The Guilt Of Odysseus In Homer's The Odyssey

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In Book X of The Odyssey, Odysseus is still telling the Phaeacians about his long journey. There he is picking up the part where he stayed on the island where, “Aeolus hosted [him] one entire month” (Fagles 231). While leaving this island, Aeolus gifted Odysseus with a sack of wind, to make his way back home. While on the ship for nine days and nights, one the tenth night, Odysseus became sleepy, so he slept. While sleeping, his crew mates became aware of the sack that Aeolus gave him thinking it was a treasure, Odysseus was holding out on them. So with all the crewmates curiosity, “they loosed the sack and all the winds burst out” (Fagles 232). Odysseus suddenly woke up, while the winds blew the ship back to Aeolus’s island. Aeolus justifies that the immortals hate Odysseus because of this bad misfortune. …show more content…

So Eurylochus urged Odysseus to stop over on land so they that they may rest. And Odysseus gives the order for his crew if they, “come on a herd of cattle or fine flock of sheep, not one man among us- will slaughter an ax or ram’ (Fagles 280). And they all promised they wouldn’t hurt any cattle. While on this land for a whole month because of the wind, Odysseus fell asleep, and that is when Eurylochus “opened up his fatal plan to friends” (Fagles 281). Since the food was running out on ship and they were growing hungry, Eurylochus proposed to slaughter the cattle for food, and the shipmates went along with this act. When Odysseus awoke he was angry and blamed Zeus for giving him sleep that “lulled him into disaster’ (Fagles

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