Summary

Odysseus and his men returned to Aeaea from the Land of the Dead. They gave Elpenor the proper burial rites, just as Odysseus had promised Elpenor’s spirit. Before they departed the island, Circe warned Odysseus of the dangers to come—the Sirens, the Prowling Rocks, Scylla and Charybdis, and the Sun god Helios’s island—and gave him apt advice.

Approaching the island of Sirens, Odysseus plugged his shipmates’ ears with beeswax. As he had instructed, his shipmates strapped him to the mast of the ship, where he listened to the Sirens’ song while his shipmates rowed on, deaf to the Sirens’ deadly calls.

The men rowed around the Prowling Rocks in order to avoid being crushed between them, and Odysseus then chose to confront the monster Scylla rather than the whirlpool Charybdis. Shrouded by fog in an overhead cavern, Scylla whisked six men from Odysseus’ ship—one for each of her six heads—and devoured them.

Grief-stricken, Odysseus and the other survivors rowed on until they come upon Thrinacia, where the sun god Helios kept his prized cattle. Despite Odysseus’s protestations, his weary shipmates insisted on making port. Odysseus relented but forbade them from touching Helios’s cattle. The men were stranded on the island for over a month for lack of favorable winds. With their stores completely depleted, the starving men slaughtered and feasted on one of the cattle while Odysseus was sleeping. Once they set sail again, Zeus struck their ship with bolt after bolt of lightning until all the men had perished except Odysseus. He washed up on Ogygia, the island of the nymph Calypso, where he spent the next seven years.

Analysis

When Circe instructs Odysseus to let the immortal six-headed Scylla claim six of his men, he professes his desire to stand his ground and fight. Because of this, Circe scolds him and reminds him that there are some battles that cannot be won. Scylla’s abrupt abduction of his shipmates is subsequently described by Odysseus as one of the most heart-wrenching things to happen during his entire journey, as he is forced to do nothing about it, therefore making him feel like an unworthy leader.

This is one of the most significant moments in The Odyssey, as Odysseus displays traits uncharacteristic of the typical classical hero. In dealing with Scylla, Odysseus is forced to temper his “heroic” impulse and stand down. This is something Odysseus does (or is forced to do) repeatedly in The Odyssey, especially after he arrives on Ithaca. Self-control, therefore, is an essential virtue he practices time and time again, separating him from other classical heroes such as Achilles or Heracles, who are typically praised for their direct and aggressive nature.