The Odyssey Book Report by Noa

Here's a picture

My mom and dad made me read The Odyssey by Homer while we were traveling in Greece and Rome, and I actually ended up liking it a lot.  I drew a picture of Odysseus getting tossed around in the waves by Poseidon, which is shown here.  By the way, he was called Ulysses by the Romans in the Illiad version of the story.  Here is a summary of Odysseus' adventures. He was super brave and cunning, but bragged a little too much for the gods.

He spent the first 10 years fighting the Trojan War.  This book is about the next 10 years and his adventures.  After they win the war using the sneaky famous Trojan Horse, he sets sail for home.  But on the way his first stop is an island called the land of the lotus eaters.  Some of his crew members go to shore looking for fresh water, but they got tempted into eating a magic fruit that wipes away your memory and any thought of going home.  Odysseus escapes but ends up losing a few guys.

Stop two was the island of the Cyclops.  They go ashore to get food and water and get locked in a cave with a giant boulder.  The Cyclops called Polythemus eats a few of them and soon there is only Odysseus and two others.  He tricks the cyclops by telling him that his name is Nobody, and stabs his eye out while he is sleeping.  This is bad news because Poseidon is Polyphemus' dad and now Poseidon won't let Odysseus go home to Ithaca to get make him pay for hurting his son..
Stop three -Aeolus' island.  This was a wind god that likes Odysseus and gives him a bag of wind to blow his ship home, but one of the stupid crew members opened it up because he thought that there was gold in the bag.  Too much wind came out and it blew them back to the island of Aeolus.
Stop four- Circe's island.  She is the daughter of the sun god- Helio.  Circe turned his crew into pigs, but then ended up loving Odysseus and they stayed there for one whole year. 
Stop five- Hades.  Circe told him that he had to get directions from Hades to get back home to Ithaca.  So he sailed down and spoke to the dead souls.
Stop six -Sirens. The sirens are singing women that try to get Odysseus' crew tocome with him, but he told his crew to fill their ears with wax so they could not hear the songs.
Stop seven -Scylla & Charybdis. Scylla is a big sea monster with six heads and would swoop down from a cliff and snatch up 6 of the crew members, while Charybdis would suck out the sea in a whirlpool and spew it back out, wrercking the ship.
Stop eight -Helios, the sun god. He had 7 herds of 50 oxenwhich never died or gave birth so if you killed on of his oxen, he would know and ask Zeus to destroy you. Which ended up happening as Odysseus was asleep his men got hungry. No one else survives except Odysseus this time.
Stop nine - Calypso's Island. She is a goddess that rescues him and pulls him out of the sea. But she keeps him on her island for ten years. Hermes comes and finally tells Calypso that Zeus and Athena orders him to go home now.
Stop ten -Poseidon is still mad and whips his little raft around, but a sea nymph gives Odysseus and veil to keep him from drowning so he can swim to shore.
Stop eleven - He meets the King Alcinous' daughter and goes to the king to ask for help to get home to Ithaca. He tells them all about his adventures and so they give him a ship and some gifts.
Stop twelve - All the while his son Telelmachus has grown up for 20 years and goes out on a boat to learn about his father but the suitors, that want Ithaca and Penelope, are going to ambush and kill him when he returns. Odysseus gets a diguise from Athena as an old begger, but Telemachus knows it is him. They both go up to his house and tell his wife Penelope that he has returned! They kill all of the suitors (which is a really cool part) and Zeus sends down a thunderbolt to help and the fighting stops. They all live happily ever after!