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THE ODYSSEY

Book X: The Witch & The Winds

The Bag of Roaring Winds

Aeolus, captain over the winds, binds all the stormy gales into an ox-hide sack with silver thread. He lets only the West Wind blow to carry Ulysses home.

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The Bag is Sealed

Click to let the men open it...

The Sight of Home

"On the tenth day our native land showed on the horizon. We got so close we could see the stubble fires burning."

The Fatal Sleep

While Ulysses sleeps, his men suspect the bag holds gold. They open it, and the howling winds drive them back to Aeolus, who rejects them as "abhorred of heaven."

Disaster at Telepylus

The Laestrygonians are not men, but mountain-sized ogres. In a single hour, Ulysses loses almost his entire fleet.

Fleet Survival Status

11 Ships Lost: Destroyed within the land-locked harbour by rocks hurled from cliffs. Men "speared like fishes."
1 Ship Survives: Ulysses' own ship, moored outside the point, manages to cut its cable and escape.

The Enchantress of Aeaea

Circe, daughter of the Sun, works at a dazzling loom and sings beautifully to lure men to her table. Those who drink her drugged Pramnian wine are transformed by her wand.

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The Crew (Men)

"Thinking no evil, they followed her..."

The Witch's Oath

Ulysses demands: "Take your solemn oath to plot no further harm against me... or else when you have got me naked you will unman me."

The Circean Bestiary

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    Mountain Wolves

    Bewitched creatures who fawn like hounds, wagging tails.

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    Forest Lions

    Drugged into subjection, they rub noses lovingly against strangers.

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    The Swine

    "Head, hair, and all... but their senses were the same as before."

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Herbology: The Moly

"The root was black, while the flower was as white as milk; the gods call it Moly."

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The Provider

Mercury, the messenger god, pulls it from the earth for Ulysses.

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The Virtue

Makes the bearer spell-proof. Circe's drugs lose all power to charm.

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The Difficulty

"Mortal men cannot uproot it, but the gods can do whatever they like."

Memorial: Elpenor, "not very remarkable for sense or courage," who fell from Circe's roof and broke his neck while drunk.