Agamemnon makes Odysseus sail away.
Boats a thousand blockade Troy with new besiegers.
City walls surrounded, trapping Troy’s citizens.
Death dooms many an attacker and defender.
Empty beach, empty horse? Guile brings Troy to its end.
Fair winds inspire Laertes’ son to flee his fate.
Getting food, crew are trapped by a one-eyed giant:
His father Poseidon’s blind rage swamps the way home.
Islands aplenty to see before Ithaca.
Just one ship out of them all survives the junket.
Kings host and treat the survivors as divine kin.
Lotus eaters feed the crew, who don’t wish to leave:
Memories lost but the captain recalls his men.
No cow should be slain; crew trades death then, for food now.
Odysseus stays with Calypso till he’s old.
Penelope says she’ll marry: what’s past has passed.
Queen to be for the suitor who will never quit.
Rosy fingered dawn sees guests treat their hosts rudely.
Suitor after suitor each miss shot after shot.
Telemachus sees his father strike the target.
Unveiled Odysseus is so unmovable:
Vengeance he takes, cutting a path to victory,
Wine-dark eyes see a free hearth and a cautious wife.
Xenia required the guests to become ex-guests.
Youth lost to war, travel, and traps of twenty years.
Zeus prevents bloodshed, making the godless zealous.
Photo by Dimitris Kiriakakis on Unsplash.
