the way to this island, which is inhabited by Laestrygonians, who are Giants. They ended up eating a couple of my men so we had to get out of their fast. As we were leaving the island we were bombarded by boulders thrown by the Laestrygonians and all but my ship was destroyed, ya I know pretty lucky.
So from their we proceed to travel to Aeaea ruled by the smoking goddess Kirke. Ya too bad she turned my pals into a bunch of pigs, which they acted like before. But Hermes has got my back so he gave me this herb which made it so I was immune to her potion. I then showed Kirke who’s the boss and freed all my men. She's just sooooo fine though, that… well… Long story short we end up staying there for a year. Wow Penelope will be SO mad if she hears all this, so you guys can’t tell her anything. Thankfully my men convince me to leave so I talk to Kirke and she tells me that I have to go to Hades and talk to some blind prophet guy. It seems just when I am getting close to home something goes wrong and I get side tracked. I don’t know if I’m every going to get home.

Book 9

Hey, it’s Odysseus… still here. I don’t know if I’m gonna ever get home. So, I have just recently told Alcinous and everyone else who I am and I told them all great stories. Looking back on it all I realize how much I have been through, and wonder if I can ever be the same. When someone goes through so much trauma, they're never the same. The main story I told was the one about the Cyclops’s. I love telling this one cause I sound really heroic in it. So what first happened with this story is that me and my men land on the Island of the Cyclops’s. I kinda messed up on the navigations, but no biggy. So we get trapped inside this huge cave which is inhabited by a Cyclops named Kyklopes. Ya I know, kinda funny. But there is a bagilion pound boulder blocking our way out. This Cyclops is killing more and more of my men by the day, so I had to do something. I realized that I couldn’t just kill him because, who would move the bolder then, I had to trick him. First off I told him my name was nobody (you’ll get it later), then we decided to get him drunk, it took a lot of alcohol. After he had passed out, I then poked out his eye, which I did not enjoy doing. My men and I strapped ourselves to the undersides of the sheep and when he left he let us out with him. Little did I know that this Cyclops was actually the son of Poseidon, ugh what are the odds. So when Kyklopes came out yelling nobody has attacked me, all the other Cyclops’s did nothing, Ya that was all me. So then we left safely and I proceeded to tell my shipmates my true identity.

Book 8

Hey everybody, Odysseus here. It’s been a while so I’ve got a lot of news. So Alcinous and his pals decided to give me a ship, food and a lot of men to help me on my journey. This whole time I haven’t even told them my name, which is really starting to eat at my insides. We still had a lot of time till we left though so I just crashed at Alcinous' pad. The king decided to throw a celebration for me. During the celebration a man, Demodokos decided to sing a song of the fight Achilles and I had. All of a sudden I started to cry, which was really embarrassing, but Alcinous saw me and stopped Demodokos. Later that night there were town games with all these young kids who were having competitions and showing off their skills. After all the terrible events I have gone through that was the last thing I wanted to do. Then some little prick started challenging my skills, so I stepped out onto the field and just absolutely destroyed all the other little hot shots. Then I started talkin' some trash and I was about ready to wreck one of those kids. If it wasn’t for Alcinous I don’t know what would have happened.
So then we all went back to the feast and ate some more. I asked Demodokos to sing me a song of the Trojan horse, and how I powned Troy. I tried my hardest, but I started crying again. I just hope my son doesn’t cry as much as I do, that'd be embarrassing. So once Alcinous realized something was going on with me he finally asked me what my name was and where I was from.

Book 5

Yo, Odysseus here, great news to report. I should get to see my family soon, how sweet is that! Ya I know pretty cool, turns out Athena came to help me again. I don’t know what I would have done with ought her. She talked to Zeus then he told Hermes to make Kalypso let me go, Kalypso even help me make my raft. She was actually pretty cool after everything was said and done; she gave me a bunch of goodies too. Although the ride was rough, a goddess Ino, gave me a veil to help me swim to save my life after my boat crashed. I was reluctant at first but then I realized I didn’t have a choice, and it ended up saving me. Then I ran into some rock which hurt, QUITE a lot. Poseidon has tried to kill me multiple times; I probably shouldn’t have upset him, my bad. Ya so I nearly died then Ino saved me and now I’m just chilin’ at some river and I’m pretty tired from a rugged day, so I’m gonna hit the seaweed.

Book Four-The Red-Haired king and his lady

Hey watsup, its Telemakhos here, Odysseus's son. These past couple of weeks have been pretty crazy. I’ve got a lot of information for you guys today. I’ve slowly been making more and more progress on finding my dad; eventually I believe I will see him again. So, me and my bro Peisistratos rolled up in our 2 horse power chariot, to the entrance gate at Menelaos's pad. His house is absolutely huge, and we were greeted really nicely. We arrived at the perfect time; there was a huge party for Helen's and Menelaos's son and daughter. Before I could even ask Menelaos of my dad, he just started going about Troy and my paps, Odysseus. After his story I couldn’t help my self, I started to cry, right there in front of King Menelaos. He made Odysseus seem like the greatest war hero to live. I didn’t feel like such a wuss when every one else started to cry too. When you miss a loved one it hurts more than anything. I feel like my dad is the bravest man, and the greatest warrior to live. I only hope that I will one day see my father. Menelaos told me that my dad is trapped on an island with the god Kalypso. He’s been trapped there since Zeus knows when, if I could only see him for a little bit that would be the coolest thing ever. And I also heard that those suitors are still giving my mom a hard time, if only my dad were here. From the stories I've heard, it sounds like he would split there heads open. Well we’ve got a big trip ahead of us to the island where my dad is, I’m pretty pumped for it. Later

book 3 of the Odyssey

Today I have found more information on how Telemachus is doing on his journey. Telemachus seems to be more persistent and brave then i could have ever imagined. Telemachus and Mentor arrived in Pylos just in time to see 9 bulls being sacrificed to Poseidon. Although Telemachus is nervous, he finally builds up the courage, with a little encouragement from Mentor, to ask the noble Nestor if he knows where I am. Nestor being the great story teller, told pretty much the entire war. Nestor and I had fought side by side, until he and his crew decided to leave and abandon our king. After that he couldn’t have known where I had gone. Nestor tells my son to continue his journey and travel to Pherai. I am very worried for Telemachus, although he is trying not to lose hope it must be very hard for him. I can tell he is a strong boy just by his desire his strong will, and I think he will find me. Athena also gives him hope, she tells Telemachus of her true identity, and tells him he must go on. If a man loses hope on something it is gone, but if he can hold on to any amount of hope, it will take him a long way.
Sincerely Odysseus

I am still trapped on this dreadful island, and I don’t see myself leaving any time soon. I have no communication with anyone off this island, and I’m getting more worried by the second. Hermes is still giving me day to day recaps of what’s happening at home. I have just learned of Penelopes plan to stall time, she had been unraveling her loom that she promised the suitor; after she was finished with it she would marry. Although it gave her lots of time, these suitors are angrier than ever. I only hope she will be able to hold them off until I get home. My son has just called the first assembly in 19 years; he is preparing to leave for his journey. Before my son allowed the suitors to walk all over him, now for the first time he is starting to stand up to them. When boys are put in difficult times, they either mature and become a man, or quit and give up. I believe Telemakhos will be able to stand up to the challenge and succeed. He has lived an easy life in my home, and now he will truly be tested.
Sincerely, Odysseus

Book 1

After defeating the great city of Troy, I tried to return home to my beloved wife Penelope and my noble son Telemakhos. Along the way I was attacked by every force the sea could throw at me. I can tell that Poseidon is angry at me, and I realize now that it is because I have blinded his son the Cyclops. I have been lost at sea for a long time, but now I am trapped on an island by the goddess kalypso. I don’t know when she is planning on letting me go, but I think it may be a while. The god Hermes has been giving me a play by play on what’s happening at home. I wish there was a way I could contact my family. I am very worried for my wife, because she is getting closer and closer to giving up hope on me, and marrying one of the suitors who she despises. I do not think she will marry one of the suitors for a long time, I think she will try to delay as long as she can. People will wait a lifetime for someone they love. My son must be going crazy with all these suitors in our home treating it as a free buffet and leaving their trash everywhere. I only hope Athena can convince him to agree to her plan. My son must sail to the Sparta and talk to Menelaos, the king of Sparta. Then once the king tells him that I'm alive he will have to come back and wait for me at home. If a year passes since he gets home, then he will have to allow one of the suitors to marry Penelope. Although this journey will be dangerous, especially with Poseidon against him, I think he will prevail. When people are pushed to the limit for a loved one, they can be braver and more courageous then ever.
Sincerly, Odysseus