1. The Odyssey By: Amanda And Brad

2. Basic Overview  Once the Trojan War had ended, Odysseus, ruler of the island kingdom of Ithaca, would return home once again.  But During the Trojan War he angered many gods.  To which arose lots of obstacles on his journey home.

3. Odysseus  Odysseus (called Ulysses in Latin) was the son of Laertes  Was the ruler of the island kingdom of Ithaca.  He was one of the most prominent Greek leaders in the Trojan War.

4. Odysseus  Was the hero of Homer's Odyssey.  He was known for his cleverness and cunning, and for his eloquence as a speaker.

5. Obstacles Odysseus’s return took ten years due to many perils. These perils being:  He freed his men from the pleasure-giving drugs of the Lotus- Eaters  He rescued his crew from the cannibalism of the Cyclops's  Also rescued his crew from the enchantments of Circe, daughter of the sun.  He steered them past the perils of the Sirens and of Scylla and Charybdis  He could not save them from their final folly, however.

6. The Final Folly The crew violated divine commandments by slaughtering and eating the cattle of the sun-god. This obviously angered the Sun god because you don’t go around slaughtering HIS cattle, It’s common sense.

7. Result  As a result of this rash act, Odysseus' ship was destroyed by a thunderbolt, and only Odysseus himself survived.  He came ashore on the island of the nymph Calypso, who made him her lover and refused to let him leave for seven years.

8. Savior?  When Zeus finally intervened, Odysseus sailed away on a small boat, only to be shipwrecked by another storm.  He swam ashore on the island of the Phaeacians, where he was magnificently entertained and then, at long last, escorted home to Ithaca.

9. The Cunning of Odysseus The intelligence and cunning of Odysseus brought him a long way in Greece.  Odysseus was one of the original suitors of Helen of Troy.  When Menelaus succeeded in winning Helen's hand in marriage, it was Odysseus who advised him to get the other suitors to swear to defend his marriage rights.

10. Cunning cont.  However, when Menelaus called on the suitors to help him bring Helen back from Troy, Odysseus was reluctant to make good on his oath.  He pretended to have gone mad, plowing his fields and sowing salt instead of grain.  Palamedes placed Odysseus' infant son in front of the plow, and Odysseus revealed his sanity when he turned aside to avoid injuring the child.

11. Problems in Ithaca  While Odysseus was away, His wife Penelope was under lots of pressure to re-marry. Suitor’s came almost every day to ask her hand. But she stayed faithful to Odysseus until the day he returned.  There were problems in Ithaca as well, however. During Odysseus' twenty-year absence, his wife, Penelope, had remained faithful to him.

12. Odysseus at last  But she was under enormous pressure to remarry. A whole host of suitors were occupying her palace, drinking and eating and behaving insolently to Penelope and her son, Telemachus.  Odysseus arrived at the palace, disguised as a ragged beggar, and observed their behavior and his wife's fidelity.

13. Cont.  With the help of Telemachus and Laertes, he slaughtered the suitors and cleansed the palace.  He then had to fight one final battle, against the outraged relatives of the men he had slain;  Athena intervened to settle this battle, however, and peace was restored.

14. Penelope  Penelope was the daughter of Icarius  A first cousin of Helen of Troy.  She was the wife of Odysseus  Was famous for her cleverness and for her faithfulness to her husband.

15. Penelope’s Delay  When Odysseus failed to return from the Trojan War (he was delayed for ten years on his way home), Penelope was beset by suitors who wanted her to remarry.  In order to delay them, she insisted that she could not remarry until she had finished weaving a shroud for Odysseus' father,Laertes.

16.  At the prompting of Athena, Penelope said that she would marry the man who could string Odysseus' bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axes.  By this time, Odysseus himself had secretly returned, disguised as a beggar; he passed the test of the bow, and then proceeded to slaughter the suitors who had tormented his wife

17. cont.  She worked each day at her loom, and then unraveled the cloth each night. After three years of successful delay, one of her servants revealed her deception, and the impatient suitors angrily demanded that she choose one of them for her husband immediately.

18. Some Gods Involved AthenaAresAphroditeHeraPoseidonZeusApollo Hephaestus Hephaestus

19. Goddess That Made All The Difference: Athena Occupation: Goddess of wisdom, war, war, arts and crafts; Advisor to Zeus

20. Powers of Athena Athena possesses all the conventional powers of the Olympian gods including superhuman strength, and great Wisdom including superhuman strength, and great Wisdom

21. Extra: As the goddess of wisdom, Athena has devoted a great deal of time throughout the centuries to studying and mastering many areas of knowledge including all fields of non- technical science.

22. Athena’s Hobbies Also is quite adept at combat both armed and unarmed is a highly competent military strategist even superior to her half- brother Ares, the god of war. She is a master of the weapons used at the time of ancient Greece and Rome including the sword, spear, and shield.

23. Citations  http://www.pantheon.org/articles/o/odysseus.html http://www.pantheon.org/articles/o/odysseus.html Got all information here Got all information here