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A wonderful collection of short stories not just set in Belfast, but indeed organically OF Belfast.

Book XXI sees Odysseus win the challenge Penelope has set with the bow and the axes, setting the stage for Book XXII where both Odysseus and Telemachus lay waste to the suitors with bloodthirsty thoroughness. A couple innocents get saved, the rest perish.

Then, the slave girls who slept with the suitors are compelled to clean up the mess before they get hanged by Telemachus for their treachery.

In book XIX, Telemachus and Odysseus have hidden the arms and set the stage for the archery contest Penelope will propose.

At the end of Book XVIII, Odysseus has come to his palace and bested one beggar, Irus. The slave Melantho, mistress of the suitor Eurymachus, and she’s boldened to insult Odysseus.

You can feel the tension mounting.

Whew, what a whirlwind! Odysseus has reunited with Telemachus, and together they scheme to recover Ithaca’s palace, but slowly. There’s an interesting itinerant prophet whom we keep seeing,, but I don’t know what he will end up doing. All I know for sure is a can of whup-ass awaits the suitors, and I can’t wait!

Odysseys cloaks his story in lies to gain his former slave eumaeus’ trust. His efforts mostly work, but the slave refuses to believe Odysseus is ever coming back home

I have skipped many chapters since I last posted an update. Odysseus’s has been to hades, has chatted with tiriesias, and then ventured between Scylla and Charybdis.

On the island of the sun king, his men violated their oath and slew Helios’ cows, an offense they paid for with their lives. That brought him to calypso, and finally the phaecians whom he had told his tale of woe. Athena guides him to Ithaca.

Neglected the page number in my Book XIX notes

Book XIX: this one was a real humdinger, covering the encounter with Poseidon’s son the cyclops Polyphemus. It’s not a spoiler to opine Odysseus really deserves all the misery that’s served up to him, given his hubris and obnoxious taunting of the cyclops.

Book VIII: after great food, poetry and a decent night sleep, Odysseus meets with phaecian leaders and awatches the dancing and the games. After the dancing, which he admires extravagantly, his tears during the bard’s take of Troy tips Alcinous that the story hits close to home for his unnamed visitor. He begs the stranger to tell his name and life stories, as well as clarify why the story hits so close to home.

Book VII : clearly Odysseus needed a spell among the Phaecians to remember how to behave in polite society. I think he does to sleep thinking his trip home is almost done. Ha ha.

Book V: after Calypso releases Odysseus and helps him fashion a raft, he makes his way home, but it’s never easy, because Poseidon lashes out at him. Is it because of something Odysseus has done, or has not done enough of? Or is Poseidon simply angry that Zeus assists Odysseus?

Whichever the case, he makes it to Phaecia with the goddess Ino’s help.

In Book IV, Telemachus ventures to menelaius’ palace while the suitors back at home plot to kill him. Nonetheless, Athena’s looking after him.

At the end of book three, the gods have decided something needs to shift in the palace of Ithaca.

Odysseus’ son Telemachus is outmatched by the suitors, so he takes Athena’s advice and fails to Pylos. Nestor is kind and gracious, and tells him what he knows about the splitting forces after Troy fell, and then sends him on to Sparta to speak with menelaus.

This is quite a compelling read. Weaving class struggles, WWI trauma, and the titanic together requires a touch of deft writing, and it’s all here.

Reading the notes at the end of the Iliad while I also read the introduction to the odyssey. The notes have more traditional synopses for each book, as well as linguistic and etymological clarifications of specific lines.

The battle between cu chulainn and Fer Dias is as exhilarating as it is heartbreaking.

The thing about this book, much like the Illiad, is that our understanding of the geography, the dynasties, and the people and things the royals own, all stems from the litanies recited. Whether it’s a poetic device which helps recitation, a tribute to the royals who listened, or another aspect of epic verse, these litanies are constant and very significant.

Cu chilainn’s sense of FairPlay is a bit …arbitrary and capricious. One minute he says he doesn’t kill charioteers, and a minute later…

Book XXIV, time to Mourn, closes out the Illiad and details the ransom of hector’s body from Achilles. Hermes plays a greater role in these last few pages, but what astonishes me is how plight and cooperative Achilles proves — both to the Gods and to Priam, who comes to ransom his son. Imagine if he had listened to reason some time before? Remember, the Greeks had sat there for a decade before this.

Book XXIII, funeral games, feature films he races (chariot and foot), the wrestling, archery, and boxing competitions Achilles organizes in the memory of Patroclus. The chariot race was my favorite, but I didn’t like the archery competitions Achilles organizes because of the slain dove.

Book XXII, a race to death, describes the death of Hector with Athena’s shameless deceit of him in the form of one he trusts, who urges him to face Achilles straightforwardly. And then, after the Greeks desecrate his corpse, Achilles ties him feet first to the chariot and drags him around the walls of Troy. Andromache’s discovery of Hector’sp death is appropriately heartbreaking.

Book XXI, the rider, details the disgust a rider his expresses at Achilles’ wanton slaughter of Trojans and the pollution of the river with the bodies and blood Achilles spills. In response, the river rises up and tries to overwhelm Achilles before he reaches the gates of Troy. Alas, there are other gods supporting Achilles and the river god’s efforts get thwarted by Hephaestus at his mother Hera’s bidding

In book XIX, a meal before dying, all the Greeks save Achilles dine before battle Achilles swears he can not eat, and Athena gives him nectar and ambrosia to sustain him.

In Book XX, the warrior’s return, Achilles takes to the battlefield in search of Hector. His bloodlust approaches berserker levels of gore, but Apollo prevents him from killing Aeneas. Zeus has encouraged all the gods to join the battle.

Book XVIII, Divine Armor, related the exquisite detail that Hephaestus adorns the shield he makes for Achilles in response to Thetis’ plea.

I neglected to mention my surprise when the Greeks bring the Patroclus to Achilles. Achilles’ slave women seek to restrain his hands in case he opens his veins with an iron knife.

IRON? This is the Bronze Age!

There were iron weapons back then, forged from meteorites.

Book XVII, titled “battle for a dead man,” plays out the incredibly intense and acerbic bloodshed that surrounds the body of Patroclus. Hector wants to bring it to Troy as a trophy, while the brothers Ajax guard the corpse (already denuded of armor). Thanks to divine intervention on both sides, neither faction succeeds until the very end when Achilles’ mother Thetis appears.

In chapter XVII, Battle for a Dead Man, the Greeks and Trojans engage in a deadly war of attrition, the goal of which is to bring Patroclus either back to Achilles or to Troy. The body count is high, as Athena, Apollo, and even Zeus interfere at ground level. It’s a bloody battle.

Book XVI Love and Death: Sarpedon of the lycians falls, and Patroclus dies — not quite exclusively — by hector’s hand. What sorcery, what interference the gods practice!

Chapter XIV, titled “an afternoon nap” by the translator, amazed me. when Hera goes to seduce him, he spends an eternity listing ALL the women he beguiled and seduced in his bid to lay down with the wife he consistently betrayed.

But she has ulterior motives, and while he sleeps, ensnared by a postprandial torpor, the Trojans lose valuable ground against the Greeks.