Odyssey is a Greek epic poem in twenty-four songs, attributed to Homer, which is attached, as the Iliad, to the cycle of the Trojan War.The Odyssey is dedicated to the return of Odysseus,or Ulysses, who for ten years, faces many dangers on land and sea before joining his kingdom of Ithaca. In the Iliad, the poet had concentrated action of the Trojan War in the four-day crisis caused by the wrath of Achilles. The same thing in the Odyssey, he focuses on these last days of the trip of Ulysses which constitute the central part of the poem, and the events of the previous decade are mentioned only by backtracking. Far from linear, in fact, the action of the Odyssey has a complex structure. It is possible to distinguish several parties in this saga, which has led some to suggest that various authors had composed the Odyssey (Not only Homer)
The Télémachie (songs I-IV):
Telemachus - son of Ulysses - on the advice of Athena, Ithaca leaves occupied by the suitors of his mother Penelope, and for news of his father, went successively to the king Pylos Nestor and Menelaus in Sparta .This section recalls the last navigation of Ulysses, who decides to leave the nymph Calypso to return to Ithaca. After eighteen days of sailing, he faces a terrible storm sent by Poseidon, who throws it on the side of the Phaeacians. Nausicaa, the daughter of the king of the country is wrecked and the back in the palace of his father, who generously welcomes Odysseus. During a banquet given in his honor, the hero hears a bad sing the episodes of the Trojan War. Unable to hide his emotion longer his identity, he says he is preparing to Odysseus and his adventures. The wanderings of the hero lead successively in Lotus Eaters, the Cyclops, the Lestrygons cannibals, the sorceress Circe transforms Odysseus' companions into pigs, the underworld, in the Sea of Sirens, finally in the nymph Calypso, who holds in her island for seven years.
Penelope and Odysseus:
After this flashback, the action takes Odyssey: XIV to XVI songs evoke the return of Ulysses to Ithaca. Disguised as a beggar, he went to his swineherd Eumaeus the old and finds Telemachus back to Sparta. The father and son while preparing to hunt Ithaca suitors.
The final episode of the Odyssey Begins (songs XVII-XXIV): still disguised as a beggar, Odysseus arrives at the palace where no one recognizes him, except his dog and his old nurse Eurycleia. He suffered the insults of the suitors, but when Penelope pretends to want to marry the man who will be able to use the bow of Odysseus, he makes himself known, killing the suitors. The epic ends with the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope.
An adventure novel:
The Odyssey is as an adventure story involving his hero in fabulous country. The terrifying episodes alternate with wonderful adventures, and Ulysses has only his intelligence and cunning to escape the cruelty of the Cyclops Polyphemus or dangerous seductions of Circe. These mysterious lands in which modern historians have recognized various Mediterranean countries, in fact, represent the steps of a journey. The Odyssey is an epic, heroic warrior and not like the Iliad, but human. There is only one character, Odysseus, both faithful and inconstant, whose character is steeped in its struggle against adversity and natural forces. The simplicity of the narrative, the variety and psychological truth of the episodic characters highlight this individual adventure and eternal.
ICONOGRAPHY:
Since ancient times, the episodes of Ulysses' voyage appear on painted vases (Polyphemus devouring the companions of Ulysses, hydria Tyrrhenian Louvre) and murals (the Arrival of Ulysses in Lestrygons and Attack Lestrygons, Vatican). Since the Renaissance, Western painters have taken up these themes: Rubens (Ulysses in the island of the Phaeacians, Florence), P. Tibaldi (scenes from the Odyssey decorating the palace Poggi in Rome), Turner (Ulysses deriding Polyphemus, London).
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