Ἰθακήσιοι

As Odysseus said to the Phaeacians, Ithaca is a harsh island with low coasts situated at the edge of a jumbled archipelago and which stretches outward to a dark West. At the center of the island a moun- tain rises up, Neriton, covered in woods with murmuring leaves and easily visible to far off sailors. Finally home after all his maritime travails, he sunk his hands into the soil of his birth which for him “he had seen nothing more sweet.

” It was here that a shepherd—in reality Athena—told him that his palace had fallen into the hands of suitors and that if he wanted to retake that which had been stolen from him he would have to apply his cunning by wandering the island in disguise and re-enter his house through deception, then finally kill the suitors with treachery. Next, Odysseus hides his gifts in a cave and, transformed into a beggar by the goddess, takes the road through the forest. Thus begins longest and most meaningful episode of Odysseus which will take him th- rough his kingdom in rags as he enters the smoky huts of swine- herds, traverses dewy woods and fields, and finally apply his full range of skill for deception and cunning to carry out revenge in his own home.

In this Ancient Greek course we will explore books XIII-XXIV of the Odyssey, the longest section of the poem. If the preceding section (books IX-XII) enchants the reader with the exotic, the divine, and the monstrous in its places and imagery, this section of the poem captivates through the narrative tension that prevails through the vivid- ness with which it immerses the reader into the ancient Greek world with its paths, vines, and the hearths of shepherds and nobles. We will discover this stony, low lying, and westward gazing island by following the footsteps of Odysseus as a beggar.

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