Scylla and Charybdis

As the Sirens faded, I saw smoke and white water and the men heard a sound and it terrified them. As the men panicked and dropped their oars, I spoke gently and said "Friends, have we never been in danger before this? More fearsome, is it now, than when the Cyclops penned us in his cave? What power he had! Did I not keep my nerve, and use my wits to find a way out for us?" The men then knew I would keep us out of trouble. They had faith in me. But as I sent them on toward Scylla, I didn't tell them anything, because I knew they would panic. They would have dropped their oars again. So I took up two heavy spears and made my way along the deck of the ship, looking for the sea monster, thinking I'd see her for the first time here. I strained my eyes but nowhere could I catch sight of her. And then she vomited, all the sea was like a cauldron seething over intense fire, when the mixture suddenly heaves and rises. The waves and white water were all around and it fell like rain. When she swallowed the sea water down we saw the funnel of the storm and heard the rocks all around. My men, by then, were in a panic. And that is when Scylla made her strike, taking out six of my best men from the ship. She ate them as they shrieked my name. I suffered as I watched them. But, we rowed on, my men in sorrow, and in doubt. We traveled on. My my didn't know what was yet to come, and I awaited the evils to show... 

The Sirens

          When we return to Circe's island, the goddess reveals our course to us and gives us advice on how to avoid the dangers we will face. She warns us of the sirens that lure sailors to their destruction, and the wandering rocks that even destroy sea birds in flight, the perils of the sea monster Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis. She warns that we should not eat the cattle of the sun god, which Tiresias has warned us of also.
          As soon as Circe stoped speaking, my men and I headed straight for our ships. The men ran to their places and soon we were on the sea. I spoke to my men of what Circe had told me and the first peril on our course were the sirens. I then spoke to the men and told them to listen careful as I put then wax on their ears so they did not hear the songs that the sirens were surely to sing. I then had them tie me up tight as a splint, and we set out, quick as lightning. As the men rowed, I bare witness to the songs that the Sirens were begining to sing. As I listened to their beautiful voices trying to lure me to death, I was soon begging the men to let me go and untie me. But they bent seady to the oars. So on we rowed until the Sirens dropped under the sea rim, and their singing faded away. We got through our first obstacle, but there were many more to come. I wondered if my men would make it out alive and the thought chilled me to the bone...

The Land of the Dead Continued...

As we bore down on the ship at the sea's edge and launched her on the salt immortal sea we were very cautious. By night our ship ran onward toward the ocean, the region of the Men of Winter. We went to the land that Circe foretold us to go to and planed to sacraficed the ram and ewe ashore. We sacrificed our animals with sweet wine, clear water, honey, and milk. The souls gathered as the black blood streamed into the wellpit, but I commanded my officers to flay the sheep and then came Elpenor, dead in Circes hall. I wept for pity as I spoke to him. He then told me of how he had come to fall off of Circes' roof and died. He told us to have him a proper burrial and that it would all work out. Then came the soul of Anticlea, my mother. As I morned her, I held off for the presence of Tiresias. He came forward. He told me my future and what was to come. He told me of the Sirens and also the Cattle of the Son Gods. He warned me that if my men feasted off of the cattle that they all would parish and I would remain, and as I would reach home, strang men would be in my house, they would eat my livestock as they court my lady, and after I would have delt out death to all the suitors. I would find land where men have ate meat unsalted and never seen seagoing ships and I shall make sacrifice to Lord Poseidon and take a seaborne death in old age. And all this shall be jus as he fortold...

The Land of the Dead

My men and I sailed to Aeolia where the king of the winds sent us on our way with a gift: a sack containing all the winds except the favorable west wind. When we were near home, my men opend the sack, letting lose a storm that drove us back to Aeolia. Aeolus cast us out, having decided that we were detested by the gods. We then sailed for seven days and arrived in the land of the Laestrygonians, a race of cannibals. These creatures destroyed all of our ships except the one we were sailing in. My reduced crew and I escaped and reached Aeaea, the island ruled by the sorceress-goddess Circe. She transformed half of my men into swine. Protected by a magic herb, I then demanded that Circe change my men back into human form. Before we departed from the island a year later, Circe told us that in order to reach home we must journey to the Land of the Dead, speak to Hades, and consult the blind prophet Tiresias.

The Cyclops

Next, the ship came to an island of the Cyclops. We then went to a cave of the Cyclops’s and waited for him, hoping he would give us many gifts for our many troubles. Instead, when the Cyclops returned home, he refused to offer us anything and stated he was not afraid of Zeus. The Cyclops kept me and my little group of men prisoners. He ate and tortured my men. I came up with a plan to escape. I gave the Cyclops a dark drink of wine and and told him that it was a gift from me and my men. The Cyclops drank it and requested more. He got very drunk and we stabbed the Cyclops in the eye with a large branch that we had sharpened into a point. The Cyclops was angry and us not being fools, hid. I then thought of another plan to escape from the cave. I tied my men underneath the Cyclops’ sheep because I knew that the sheep were let out of the cave to graze in the field. We then escaped out of the cave and stole the sheep. When we got to the ship I was very happy with myself for the accomplishment of our escape. On the ship, as we began to leave, I yelled to the Cyclops. I yelled that we had escaped and that he was a fool. The Cyclops was angry, so he picked up large rocks and threw them at the ship. So I shouted at the Cyclops and told him my name. The Cyclops was shocked because he remembered that a wizard once had told him that he would lose his eye to a man named Odysseus. He yelled at me to come back. I refused for this was a trick, so the Cyclops prayed to his father, Poseidon, and asked that I lose all my men and never return home. The god heard him and granted his prayers. We set out once more on to the dark sea that has brought us many hardships...

The Lotus-Eaters

Within the next days, our god, Zeus, had created a storm that raged for days. The current carried us out to sea, we drifted for nine days, on the tenth day we came to the coastline of the Lotus-Eaters. The Lotus was a flower that the people of the land lived on. I sent out two of my best men and a runner to search the land, but late that night they did not return. I had come to find out that the men had eaten the Lotus and had lost their desire to reach home. They Careless in their worry-free state I went and brought them back and tied them to the ship for when the flowers wore off they would soon realize their need to reach their loved ones.  I then warned the others to not eat the flowers for if they wanted to reach home they must stay focused.  We set out yet again to sail. With the few men that we had left, I was not sure we could survive the journey home...

Sailing From Troy

My men and I have been trying to sail foward to our homelands. This journey we have been on seems never-ending. Lastnight a great storm carried us to the coast of Ismarus, where we stormed the place and killed the men. My men, in their joy of victory, had been drinking the dark drink of wine and were to drunk to respond when I ordered to get back on the ship. Fugitives of the land that were called by the army came and killed many of us. The few remaning men got on the ship and started again on our way home. We started sailing, but yet something still urked me....