Reading The Odyssey (continued)
Topics: Reading, High School
Sorry, not yet - Odysseus, now armed with his trusty bow turns to the unarmed suitors and slaughters, with the help of Telemachus, each and every one of them. Finally, drenched in blood, the happy family enjoys a loving reunion.
- Artifice - Deception; trickery
- Melee - A confused struggle
- Skirmish - A minor battle
- Vehemence - Violence, forcefulness
- Flagrant - Clearly wrong
The next morning over bacon and eggs, Odysseus suggests that they may want to lay low for awhile as they have just slaughtered the son of every noble family in the country. There is bound to be some hurt feelings. They journey to the home of Laertes, Odysseus’s father, and after the old disguised-as-a-beggar trick, father and son have time to exchange a hearty handshake, before the knock at the door.
The families of the suitors have tracked Odysseus down, and they demand vengeance, or at least a really good explanation for the cruel murders of their sons. Just in the nick of time, Athena arrives and decides that this story has become way too violent. So she gives each member of the families a memory wipe. They forget the whole messy business … and there was much rejoicing.
Jessica Buck has been both a teacher and Department Head of English at the middle and high school level. She is happily married and currently taking on her greatest teaching challenge, raising their one-year-old daughter.
Comments from readers