The Odyssey Book Ten: The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea

Dcn. Garlick flies solo to explore the depths of BOOK TEN of the Odyssey: The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea.

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From the guide:

53.      What happens in book ten? 

Odysseus and his men come to the floating island of King Aeolus[1] who Zeus had made the “master of all the winds” (10.24). After hosting them for a month, King Aeolus stuffed all the winds into a bag, except a favorable west wind, and gave it to Odysseus (10.29). Leaving the island, they sailed for nine days until they came so close to Ithaca they could see men “tending fires” on the shore (10.34). Odysseus’ men, however, open the bag of winds, causing a maelstrom, blowing them all the way back to King Aeolus’ island (10.66). The king rejects them as cursed by the gods (10.79), and Odysseus and his fleet sail to the island of the Laestrygonians (10.89). There, Odysseus’ entire fleet, save his own ship, is lost in a surprise attack by the man-eating inhabitants of the island (10.132).

Odysseus’ lone ship comes upon a new island, and Odysseus’ men find a hall and hear a woman singing inside (10.242). The woman is Circe, a goddess, who welcomes all the men to a feast and then changes them into pigs (10.253). Eurylochus, the only one to not go into the hall, runs back and tells Odysseus (10.269). Odysseus sets off to the hall, but along the way runs into Hermes, the messenger god, who tells him how to overcome Circe’s spells (10.305). Odysseus obeys, and Circe is made to swear an oath she will not harm Odysseus (10.380). Odysseus’ men are restored, younger and more handsome (10.436). They remain guests of Circe’s house for a year until Odysseus’ men remind him of his journey home (10.520). The book ends with Circe telling Odysseus he must travel to the house of death and speak to the prophet Tiresias (10.540).

54.      What is the relationship between Odysseus and his men after the Cyclops affair?

The narrative of King Aeolus and the bag of winds reveals the lack of trust festering between Odysseus and his men. Note that Odysseus will not trust the ship to any of his crew (10.37), and the crew assumes Odysseus is withholding treasure from them (10.40). Moreover, after the loss of the fleet in the Laestrygonian cove, the spiritedness of the crew, their thumos, is broken. When Odysseus orders his men to scout the hall on what we know to be Circe’s island (10.170), the “message broke their spirits” and they weep (10.217). We see this particularly with Eurylochus, who, when reporting back to Odysseus that Circe has turned the men to pigs, pleads with Odysseus to abandon the men and leave the island (10.289). It worth noting that Odysseus himself was tempted to allow his spirit to break, as after the incident with the winds he had to overcome the temptation of suicide (10.55).

Later, when Odysseus has made a truce with Circe, Eurylochus has a “mutinous outburst” in which he states that Odysseus is to blame for the men eaten by the Cyclops (10.480). It makes explicit the tension throughout book ten. Odysseus is inclined to kill the man but is tempered by his men (10.483). The antagonisms between Odysseus and his remaining crew will continue as a predominant theme throughout the end of Odysseus’ recounting of his story in book twelve.

[1] King Aeolus was “a mortal, king of the floating island of Aeolia and friend of the gods, to whom Zeus gave the custodianship of the winds.” In later mythology, “he was thought of as the god of the winds.” Companion, 14.