After the movie, check out the bonus features to track Odysseus’s journey through the heroic cycle!

This
handout tracks Odysseus’s heroic cycle journey as an accompaniment to the Odysseus and the Heroic
Cycle Bonus Feature.

The Call

Odysseus goes to fight in the Trojan War and “kill[s] many a Trojan with his own spear…” (49).
Odysseus helps the Greeks to be victorious.

Preparation

During his time at the Trojan War, Odysseus grows in wisdom through his actions such as calming his
troops while waiting in the Wooden Horse by “call[ing] out the names of the best men in the army,
mimicking the voice of each man’s wife!” (51).

Allies

Athena Nestor describes to Telemachos that “for never have I seen the love of the gods so manifestly
shown as when Pallas Athena stood manifestly by his side…” (37).

Odysseus’s crew members are faithfully behind him, despite a few minor arguments that ensue, all the
while that they are alive.

Guardians of the Threshold/Crossing the Threshold

Odysseus’s journey begins when he leaves Troy, and “from Ilion the wind carried me to Ismaros of the
Ciconians. There [he] destroyed the city and killed the men” (100).

Road of Trials

The Ciconians attack Odysseus’s crew. Odysseus escapes and goes to the land of the lotus eaters, where
the lotus eaters tried to lure some of Odysseus’s crew in to staying forever. Odysseus admits that “from
that place we sailed on in low spirits” (102).

Saving Experience or Gift

Odysseus and his crew continue on to the land of the Cyclopians, the Goggle-eyes. Odysseus and his
men enter Polyphemos’s cave while he is gone. Polyphemos then arrives and eats 2 men in a fit of
anger. Odysseus devises a plan to make Polyphemos drunk, stab him in the eye, and then escape
underneath the goats. Throughout this event, Odysseus becomes slightly arrogant, as portrayed
through his shouting, “I say, Cyclops! If ever any one asks you who put out your ugly eye, tell him your
blinder was Odysseus, the conqueror of Troy, the son of Laertes, whose address is in Ithaca!” (110).

Transforming Changes

Odysseus and his crew continue on through the islands of Aiolia and the Laistrygonians and then arrive
on Circe’s island. Circe drugs Odysseus’s crew members and they all become pigs. Odysseus begins to
overcome his arrogance that he had acquired with his defeat of the Cyclops, as shown through his
dedication to rescuing his companions. While Odysseus could have just left his ship mates behind and
continued on his journey, he set aside any selfishness as he explains to Circe that “What man with any
decent feeling could have the heart to taste food and drink, until he should see his friends free and
standing before his eyes? If you really mean this invitation to eat and drink, set them free, that I may
see my friends before my eyes!” (120). Odysseus is transforming in to a much more conscientious
leader.

The Return

Odysseus and his crew trek through the Underworld and weather Scylla and Charybdis. Odysseus’s crew
is destroyed and he is stuck on Calypso’s island for 10 years. (Here, Odysseus’s transformation is
complete as he totally focuses on his one goal of returning home to Ithaca to see Penelope and
Telemachos.) After being released from the island, Odysseus winds up on the island of the Phaiacians,
and after telling them his story, they transport him to Ithaca. However, in order to disguise Odysseus
from the men who are devouring his wealth, “Athena passed her rod over Odysseus. She withered the
sound flesh of his muscular body, she swept the flaxen crop from his head, she made the skin of every
limb like the skin of an old man, she wrinkled up his beautiful eyes, she changed his clothes into a shirt
and a lot of filthy old rags begrimed with foul-reeking smoke; upon this she threw a big hartskin with the
hair worn off, and she gave him a stick and a coarse bag full of holes with a twisted cord to carry it”
(157).

Sharing the Gift

Eumaios transports the beggar Odysseus to his house that is overrun by suitors. Odysseus, with the help
of Telemachos, devises a cunning plan using his impeccable gift of leadership. All of the suitors are
successfully destroyed as good outlasts evil. Odysseus is finally reunited with Penelope and the two
“had a delightful talk of the past” (259). Odysseus has truly come full circle and is nothing less than a
hero.