Max Rose’s Reviews > The Odyssey > Status Update

Utterly useless chapter. Odysseus meets up with his swine herd while disguised and when the swine herd asks him who he is and where he came from, Odysseus tells a made up story with nearly as much detail as he did the exciting tales that actually happened! What are we doing here? 4 pages on a alibi that will never come up again?? Bruh.

Ithaca at last!

Kinda crazy all the famous tales at sea are done now and the story’s only half finished. I really hope the stuff with the suitors is worth it because the stories at sea were kinda skimmed over. Total opposite of the Iliad in that regard.

Thought it might be a pointless chapter but the conversation Odysseus has with Agamemnon is pretty important foreshadowing (I’m guessing). And overall it makes the story more epic and adds in the lore of other Greek tales which strengthen the Odyssey.

Odysseus seems a bit reckless so far. But he’s brave too and doesn’t leave his men behind so I like that. Circe doesn’t seem like that big of a character but maybe she’s in the next chapter too. I know there’s contemporary book about Circe that’s pretty popular so I wonder what it’s about cuz there’s not much in the Odyssey so far.

Cyclops chapter is predictably great. This movie is gonna be so good

Oh to be shipwrecked in Ancient Greece and wash up on the island of the Phaeacians! Odysseus has been there only a couple days, hasn’t even told them his name(!) and yet they bathed and clothed him, suggested he marry the king’s daughter, threw him a feast, gave him presents, and made a ship ready to take him home.

Scandalous song about Aphrodite and Ares also included in this chapter.

Anytime someone visits another lord in their palace, they always eat and drink first before talking about why the visitor came lol

A bit of a filler chapter. But I anticipate that Odysseus is gonna tell the people he just met the story of his travels and then we’ll see it all as long flashbacks.

Finally with Odysseus! Homer has a strange way of telling his stories. He basically spoils what’s to come. He did this all through out the Iliad and here he’s already said numerous times “all of Odysseus’s men/crew died” lol Not sure why he does that but it must be a product of the time. Cuz I’m pretty sure the next few chapters will be flashbacks. So much easier to read than the Iliad btw.