In Phaeacia

Dear friends,

I hope that I have come across my very last obstacle on this terrible journey homewards now.

I miss you all so terribly.

While sailing from Ogygia, there was a terrible storm and once again I nearly drowned.

I really think Poseidon has a grudge against me. I mean, maybe we blinded his son - do you remember back that far, to when we were stuck on the island of the Cyclopes? - but that's really no reason to keep attempting to kill me!!

Anyway, I was rescued by Ino-Leucothea, another nymph. I'm very glad that I didn't die, but I'm rather sick and tired of nymphs actually.

Right now I'm in Phaeacia - it took 2 days to swim here!

They're very hospitable people and say that they can provide me safe passage home.

I've revealed who I am, too, and I told them all my stories. It really helped that I'd noted down some of the details in this blog!

I'll be seeing you very soon, for sure this time, xoxo

--Odysseus

Sorry I Haven't Been Blogging...

To Penelope, Telemachus and all my friends back home in Ithica:

I really meant to do a new blog post as soon as I realised where I was. It's just... I guess I lost track of the time. How long has it been now? Just seven years or so, that's not that long really.

You won't believe how much I've been missing you. It was bad enough that I'd been away from you for that ten year long war in Troy, but to be away from you for another ten years - it really has been about ten years, yes - is just torture.

At the moment I'm just about to leave Ogygia! This is where I've been for seven years!

I think the gods must be working in my favour at the moment because I'm about to come home! Something tells me that Athena may have had a hand in this...

Anyway, I've got heaps of things to do before I leave, but I promise I'll be back with you very soon.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

--Odysseus

I Really Am On My Way Home Guys

My dear family,

I'm doing everything I can to get back home to you, I promise. But it really hasn't been the easiest journey - we keep having all sorts of disasters.

It's a good thing that the lovely Lady Circe of Aeaea had uttered some divine decrees to me! We made it safely past all the obstacles that we were faced with... mostly.

A favouring breeze wafted us by the island of the Sirens! Luckily I plugged up my crew's ears with wax. We tied me to the mast, and I was lucky enough to hear the Siren song. My heart was eager to listen to them.

Then we came upon Scylla and Charybdis. One is a terrible monster (Penelope dear, you would have been terrified!) and the other a giant whirlpool that would have sucked my ship in with the sea-water. On the advice of Lady Circe we stayed closer to Scylla. She took six of my crew.

The last ordeal that we had to face on this long voyage was the wrath of the sun-god Hyperion. This wasn't just an unlucky encounter, as with the others, this was entirely the fault of my crew. I warned them not to slay the cattle!

I guess Hyperion prayed to Zeus about the whole thing - it really was just a misunderstanding I thought! - because we had another disaster while we were trying, again, to sail home. We got blown by the wind back towards Charybdis, and she swallowed up the ship!

I escaped... but the rest of the crew didn't. I'm a bit sad about that actually.

But never fear, Penelope my wife and Telemachus my darling son, after some swimming I arrived at an island!

I'm not entirely sure where I am, but I bet they'll give me safe passage home!

See you soon! xoxo

--Odysseus

I'm On My Way!

To my dearest darling family,

I'm so sorry I haven't updated this blog in, like, a year.

Things have been quite good here on the beautiful island Aeaea, although there was a misunderstanding at the start, but Hermes offered a helping hand!

Actually, I haven't been here on Aeaea the whole time. I had a bit of a journey through the underworld, too. It was really interesting.

And very terrifying.

But interesting!

I met Agamemnon and I saw Tityus and Sisyphus and Tantalus. Also I found out that Penelope really is as good and virtuous as I always thought she was!

While I was down there I also bumped into Achilles, the mortal-half of Herakles, my mum Anticlea and also Elphenor from my crew, who I didn't even realise was dead!

Should be heading home soon, just getting some last minute directions from Circe, who lives on Aeaea.

Hope to see you all soon. xoxo

--Odysseus

Still On My Way Home Everyone

Dear family and friends:

I miss you so much and I promise that I'm on my way home.

I'm glad that we're past the land of the Cyclopes now, but we still haven't managed to find our way home yet. We've dropped by Aeolia and I had a good chat with the Keeper of the Winds.

An unfortunate incident meant that we also went back there shortly afterwards. My crew need to learn to keep their hands off my things!

We also ended up in Telepylus. Not such a fun place.

We've just landed on Aeaea. Hopefully nothing eventful will happen here and we can get going again soon!

xoxo

--Odysseus

Sicily

Hi my darling family!

You wouldn't believe how much I've missed you lately!

We're in Sicily in the moment, which is obviously way off course but I'm still confident that I'll be home with you soon.

I can't wait to get home to you, my lovely Penelope!

We've faced a pretty major problem here in Sicily - we got trapped in the cave of the Cyclopes Polyphemos.

Don't worry Penelope, I survived and most of the rest of the crew is okay as well. We dealt with the Cyclopes as best we could, and ultimately it worked out okay.

We'll be moving on soon.

All my love, xoxo

--Odysseus

Bit of a Technical Hitch

Hi there everyone!

Hope things are going well back home in Ithica.

We're kind of having some problems here on the ship.

Do you remember I mentioned that we might stopover in Thrace? Well, we did. We went to Ismarus in Thrace - it's a pretty nice place really. We were just doing the whole tourist thing - we saw the sites, we went to the beach, bought some souvenirs etc.

Anyway, we were just doing our thing, and then all of a sudden the army from the neighbouring city comes and attacks us!

I mean, how rude is that?

It was a bad battle - you would have hated to be there Penelope. We lost 72 men which is really demoralising.

That's not even the worst thing that happened!

We were just sailing along, minding our own business again, when suddenly some strong winds blew us to Libya! We're so far away and I really miss you.

The thing about Libya is that we've met some people called the Lotus-Eaters. They eat lotus flowers and seeds (obviously) but eating the flowers kind of causes problems. I just have to get the crew back onto our ship; I'm sure we'll be home soon enough.

Lots of love xoxo

--Odysseus