Odysseus Summarizes His Adventures (Od. 23)

Gap-fill exercise

Complete Odysseus's account of his adventures to his wife Penelope.

He began with his victory over the , and how he thence reached the fertile land of the . He told her all about the and how he had punished him for having so ruthlessly eaten his brave comrades; how he then went on to , who received him hospitably and furthered him on his way, but even so he was not to reach home, for to his great grief a hurricane carried him out to sea again; how he went on to the city Telepylos, where the people destroyed all his ships with their crews, save himself and his own ship only. Then he told of cunning and her craft, and how he sailed to the chill house of , to consult the ghost of the Theban prophet , and how he saw his old comrades in arms, and his who bore him and brought him up when he was a child; how he then heard the wondrous singing of the , and went on to the wandering rocks and terrible and , whom no man had ever yet passed in safety; how his men then ate the cattle of the , and how therefore struck the ship with his thunderbolts, so that all his men perished together, himself alone being left alive; how at last he reached the Ogygian island and the nymph , who kept him there in a cave, and fed him, and wanted him to marry her, in which case she intended making him immortal so that he should never grow old, but she could not persuade him to let her do so; and how after much suffering he had found his way to the , who had treated him as though he had been a god, and sent him back in a ship to his own country after having given him gold, bronze, and raiment in great abundance. This was the last thing about which he told her, for here a deep sleep took hold upon him and eased the burden of his sorrows.