Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - The Odyssey and The Tales of Troy - Part 1

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Starting point is 00:00:12 Wayfair, every style, every home. With the release of the new Odyssey film coming up, I've decided to read a version of The Odyssey Odyssey that also includes the Tales of Troy. I studied The Odyssey at school, but it's been many years since I read the story. In the first part, we start with Telemachus, now on the verge of becoming a man, and he still waits for Odysseus's return.

Starting point is 00:00:46 A mysterious stranger brings him good news, and he decides to confront the suitors of his mother, Penelope, who want to take the kingdom off Odysseus for their own. I'll create a playlist in the description so you can keep up with all parts as it's released, and you should be able to subscribe to that playlist too. I hope you enjoy it. Let's begin. Part 1, how Telemicus, the son of Odysseus, was moved to go on a voyage in search of his father,

Starting point is 00:01:29 and how he heard from Melaleus and How? The Tale of Troy. This is the story of Odysseus, the most renowned of all the heroes the Greek poets have told of us of Odysseus, his wars and wanderings. And this story of Odysseus begins with his son, the youth who was called Telemachus. It was when Telemachus was a child of a month old that a messenger came from Agamendon, the great king, bidding Odysseus, betake himself to the war against Troy, that the kings and princesses of Greece were about to wage. The wise Odysseus, for seeing the disasters that would befall all that entered the war was lot to go. And so when Agamendon's messenger came to the island of Ithaca where he was king,

Starting point is 00:02:41 Odysseus pretended to be mad, and that the messenger, Panamedes might believe he was mad in need. He did a thing that no man ever saw being done before. He took an arson on an ox and yoked them together to the same plough and began to plough a field. And when he had ploughed a furrow, he sowed it, not with seeds that would grow, but with salt. When Palamedes saw him doing this, he was nearly persuaded that a dothed. Odysseus was mad, but to test him he took the child Telemachus and laid him down in the field in the way of the plough. Odysseus, when he came near to where the child lay, turned the plough aside, and therefore showed him that he was not a madman. Then he had to take King Agamendon's summons, and Agamendon's word was that Odysseusius,

Starting point is 00:03:51 Odysseus should go to Ornus, where the ships of the kings and princesses of Greece were being gathered. But first he was to go into another country, to seek the hero Achinnes, and persuade him also to enter the war against Troy. And so Odysseus bade goodbye to his infant son, Telemachus, and to his young wife, Penelope and to his father, old Laotreece, and he made good-bye to his house and his lands, and to the island of Ithaca, where he was king. He summoned a council of the chief men of Ithaca, and commanded to their care his wife and his child and all his household. and thereafter he took his sailors and his fighting men with him and he sailed away. The years went by and Odysseus did not return.

Starting point is 00:05:01 After ten years the city was taken by the kings and princesses of Greece and the thread of all was wound up. But still Odysseus did not return and now minstrels came to Ithaca with the word of the deaths or the homecomings of the heroes who had fought in the war against Troy but a known minstrel brought any word of Odysseus of his death or of his appearance in any land known to men 10 years more went by And now that infant son Whom he had left behind

Starting point is 00:05:45 Telemachus had grown up And was a young man of strength and purpose Chapter 2 One day As he sat sad and disconsolate In the house of his father The youth Telemachus Saw a stranger

Starting point is 00:06:09 Come to the Elder Giscontinent out of gate. There were many in the court outside, but no one went to receive the newcomer. Then, because he would never let a stranger stand at the gate without hurrying out to welcome him, and because too he had hopes that someday such a war would bring him tidings of his father, Telemachus rose up from where he was sitting and went down the hall. and through the court, and to the gate at which the stranger stood. Welcome to the house of Odysseus, said Telemachus, giving him his hand. The stranger clasped it with a friendly clasp.

Starting point is 00:07:01 I thank you, Telemachus, he said, for your welcome, and I am glad to enter the house of your father, the renowned Odysseus. The stranger looked like one who would be a captain amongst soldiers. His eyes were grey and clear and shone wonderfully. In his hand he carried a great bronze spear. He and Televicus went together through the court and into the hall and when the stranger left his spear with his spear within. his spear within the spearstand. Telemachus took him to the high chair and put a footstool under his feet.

Starting point is 00:07:50 He had brought him to a place in the hall where the crowd would not come. There were many of the court outside and Telemachus would not have his guest disturbed by questions or clavours. A handmaid brought water for the washing of his hands And poured it over them From a golden ewer into a silver basin A polished table Was left at his side Now the house dame

Starting point is 00:08:21 Brought wheat and bread and many dainties Other servants Set down dishes of meat With golden cups And afterwards The maids came into the whole hall and filled up the cups with wine. But the servants, who waited on Telemachus and as guest, were disturbed by the crowd of men

Starting point is 00:08:46 who now came into the hall. They seated themselves at tables and shouted out their orders. Great dishes of meat were brought to them and bowls of wine, and the men ate and drank and talked loudly to each other. and did not refrain even from staring at the stranger who sat with Telemachus. Is there a wedding feast in the house? The stranger asked, or do the men of your clan meet here to drink with each other? A flush of shame came to the face of Telemachus.

Starting point is 00:09:28 There is no wedding feast here, he said. Nor do the men of our clan meet here to drink. with each other. Listen to me, my guest. Because you look so wise and because you seem so friendly to my father's name. I will tell you who these men are and why they trouble this house. Thereupon, Telemachus told the stranger how his father had not returned from the war of Troy, although it was now ten years since the city was taken with whom he went. Alas, Telemachus said, he must have died on his way back to us, and I must think that his bones lie under some nameless strait or channel of the ocean.

Starting point is 00:10:23 Would he had died in the fight of Troy, then the kings and princes would have made him ever. burial mound, worthy of his name and his deans. His memory would have been reverenced amongst men, and I his son would have a name, and would not be imposed upon by such men as you see here, men who are feasting and giving orders in my father's house, and wasting the substance that he gathered. How come they to be here? asked the stranger. Telemachus told him about this also.

Starting point is 00:11:09 When seven years had gone by the fall of Troy, and still Odysseus did not return, there were those who thought he was dead and would never been seen more in the land of Ithaca. Then many of the young lords of the land, wanted Penelope, Telemachus' mother, to marry one of them. They came to the house to woo her for marriage. But she mourning for the absence of Odysseus, and ever hoping that he would return, would give no answer to them. For three years now they were coming to the house of Odysseus, to woo the wife whom he left behind. They want to put my lady mother between two dread difficulties, said Telemachus,

Starting point is 00:12:07 either to promise to wed one of them, or to see the substance of our house wasted by them. Here they come and eat the bread of our fields and slay the beasts of our flocks and herds. and drink the wine that in the old days my father laid up and weary our servants with their orders. When you told him all this, Telemachus raised his head and looked at the stranger. Oh my guest, he said, wisdom and power shine out of your eyes. Speak now to me and tell me what I should do to say.

Starting point is 00:12:53 the house of Odysseus from ruin, and tell me too, if you think it possible that my father should still be in life. The stranger looked at him with grey, clear, wonderful shining eyes. Art thou verily the son of Odysseus, said he. Verily, I am the son of Odysseus, said Telembe. As I look at you, said the stranger, I mark your head and eyes, and I know they are such a head and such eyes as Odysseus had. Well being the son of such a man and of such a woman as the Lady Penelope, your spirit surely shall find a way of destroying those woers who would destroy your house. Already, said Telemachus, your gaze and your speech make me feel equal to the task of deigning with them. I think, said the stranger, that Odysseus your father has not perished from the earth. He may yet win his home through labours and perils, but you should seek for tidings of him.

Starting point is 00:14:23 Harkin to me now and I shall tell you what to do. Tomorrow summon a council of all the chief men of the land of Ithaca and stand up in that council and declare that the time has come for the woos who will waste your substance to scatter each man to his own house and after the council has been held I would have your voyage to find out tidings of your father, whether he still lives and where he might be. Go to Pylos first, to the home of Nestor, that old king, who was with your father in the war of Troy. Beg Nestor to give you whatever tidings he has of Odysseus.

Starting point is 00:15:17 And from Pylos, go to Sparta to the home of Menelaus, and Helen, and begged hidings of your father, from them too. And if you get news of his being alive return, it will be easy for you, then to endure for another year, the wasting of your substance by those wooers. But if you learn that your father, the renowned Odysseus, is indeed dead and gone,

Starting point is 00:15:50 then come back and in your own country raise a great funeral mount to his memory and over it pay all funeral rights then let your mother choose a good man to be her husband and let her marry knowing for certainty that Odysseus will not be coming back to his own house. after that something will remain for you to do you will have to punish those wooers who destroy the goods your fathers gathered and who insult his house by your presence and when all those things have been done you telemachus will be free to seek out your own fortune you will rise to fame for I mark that you are handsome and strong and most likely to be a wise and valid man

Starting point is 00:16:54 but now I must fare on my journey the stranger rose up from where he sat and went with Telemachus from the hall and through the court to the outer gate Telemachus said What you have told me I shall not forget, I know you have spoken out of a wise and friendly heart, and as a father, to his son. The stranger clasped his hands and went through the gate, and then as he looked after him,

Starting point is 00:17:35 Telemachus saw the stranger change in his form. He became first as a woman, tall with fair hair and a spear of bronze in her hand. And then the form of the woman changed too. It changed into a great sea eagle that on wide wings rose and flew high through the air. Tenemicus knew then that his visitor was an immortal and no other than the goddess Athena who had been his father's friend. Chapter 3. When Telemachus went back to the hall, those who were feasting there

Starting point is 00:18:29 had put the wine cups from them and were calling out for Themius the minstrel to come and sing some tale to delight them. And as he went amongst them, one of the wooers said to another, the guest who was with him had told Telemachus something that had changed his bearing.

Starting point is 00:18:56 Never before did I see him hold himself so proudly. Mayhap, he has spoken to him of the return of his father, the renowned Odysseus. Phenius came when the wooers called him to sing them a tale, and the minstrel, in flowing verse, began the tale of the return of the kings and princesses of Troy, and of how some god or goddess put a trouble upon them as they left the city they had taken. And as the minstrel began the tale,

Starting point is 00:19:40 Penelope Telemachus's ladymother was coming down the stairs with two handmaids beside him. her. She had the words he sang, and she stood still in her grief, and drew her veil across her face. O Femius, she cried, cease from that story that ever wastes my heart. The story that has brought me sorrow, and that leaves me comfortless all my days. O Femius, do not know. Do not know know other tales of men and gods, that you might sing in this hall for the delight of my noble wooers. The minstrel would have ceased when a Penelope spoke thus to him, but Telemachus went to the stairway where his lady-mother stood and addressed her.

Starting point is 00:20:43 My lady-mother, said he, why should you not let the minstrel? delight the company with such songs as the spirit moves him to give us. It is no blame to him if he sings of that which is sorrowful to us. As for you my mother, you must learn to enjoy that story. For long would it be sung and far and wide? And you are not the only one who was bereaved. Many another man, besides Odysseus, lost the happy days of his homecoming in the war of Troy. Penelope, his in any mother, looked in surprise of the youth who spoke to her so wise they. Was this indeed, Telemachus, who before had hardly lifted his head, and as she knocked at him again, end, she saw that he carried his head. That head of his that was so like Odysseus,

Starting point is 00:21:55 high and proudly, she saw that her son was now indeed. Penelope spoke, no word to him, for a new thought had come into her mind. She turned round on the stairs and went back with their handmaids, to the chamber where her loom and her distaff were. And as she went at the stairway, and away from them, her wooers muttered one to the other that she would soon have to choose one of them for her husband. Telemachus turned to those who were standing at the tables and addressed them. wooers of my mother he said i have a word to say to you by the gods youth said one of the wooers you must tell us first who he is who has made you so high and proud of speech shawney said another

Starting point is 00:23:05 he who has done that is the stranger who was with him who is he and why did he come here and of what land has he declared himself to be why did he not stay so that we might look at him and speak to him said another of the wooers these are the words i would say to you let us feast now in peace without any brawings amongst us and this Listen to the tale, then the mistral sing to us, said Telemachus. But tomorrow, let us have a council made up of the chief men of this land of Ithaca. I shall go to the council and speak there. I shall ask that you leave this house of mine, and feast on goods that you yourself have gathered.

Starting point is 00:24:10 let the chief men judge whether I speak in fairness to you or not. If you do not heed what I will say openly at the council, before all the chief men of our land, then let it be on your own hands. What were before you? Honour were as marvelled that Telemachus spoke so boldly, and one said, because his father Odysseus was king. This youth thinks he should be king by inheritance, but may Zeus, the God, never grant that he be king.

Starting point is 00:24:53 Then said Telemachus, if the god Zeus should grant that I be king, I am ready to take up the kingship of the land of Ithaca, with all its toils and all its dangers. And when Telemachus said that he looked at, like a young king in need, but they sat in peace, and listened to what the minstrel sang, and when evening came, the wooers left the hall and went to his own house. Telemachus rose, and went to his chamber.

Starting point is 00:25:28 Before him, there was an ancient woman who had nursed him as a child. Eurelia was her name. She carried burning torches. To light his way, and when they were in his chamber, Telemachus took off his soft doublet and put it in Euryklee's hand, and she smoothed it out and hung it on the pin of his bedside. Then she went out, and she closed the door behind him, with its handle of silver,

Starting point is 00:26:03 and she pulled the thong that bolted the door on the other side. and all night long, Telemachus lay wrapped in his fleece of wool, and thought on what he would say at the council next day, and on the goddess Athena, and what she had put into his heart to do. And on the journey that was before him to Nestor in Pylos and to Melaleas, and to Helen and to Helen and, in Sparta. Chapter 4. As soon as it was dawn, Telemachus rose from his bed. He put on his raiment, bound his sandals on his feet, and hung his sharp sword across his back, and took in his hand a spear of bronze. When he went forth to where the council was being held in the open air, and two swift howls went beside him. The chief men of the land of Ithaca

Starting point is 00:27:17 had been gathered or ready for the council. When it was plain that all were there, the man who was oldest amongst them. The Lord Egyptus rose up and spoke.

Starting point is 00:27:34 He had sons and two of them were with him tending his fields. But one, You're anonymous by name, kept company with the wooers of Telemachus' mother. And Egyptus had another son. He had gone in Odysseus' ship to the war of Troy,

Starting point is 00:28:00 and Egyptus knew he had perished on his way back. He constantly mourned for his son, and thinking upon him, as he spoke, Egyptus had tears in his eyes Never since Odysseus summits us together Before he took his ship For the war of Troy Have we met in the council

Starting point is 00:28:24 Said he Why have we been brought together now Has someone had tidings Of the return of Odysseus If it be so May the God Zeus give look to him who tells us of such good fortune. Telemachus was glad because of the kindly speech of the old man.

Starting point is 00:28:51 He rose up to speak and the herald put a staff in his hands and a sign that he was to be listened to with reverence. Delemaicus then spoke, addressing the old lord Egyptus. I would tell you who it is, he said. He was called the man of Ithaca together in council, and for what purpose, Reverend Lord Egyptus, I have called you together. But not because I have tidings of the return of my father, the renowned Odysseus,

Starting point is 00:29:32 nor because I would speak to you about some affair of our country. No, I would speak to you all because I suffer and because I am at a loss. I, whose father was king over you, praised by you all. Odysseus is long away from Ithaca, and I deem that I will never return. You have lost your king, but you have now put another king to rule over you. I have lost my father, and I can have no other father in all my days. And that is not at all my loss, as I will show you now, men of Ithaca. For three years now, my mother has been beset by men who come to woo her to be wife for one of them.

Starting point is 00:30:30 Day after day, they come to her house and kill and devout. our beasts. Waste of the wine that was laid up against my father's return, then waste our goods and our wealth. If I were near a manhood, I would defend my health against them, but as yet I am not able to do it. And so I have to stand by and see our health and substance. being destroyed. So Telemachus spoke, and when his speech was ended, Antineas, who was one of the wooers rose up. Telebecus, said he, why do you try to put us to shame in this way? I tell all here, that it is not we, but your mother who is to blame. We knowing her husband, Odysseus is no longer in life, has asked her to become the wife of one of us. She gives us no honest answer.

Starting point is 00:31:45 Instead, she has given her mind to a device to keep us still waiting. I will tell you of the council what this device is. Their lady Penelope set up a great loom in her house and began to weave a wide web of cloth. To each of us, she sent a message saying that when the web she was working at was woven, she would choose a husband

Starting point is 00:32:19 from amongst us. Laeties, the father of Odysseus, is alone, with one to care for him living or dead, said she to us, I must weave a shroud for him, against the time which cannot be now be far off when old Laetrius dies.

Starting point is 00:32:44 Trouble me not while I do this, for if he should die, and there is no winding sheet, to wrap him around all the limit of the land, would blame me greatly. We were not oppressive, and we left the Lady Penelope to weave the way. and the months have gone by and still the web is not woven. But even now we have heard from one of her maids how Penelope tries to finish her task. What she weaves in the daytime, she unravels at night. Never then can the web be finished, and so does she try to cheat us. She is gained praise for the people for doing this.

Starting point is 00:33:40 How wise is banalaby, they say, with her devices. Let her be satisfied with their praise then and leave her alone. We too have our devices. We will live at her house and eat and drink there and give orders to our servants. And we shall see which will satisfy her best. to give her an answer or to let the wealth of her house be wasted. As for you, Telemachus, I have these words to say to you, need your mother from your father's house and to the house of her father, Icarus.

Starting point is 00:34:28 Tell Icarus to give her in marriage to the one she chooses, from amongst us. Do this, and no more goods will be wasted in the house that will be yours. Then Telemachus rose and said, Never will I lead my mother out of a house that my father brought her into. Quit my father's house, or I tell you now the day may come, when a doom will fall upon you there for your insolence in it. And even as Telemachus spoke, two eagles from a mountain crest flew over the place where the council was being held.

Starting point is 00:35:23 They wheeled above and flapped their wings and looked down upon the crowd with destruction in their gaze. They tore each other with their talons and threw away across the city. An old man who was there had he there seized by name, a man skilled in the signs made by birds, told those who were around what was foreshone by the combat of the evils in the air. Odysseus, he said, it is not far from his friends. He will return

Starting point is 00:36:05 And his return will mean Affliction for those who insult his house No let them make an end of their mischief But the wooers only laughed And the old man Telling him he should go home And prophecy to his children Then arose another old man

Starting point is 00:36:29 Whose name was mental He was one He was one who had been a friend and companion of Odysseus. He spoke to the council saying, Never again was there a king as gentle in his heart. The kind and gentle to you all was your king of Odysseus. And now his son ask you for help. And you do not hurry to give it to him.

Starting point is 00:36:59 It is not so much an affliction to me that these wooers waste as goods, as that you do not rise up to forbid it, but let them persist in doing it on the hazard of their own hands. For a doom will come on them, I say, and I say again to you of the council, you are many, and the wooers are few. Why then do not put them away from the house of Odysseus? But no one in the council to the side of Telemachus and Halitherseses and Mentor so powerful were the wooers and so fearful of them were the men of the council.

Starting point is 00:37:50 The wooers looked at Telemachus and his friends with mockery. And then for the last time, Telemachus rose up and spoke to the council. I have spoken in the council, and the men of Ithaca know, and the gods know, the rights and wrongs of my case. All I ask of you now is that you give me a swift ship with twenty youths to be my crew, so that I may go to Pylos and to Sparta, and to seek tidings of my father. If I find he is alive, and that he is returning, then I can endure to wait another year in the house and submit to what you do there. Even at the speech they mocked, said one of them Leocritus by name, though Odysseus be alive, and should one day come into his own hall, that would not affright us.

Starting point is 00:38:56 He is one and we are many And if he should strive With those who outnumber him Why then Let his doom be his own head And now men of the council Skatter yourselves And go each to his own home

Starting point is 00:39:16 And let mentor And Hally Therces Help Telemachus To get his ship and crew Leocritus said that knowing that Mentor and Halitherses were old and had few friends and that they could do nothing to help Telemachus to get a ship The council broke up and those who were in it scattered But the wars went together back to the house of Odysseus

Starting point is 00:39:52 Thanks.

Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - The Odyssey and The Tales of Troy - Part 1

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