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Δημοτική Κοινότητα Ιάσμου, Ίασμος 692 00, Greece

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“Land ahead!” The navigator cried as he glanced up at the horizon. Thanks to Odysseus’s expert navigation, they knew they were approaching Ismarus, the land of the Cicones. They planned to attack this city to gather supplies for their upcoming journey homewards.

They ransacked the city completely, slaughtering all the men and pilaging the loot with murderous smiles on their faces. When the strong warriors of the neighboring city were marching towards them, the Greeks were overwhelmed by greed and pride. Even though this army was much stronger, they believed that this fight would end in victory with even more reward. They were destroyed by the skilled fighters of Ismarus, and those who did not lose their lives barely escaped with them along with many injuries.

Odysseus warned his men against their actions, and wanted to return back to the ships but was denied by the headstrong soldiers that surrounded him. They lost only about fifteen men from each ship which was a relatively small number, but every survivor suffered terrible wounds. While attempting to escape their gruesome fate, the men with the worst wounds cried out in agony as others attempted to aid them. Distracted by their wounds, they rowed away in confusion, and the demoralized crew failed to notice their ship being caught in a strong current and pulled far out of their route as a storm began to form above them. The boat was tossed around, and the bloody, battered fighters did not have the strength within them to even attempt to steer the boat. As their strength returned, they struggled to control their direction, but they were tugged around by the fierce wind and uncontrollable currents for nine days.

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As the men ended up on a faraway island, beaten and bloody, they welcomed the smell drifting through the air towards their boat over the hill in front of them. An aroma so sweet and fruity, the men’s mouths already began to water in anticipation.

“Let’s get off these wretched boats,” one man cried in contempt.

“First,” Odysseus responded thoughtfully, “Let’s eat some food, and then we shall investigate who lives over this hill and what food they can give us.”

The men grunted in agreement, as words required too much energy for their weary souls. And after food was prepared and eaten, three men were chosen to run ahead of the group and gather supplies. When these men approached the lands of the friendly Lotophagi tribes, they happily received the blue water lily of Egypt which relieved their stress and lack of sleep to the extent that they did not feel the need to return to the ships.

Odysseus saw his men vanish over the hills, and after waiting for what seemed like an eternity, no runner came back towards them. Apprehensive without anyone watching over him, he assumed these men had found trouble, which he could not risk encountering, so the ships set sail for further unknowns, forced to leave their missing friends behind, fearful of what held them back.

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95016 Mascali, Metropolitan city of Catania, Italy

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Odysseus and his crew finally came upon an island with sandy beaches and a distant, snow-capped mountain. After they pulled onto the shore, many scoured the land to find food and eventually came upon a small cave. As Odysseus ventured inward, he found the cavern to be empty, but as he looked up, he observed an odd skull, large and ancient with a single eye socket in the middle of the face. Unbeknownst to him, this was a dwarf elephant skull he saw.

“Odysseus, over here,”

The call from one of his crew pulled Odysseus out of his thoughts, bringing him back to reality. The men explained that they had harvested the few edible plants they recognized, and they had discovered some wild boars hiding in the treeline in front of them. Odysseus, relying on his intellect, quickly devised a plan to capture as many boars as they could for their difficult journey home. He decided to build a pit covered with branches which could entrap the fast wild boars as they ran over it and fell into the ditch.

The crew admired Odysseus for his quick thinking, but occasionally, they became angry at him while on these long journeys since they saw their misfortune as the result of Odysseus’s poor navigation decisions and pride. Therefore, quick thinking in minor situations, such as this, was essential to preventing mutiny.

After capturing as many wild boars as possible, they made their way back to the ships to set off in hopes of returning home, however their arrogance in their spoils left everyone on board drunk with bliss, sleepy with full stomachs, and forgetful of the navigation skills necessary to travel to Ithaca.

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Lipari, Metropolitan City of Messina, Italy

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The Greeks arrived at the Aeolian islands with beautiful green cliffs and mountains overlooking the blue sea. Odysseus was certain this would be a happy place to rest.

As they came ashore, they were welcomed by the Aeolian people, a tribe that had migrated from Greece themselves and were therefore kind to Grecian voyagers. This amiable but wary group spoke the Aeolic dialect of Greek, so they could easily converse with their new guests.

After hearing of their daring adventures of Troy and of their present unintentional wanderings, the Aeolians allowed them to rest in their villages until they were in good health, and Odysseus, desperate to reach home, allowed them to rest for a month before climbing back into the boat and leaving once more. The men who also craved for the familiar warmth of home willingly obliged with little to no fight. With help from the local knowledge of the sea, the crew was careful with their travel plans.

Once offshore, they felt a slight shaking that steadily increased. The underwater earthquake began to distress everyone on board. Forgetting their posts and the urgency of their mission, the ship sped in the exact opposite direction from where they had intended to go.

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In the distance, Odysseus saw a green blur on the horizon and frantically ordered the men on the starboard side to row faster, and eventually the port side joined in to power full speed ahead toward any sign of life.

Tired, they collectively breathed out a sigh of relief to be back on land. They began to survey their new surroundings which included a peninsula with a slight hill and steep cliff walls. When they looked closer, about half a dozen strange, eight foot tall statues with disconcerting eyes towered over their surroundings in the middle of this hill. They were so entranced by this sight that they did not notice a landslide beginning right above them, and before they knew it, large rocks came hurtling down towards the ships.

“ROW!!!” Odysseus yelled, attempting to maintain his composure as much as he could.

They fervently tugged on the oars with hopes of reaching a familiar land. As the rocks came crashing down around them, the boat rocked and shook causing any standing men to stumble or fall down. Odysseus firmly gripped the two rudder oars at the back of the boat and, gritting his teeth, analyzed the best way out of their situation.

Although Odysseus expertly navigated his ship away from the dangers, the other eleven boats were lost to the depths in the confusion.

Once they left the land of rocks falling from the heavens, he exhaled in exhaustion and formed a plan: he would stay close to shore for as long as possible. He would continue this strategy for a long while until it became unnecessary. So, they went up the coast of Sardinia, across to Italy, then south to find the next place to beach for rest and secure supplies.

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File:Età nuragica, giganti di monte prama, xiii-ix secolo ac ca., da cabras, pugilatore 19, 02.jpg - Wikipedia

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04017 San Felice Circeo, Province of Latina, Italy

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After travelling with fear of landing and finding yet another dangerous land, the Greeks finally landed at an island for much needed recuperation, but after the horrors of their recent journeys, no one felt the need to explore. That is, other than Odysseus.

Despite his pride, Odysseus was well aware of the growing doubt his men had in him, so to prove his worth as their leader and captain, he investigated the new coastline himself with his spear. After scouring the earth for hours, he came across a stag large enough to feed the whole crew, but as he lugged it back, he glimpsed a grey tint in the sky. Through further observation, there was smoke rising from a dark wooded dwelling.

Odysseus was hesitant to discover more about this place because of their previous luck, so after returning to the ship with the food he acquired, he brought up the house and the idea of drawing lots for those who should go, so it was fair. They grumbled and moaned, but as their throats began to parch and their legs began to wobble, this dreadful quest was deemed necessary.

Wily Odysseus did not want to face these threats himself, so after putting everyone’s names in his helmet, he made a big show of putting his own name in as well, but in reality, the slight piece of papyrus was dropped behind the headpiece, lodged between the helmet and his torso. Once the twenty-two names were called, Odysseus spoke encouraging words as they adorned their armor, preparing for the myseries ahead.

“Go on, brave soldiers,” Odysseus called after them, “Be smart yet unafraid.”

“Of course, captain,” a sailor hollered back sarcastically.

Circe saw the armor-clad men marching towards her doors. She had prepared for these situations by growing jimson weed in her garden, so she rushed to her plants to pick the perfect pieces for her soon-to-be attackers. This plant caused its victims to lose their memory and hallocuniate.

Odysseus’s men approached the front door of the mysterious cabin but right before they knocked. One of the men, Eurylochus, suspected that this instance would be just like the ones before and elected to stay outside, watch for any threats, and report back for help. They all agreed to his plan and allowed him to hide at the side of the door as they entered.

Before the first in line could form a fist to knock, the large door, however, flew open with the beautiful Circe standing in the entryway, welcoming her new guests. She brought them in and escorted them to her dining room where she explained that she will continue the dinner preparations.

Once she left, the soldiers glanced at each other with huge smiles on their faces, which seemed to say “Wow, this definitely is not like the previous islands we have come across" or “I thought I was walking to my death, not walking to dinner.” Little did they know, Circe was preparing their dinner with the dangerous jimson weed.

“Okay, here we go!” Circe exclaimed as she carried the spiked stew towards the eager men. Once she set it down, they greedily reached for their scoop to quench their hunger. When the men swallowed the food, the Datura stramonium started to take effect.

Their minds began to blur and imagine things that weren’t there. The deadly drug caused the brave warriors to hallucinate and act strangely. As the delirious men stumbled around idiotically, Circe began to laugh. Her laugh confused and terrified her deranged prey, and they began to run on all fours away from the terrifying noise.

Eurylochus, looking through the window, was horrified by the sight of his shipmates being demeaned by such a slight sip of the stew. He sprinted back to Odysseus for help.

“SIR!! The devil lives here! We must leave right now!” Eurylochus shouted as he ran down the hill to the beach.

“Calm yourself and tell me what happened,” Odysseus responded. Eurylochus did so and was determined to leave right then and there and prevent the loss of more men, but Odysseus had lost so many men already that he knew he had to go back for those so loyal to him.

“No!” Odysseus interrupted Eurylochus’s ramblings with a yell, “We must do our utmost to get our fellow men back. She’s by herself you say? Well, we have the number advantage, so let’s do right by them!”

The men were uplifted by these words, but Eurylochus continued his worried prattling, so Odysseus reassured him by explaining, “Don’t worry, you will stay behind and watch over the ship.”

All gathered weapons but hid them to not alert Circe of any risk and left for the despicable dangers ahead. Eurylochus explained that they had only behaved strangely after they had eated Circe’s food, so Odysseus simply wasn’t going to eat it.

When they reached the door, they knocked and, almost immediately, Circe opened the door in the same manner as before, welcoming them into her home. As she led them to the dining room, Odysseus glimpsed one of his delirious men in another room and signaled to his comrades to unsheathe their weapons and attack Circe.

“Release them!” He shouted at her, clutching her shoulder firmly in his left hand and holding his sword to her torso with his right. She was so shocked by the turn of events and so terrified by the monstrous men that she gave up her knowledge.

“They will be free from the drug in one day! Please do not hurt me! I was just scared of what they would do to me!” She screamed with her eyes shut tightly and her head turned away from the ghastly scene.

Odysseus was very satisfied by her answer, so the men spent the next twenty-four hours taking advantage of Circe’s forced hospitality, only drinking or eating things she ate herself. After the appropriate time, the intoxicated prey returned to normal, and the men took their leave, but before all had departed, Odysseus questioned Circe about the journey ahead, but she was determined to put them out to sea as revenge, so she exaggerated everything.

“Before you are two dangers. There is an island where mysterious and magical women sing enchanting songs to lure you to your death, and after, in order to get through a strait, you must go between a terribly deadly whirlpool which will suck you to the depths and a rocky shallows which will tear your boat apart. You must take precautions to survive.”

After her eerie words, Odysseus and his men arrived back at the ship and set off to face these daunting perils.

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After the Greeks had been sailing for a few hours, an island emerged from the horizon. As the island looming in the distance approached, Odysseus prepped his men by explaining to them what Circe had told him. Although he did not expect any real danger, he did not want them to get distracted by what these enchanting women might offer if they even existed. As they inched closer, sure enough, a beautiful tune wafted through the air toward them.

It was a haunting melody full of memory and mystery, drawing them in and causing them to want more knowledge of the strange music. The lyrics told the story of Troy and the world around them, and although these stories were famous for bards, Odysseus still found it eerie that these women knew of their past. The songs were not magical and would not literally cause you harm, but it gave all the men aboard an unsettling feeling. Odysseus, sensing their discomfort, urged them aloud.

“Row, men!” He ordered, “Do not let these simple tunes distract you from your duty and your mission. Row!”

His instructions opposed his own thoughts, and he stared at the beaches of this island as they passed. The songs were sung by beautiful women, and he, as a king and worldly man, recognized these women as the Hetaira, high-class courtesans of Greece. They were masters of the arts and the mind who usually lived by themselves or with other Hetaira like what he was seeing in that moment. Struck by this recollection, he surmised that their knowledge of the Trojan war likely originated from someone he and his men fought alongside, and he contemplated how their two situations must be so incredibly different.

Odysseus remained occupied by these thoughts as they propelled the ship away from the peculiar songs.

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Scilla, Italy (Scylla) & Garofalo (Charybdis)

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Scilla, Italy (Scylla) & Garofalo (Charybdis)

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They approached the dreaded strait of Messina with fear in Odysseus’s eyes. He did not tell his men exactly what Circe had described, but instead, he had simply stated that sailing through the strait would be tricky. In the distance, a large rocky cliff loomed, and Odysseus, sensing that this was the rocky shoals Circe had warned him about, instructed the rowers on the starboard side to ease up while he urged the rudder to move them farther from shore to avoid the possible deadly shallows.

But as he believed they were safe, he recalled that Circe had also warned him about a whirlpool. He frantically searched the open waters for a sign of a maelstrom. Suddenly, the boat lurched forwards as it was tugged into a current, but as the men rowed more intensely, their large ship was no longer affected by its pull. Odysseus realized that if they were in a smaller boat with less oarsmen, the effects of the whirlpool could have been deadly.

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All the men began to beg for a rest from Odysseus, but Odysseus, determined to get home and wary of any further threats, initially denied their request, but eventually, however, he was persuaded to rest for a few hours on the nearby island. This persuasion, though, was more about preventing a mutiny than giving his men rest although he cared about their well-being. He had to be very careful about his leadership as he was simply a man among men without any divine blessings.

They approached the first island which came into view. Odysseus was wary of many mainlands as whoever’s home they dropped into could call for help from surrounding areas just like the Cicones, but small islands did not have this risk.

Once grounded, the men spotted cattle in the distance and became excited to have the fresh meat. Although Odysseus, after the previous troubles, grew concerned of the consequences, he too was hungry for the meat. The mariners spoiled themselves with a large feast on the sandy shores with the fresh meat and the herbs and spices they had acquired at Circe’s island. After their hunger had been satisfied, they leapt back onto the ships and continued to make their way around the Mediterranean.

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On the horizon before them, a small speck of green turned into a large smudge which finally transformed into the beautiful island of Malta, an incredibly developed and cultured land of Phoenician traders and sailors. These harbors served as trading outposts in the Mediterranean with many constantly coming and going. Here, the ship acquired experienced navigators and sailors familiar with their surrounding seas to fill the places of those they had lost on their journey. The men also enjoyed a delicious meal, slept in warm beds on land, and collected supplies for the next trek.

Although Odysseus and his crew easily could have returned to Ithaca, Odysseus was wary of what might be happening when he returned. He had been gone for a long thirteen years, and a lot can happen in that time. Instead, he decided to chart a course for the island of the Phaeacians, a prosperous civilization always friendly to travellers. Their island was just north of Ithaca, so once they reached his homeland, they would not be hindered by the effects of the long journey from Malta. So, they set sail with little difficulty to Scheria.

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Just as the clever Odysseus had anticipated, the friendly Phaeacians welcomed Odysseus and his crew, both Ithacan and Phoenician. They had graciously welcomed the visitor and also offered delicious food and warm beds. All they wanted in return was to hear of the tale of how they had arrived and their intentions. Odysseus obliged and launched into their heroic story of Troy, the woeful tale of unending voyaging in a threatening world, and their peaceful intent of returning home to Ithaca.

The Phaeacians were pleased to hear Odysseus’s talent of storytelling in person and were his perfect audience. They immediately extended a hand of assistance by giving new weapons, and Odysseus humbly accepted. At last, they set sail to Ithaca-a place where most had forgotten that Odysseus was king.

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Odysseus sent a scout ahead of everyone: one of his crew in disguise to ask around concerning Penelope and Telemachus. Horrified by the grotesque report that the suitors of his wife were living in his house and greedily taking his belongings, He devised a plan: Odysseus along with two others would disguise themselves as bards to sneak into his palace, and while all were distracted, Odysseus would sneak around the house he knew so well to unlock the front gate, letting in the rest of the men. They would attack the unsuspecting dispicable scum and take back his palace.

Their plan was executed exactly as planned. Odysseus was disgusted by these vile suitors who dared to dishonor him by stealing his life. After he had taken control over his own castle, all joined together to fix any issues in the households of the crew as well as honor those they had lost. He joyfully reunited with his beloved wife, son, and father. He was determined to never leave her again.

All on Ithaca returned to its natural order, and every man lived in peace. The Phoenician soldiers he had hired were escorted by an Ithacan ship back to their country.