document_title: History of the Metropolitan Police Service

question_text: the metropolitan police in london was established by

text: Policing in London before 1829[edit]

text: Before the passing of the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, law enforcement among the general population in England was carried out by unpaid parish constables who were elected, and later appointed by the local justice of the peace. In certain circumstances, such as serious public disorder, the army would intervene to support the local authorities; yeomanry were extensively used for this purpose before police forces developed. Because this system of policing was largely unorganised and lacked a criminal investigation capability, the novelist Henry Fielding (who had been appointed a Magistrate in 1748) introduced the first detective force, known as the Bow Street Runners, in 1753. Fielding's house at 4 Bow Street had been established as a courtroom by the previous owner, in 1739.

text: Fielding's force was made up of eight constables who also investigated crimes handed over to them by the volunteer constables and watchmen. Runners were identified by carrying a tipstaff with the Royal Crown on it, which had a compartment inside to store official identification and documents. In 1805 the Bow Street Horse Patrol, the first form of uniformed policing seen in the capital, was established alongside the Runners, later amalgamating into the Metropolitan Police in 1837.[1] Unofficial "thief-takers" operated independently from the Bow Street Runners, being employed by fee-paying members of the public to catch criminals and present them before a magistrate.[2]

text: By 1798, the year the Marine Police Force was established, salaried constables were being paid by local magistrates. The Marine Police was initially made up of 220 Constables assisted by 1,000 registered dock workers, and was responsible for preventing the theft of cargo in and around the River Thames. The London Marine Police Force is widely regarded[3] as being the first modern police force in the world, in the sense that they were not government controlled and were responsible for the prevention of crime. In its first year of operation 2,000 offenders were found guilty of theft from the docks. This success led to the enacting of the Marine Police Bill, which made it the first publicly funded preventive police force in the history of English policing. In 1839, the Marine Police amalgamated with the Metropolitan Police to form the Thames Division, being recently renamed to the Marine Policing Unit.[4] Although this has previously been the basis for a claim by the Metropolitan Police to be the oldest police force in the world, it ceased making such claims when it entered into a written undertaking with the Advertising Standards Authority not to do so, following a complaint to the ASA (upheld) that this claim is untrue.[citation needed]}

text: The new police[edit]

text: The lack of organisation and efficiency of early law enforcement was often a source of public controversy. Because of this, a parliamentary committee was appointed to investigate the current system of policing. Upon Sir Robert Peel being appointed as Home Secretary in 1822, he established a second and more effective committee, and acted upon its findings. Robert Peel, believing that the way to standardise the police was to make it an official paid profession, to organise it in a civilian fashion, and to make it answerable to the public. After he presented his ideas to Parliament, they were approved and made official with the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829.[5]

text: During the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution witnessed London becoming larger geographically and more significant economically.[6] It became clear that the locally maintained system of volunteer constables and "watchmen" was ineffective, both in detecting and preventing crime. Due to this, Royal Assent was given to the Metropolitan Police Act on 19 June 1829,[7] placing the policing arrangements for the capital directly under the control of Sir Robert Peel.[7]

text: Due to public fears concerning the deployment of the military in domestic matters, Robert Peel organised the force along civilian lines, rather than paramilitary. To appear neutral, the uniform was deliberately manufactured in blue, rather than red which was then a military colour, along with the officers being armed only with a wooden truncheon and a rattle to signal the need for assistance. Along with this, police ranks did not include military titles, with the exception of Sergeant.[8]

text: The force did not routinely carry firearms, although Sir Robert Peel authorised the Commissioner to purchase fifty flintlock pocket pistols for use in exceptional circumstances, such as those which involved the use of firearms. Later, the obsolete flintlocks were decommissioned from service, superseded by early revolvers. At the time, burglary (or "house breaking" as it was then called) was a common problem for police. "House breakers" were usually armed. It was then also legal (under the Bill of Rights 1689) for members of the public who were Protestants, as most were, to own and use firearms.[9] Following the deaths of officers by firearms on the outer districts of the metropolis, and public debate on arming the force, the Commissioner applied to Robert Peel for authorisation to supply officers on the outer districts with revolvers. The authorisation was issued on the condition that revolvers would only be issued if, in the opinion of the senior officer, the officer could be trusted to use it safely and with discretion. From then, officers could be armed. The practice lasted until 1936, although the vast majority of the system was phased out by the end of the 19th century.

text: During the 1860s, the flintlock pistols that had been purchased in 1829 were decommissioned from service, being superseded by 622 Beaumont–Adams revolvers firing the .450 cartridge which were loaned from the army stores at the Tower of London following the Clerkenwell bombing. In 1883, a ballot was carried out to gather information on officers' views on whether they wished to be armed, and 4,430 out of 6,325 officers serving on outer divisions requested to be issued with revolvers. The now obsolete Adams revolver was returned to stores for emergencies, and the Bulldog 'Metropolitan Police' revolver was issued to officers on the outer districts who felt the need to be armed. On the night of 18 February 1887 PC 52206 Henry Owen became the first officer to fire a revolver while on duty, doing so after he was unable to alert the owners of premises on fire. Following the Siege of Sidney Street, one thousand self-loading Webley & Scott pistols were purchased. In 1914 the Bulldogs were withdrawn from service and returned to stores. Lord Trenchard standardised the issue of pistols among divisions with the division size determining the number of firearms (with thirty-two rounds per pistol) issued: ten pistols with 320 rounds of ammunition were issued to each divisional station; six pistols with 192 rounds to each sub-divisional station; three pistols with 96 rounds to each section station. In 1936 the authorisation to carry revolvers on outer districts was revoked, and at the same time Canadian Ross rifles were purchased in the prelude to the Second World War. In 1952 following the Derek Bentley case, when an officer was shot dead, 15% of firearms in service with the Metropolitan Police were found to be defective, leading to Special Branch and Royalty Protection Officers being armed with an early version of the Beretta automatic pistol.

text: The original headquarters of the newly formed Metropolitan Police was near Government, at 4 Whitehall Place,[citation needed] with a back entrance on Great Scotland Yard. Scotland Yard soon became established as a name for the force itself.[10] Once formed, the force become the third official non-paramilitary city police force in the world, after the City of Glasgow Police and the Paris Police.

text: The original standard wage for a Constable was one guinea (£1.05) a week. Recruitment criteria required applicants to be under the age of 35, in good health, and to be at least 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m). Working shifts lasted 12 hours, 6 days a week, with Sunday as a rest day. Until 1897, Metropolitan Police officers did not receive a boot allowance.

text: From the Metropolitan Police's foundation, the force had relied on the use of hand rattles for officers to signal the need for assistance. In 1884 the Home Secretary invited competition from many companies to invent a "police whistle" to replace the rattle. J.Hudson & Company of Birmingham were awarded the contract for 7,175 whistles at the price of 11d each. At the same time, a competition for the contract to supply the Metropolitan Police with new truncheons was under way. This contract was won by Ross & Company, who supplied the Metropolitan Police with Lignum vitae truncheons. In 1886, during a riot between warring working parties in Hyde Park, many truncheons were damaged or broken, samples were sent off to be tested by the Royal Army Clothing Department, at a cost of 16 shillings per day. In October 1886, 900 pounds worth of Lance and Cocuswood were purchased, to use in place of Lignum vitae that was deemed unsuitable after Army testing.

text: Since the MPS's inception, the force has been headed by a Commissioner, rather than a Chief Constable which is the highest rank in police forces outside London. The first Commissioners to hold the post were Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne. When Sir Charles Rowan died, leaving Sir Richard Mayne as the surviving Commissioner, Captain William Hay was drafted in to jointly run the force with Mayne. However, because the two Commissioners did not agree on methods of running the force, since 1855 it was decided that only one Commissioner would run the force.

text: The Metropolitan Police 1829–1900[edit]

text: Metropolitan Police patrols took to the streets on 29 September 1829, despite resistance from certain elements of the community who saw them to be a threat to civil liberties.[11] The initial force consisted of two Commissioners, eight Superintendents, 20 Inspectors, 88 Sergeants and 895 Constables.[12] Patrolling the streets within a seven-mile (11 km) radius of Charing Cross, in order to prevent crime and pursue offenders.[13] Between 1829 and 1830, 17 local divisions each with its own police station were established, each lettered A to V, allocating each London borough with a designated letter.[14] These divisions were: A (Westminster); B (Chelsea); C (Mayfair and Soho); D (Marylebone); E (Holborn); F (Kensington); G (Kings Cross); H (Stepney); K (West Ham); L (Lambeth); M (Southwark); N (Islington); P (Peckham); R (Greenwich); S (Hampstead); T (Hammersmith) and V (Wandsworth). In 1865 three more divisions were created, W (Clapham); X (Willesden) and Y (Tottenham); J Division (Bethnal Green) was added in 1886.

text: On 28 June 1830, Constable Joseph Grantham became the first member of the force to be killed in the line of duty, an incident described by the Coroner's Inquest as "justifiable homicide".[15] Other indications of the Constabulary's unpopularity of the time, were such nicknames as 'Raw Lobsters', 'Blue Devils' and 'Peel's Bloody Gang'. Officers were physically assaulted, others impaled, blinded, and on one occasion held down while a vehicle was driven over them.

text: One of the priorities of the Metropolitan Police from the beginning was "maintaining public order", which they were active in doing, against the major Chartist demonstrations (1839–48) and the Bloody Sunday demonstration of the unemployed in Trafalgar Square in 1887.[16]

text: In 1839, the Bow Street Runners, the Foot and Horse Patrol and the Thames River Police were amalgamated with the Metropolitan Police. However, the City of London Police, created in the same year was an independent force. In 1842 taking over a function formerly the responsibility of the Runners, a new investigative force was formed as the "Detective Branch". And first consisted of; two Inspectors, six Sergeants and a number of Constables.[17]

text: One of the first cases investigated by the newly formed Detective Branch was The Bermondsey Horror of 1849, in which a married couple, Frederick and Marie Manning, murdered Patrick O'Connor and buried his body under the kitchen floor. After going on the run they were tracked down by Detective Sergeants Thornton and Langley and publicly hanged outside Horsemonger Gaol in Southwark.[18]

text: After Rowan's death in 1852, Mayne presided as sole Commissioner. In 1857 he was paid a salary of £1,883 (a fortune, roughly equivalent to £1.2m in 2009),[19] and his two Assistant Commissioners were paid salaries £800 each,[20] approximately £526,000 in 2009.[19]

text: It took some time to establish the standards of discipline expected today from a police force. In 1863, 215 officers were arrested for being intoxicated while on duty,[20] In 1872 there was a police strike, and during 1877 three high ranking detectives were tried for corruption at the Old Bailey.[21] Due to this latter scandal the Detective Branch was re-organised in 1878 by C. E. Howard Vincent, and renamed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). This was separated from the uniformed branch and its head had direct access to the Home Secretary, by-passing the Commissioner.[17]

text: Special Constables were first introduced by the Special Constables Act 1831, empowering Magistrates to appoint ordinary citizens as temporary police officers in times of emergency.[22] In 1834, the Act was extended to allow citizens appointed as Specials to act outside of their Parish area.[22] In 1848, 150,000 Specials were sworn in, to assist regular officers in preventing Chartists from reaching Kennington, and then marching to Westminster.[22] In 1912, the Specials were reorganised, scrapping the old system of anyone being liable to be appointed, instead they had to volunteer.[22] In 1934, it was named the Metropolitan Special Constabulary (MSC), a name which it keeps today in its present form.[22] For a short period of time after the MSC was formed, Specials did not receive uniforms like that of a full-time policeman. Instead, they were issued with armbands which identified them as Special Constables, along with being issued a truncheon and a whistle.

text: The threat of Irish terrorism was combated by the formation of the Special Irish Branch, in March 1883. The "Irish" sobriquet was dropped in 1888 as the department remit was extended to cover other threats, and became known simply as Special Branch.[23][24]

text: Important criminal investigations of the period included the Whitechapel murders (1888) and the Cleveland Street scandal (1889).[25]

text: The Metropolitan Police 1900–present[edit]

text: By 1900, the force had grown to nearly 16,000 officers, organised into 21 divisions, responsible for law enforcement within an area of nearly 700 square miles.[17]

text: Detection of crimes was much improved when Edward Henry, the Commissioner from 1903–18, set up a Fingerprint Bureau at Scotland Yard in 1901.[26] A landmark case for the Met in forensic investigation was the Stratton Brothers case of 1905, concerning a double murder in Deptford, committed by Alfred and Albert Stratton, in which, for the first time, fingerprint evidence secured the conviction.[27] Another important investigation of this period was that into the murderer Hawley Harvey Crippen in 1910.[26]

text: Along with law enforcement within the Metropolitan Police District, the Metropolitan Police also had responsibility for the policing of the Royal Dockyards and other royal naval bases between 1860 until 1934, including Portsmouth, Chatham, Devonport, Royal Naval Air Station Pembroke and the Royal Woolwich Arsenal. They also policed Rosyth Dockyard from 1914 until 1926.[28]

text: Before the 1970s, police forces often called for assistance from the Metropolitan Police because of their detective experience. The last case of this was when the now defunct Buckinghamshire Constabulary called upon the MPS to help in the investigation of the Great Train Robbery.[29]

text: In 1931, Hugh Trenchard was appointed as Police Commissioner[30] Trenchard served as head of the Metropolitan Police until 1935 and during his tenure he instigated several changes. These included limiting membership of the Police Federation, introducing limited terms of employment[31] and the short-lived creation of separate career paths for the lower and higher ranks akin to the military system of officer and non-commissioned career streams. Perhaps Trenchard's most well known achievement during his time as Commissioner was the establishment of the Hendon Police College which originally was the institution from which Trenchard's junior station inspectors graduated before following a career in the higher ranks.[32]

text: When Great Britain entered World War II on September 3, 1939, the strength of the Metropolitan Police stood at 18,428, which was 900 officers short of full strength. Due to the increased responsibilities of the police during war-time, three reserve groups were mobilised. The first consisted of 2,737 ex-police pensioners who were re-engaged, a second of 5,380 Special Constables serving on a full-time basis for the duration of the war, and the third being 18,868 War Reserve Constables employed on the same basis as the Special Constables. On the same day as the Battle of Dunkirk, Scotland Yard issued a memorandum detailing the police use of firearms in wartime. The memorandum detailed the planned training for all officers in the use of pistols and revolvers, as despite the police being a non-combatant force, while the war was in progress they would be responsible for providing armed protection at premises deemed at risk from enemy sabotage and would assist the British Armed Forces in the event of an invasion. Due to these added roles, on 1 June 1940, 3,500 Canadian Ross Rifles and 72,384 rounds of .303 ammunition were received from the military and distributed among divisions. Thames Division were allocated the smallest amount of 61 rifles, and "S" Division the largest with 190. Fifty rifles were also issued to the London Fire Brigade and the Port of London Authority Police.

text: After staying stable for decades, crime rates in London soared during and after the Second World War, posing a new challenge to police. The chaotic conditions of the City under aerial attack were followed by crime, such as looting, and theft of goods and foodstuffs for illicit sales as black market rationed goods. This also fuelled the activities of criminal gangs who continued and expanded their activities after the war. By 1948, the number of recorded crimes in London had risen tenfold from the 1920s, to more than 126,000. By 1959 they had reached 160,000.[33]

text: On the night of 2 November 1952, Derek Bentley and Christopher Craig set out to break into the confectionery manufacturers Barlow & Parker in Croydon. Bentley and Craig were spotted climbing up a drain pipe to gain access to the roof by a member of the public, who called the police. The first officer to arrive on scene was Detective Sergeant Frederick Fairfax; by this time both Bentley and Craig had hidden behind the lift shaft. DS Fairfax gained entry to the roof and apprehended Bentley, but while doing so was shot in the shoulder by Craig. Upon armed uniformed officers arriving, Constable Sidney Miles was shot dead by Craig. After trial, Bentley was sentenced to death and Craig to be remanded at Her Majesty's Pleasure. For DS Fairfax's role in the incident, he received a George Cross, as did Constables Norman Harrison and James McDonald. Constable Robert Jaggs was awarded the British Empire Medal, with Sidney Miles awarded a posthumous Queen's Police Medal for Gallantry.

text: During the 1950s and 1960s, London was subject to many protests by organisations. On more than one occasion, police clashed with violent protesters, making newspaper headlines. The need for a public order trained police unit was realised, and in 1965 the Special Patrol Group was formed. The Officers attached to the SPG received higher training in public order policing than divisional counterparts. The group often received controversy and accusations of police brutality. The best known of the police brutality cases was the killing of Blair Peach.[34] (In 1986, the SPG was succeeded by the Territorial Support Group which did much of the same role, but was a modernised form.)

text: In the late 1970s Operation Countryman investigated allegations of endemic corruption in the 1960s and 1970s. It concluded that there had been corruption at many levels. Only 8 prosecutions were brought but several hundred officers retired or resigned as a result.

text: In 1981, a report issued by Lord Scarman stated that the Metropolitan Police were having problems regarding racial discrimination.[35] The issue arose again in the 1999 Macpherson Report, which stated that institutional racism existed in the force.[36]

text: The official title was changed from "Metropolitan Police Force" to "Metropolitan Police Service" as part of the "PLUS Programme" in 1989, under the then Commissioner Sir Peter Imbert, following the presentation of a report entitled "A Force for Change: Report on the Corporate Identity of the Metropolitan Police" to the force's Policy Committee by Wolff Olins corporate identity consultants in August 1988.[37]

text: The current uniform for MPS officers is largely the same as forces outside London, apart from insignia differences. Officers on patrol are most likely to carry on the duty belt; extendible/rigid baton, Airwave personal radio, CS/PAVA Incapacitant Spray, Speedcuffs, a very small first aid kit containing a face shield for artificial respiration, protective gloves and sometimes some sticking plasters and a torch at night.

text: The force continued to be controlled directly by the Home Secretary until 2000, when the newly created Greater London Authority was given responsibility to oversee the force, through the Metropolitan Police Authority. The MPA is made up of members appointed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly, and several independent members. However, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner is still appointed by the Home Secretary.[38]

text: Medals[edit]

text: Since the creation of the MPS in 1829, 2 Albert Medals, 174 King's Police Medals for Gallantry (including 33 for entering waters to save life, 41 for stopping runaway horses, and 26 for saving lives by entering burning buildings) 30 King's Police and Fire Services Medals, 4 Queen's Police Medals for gallantry awarded posthumously, 5 George Crosses, 123 George Medals (including 85 for connection with war activities), 81 British Empire Medals for gallantry, and 49 Queen's Gallantry Medals have been awarded to officers.[39]

text: Officers (both City and Metropolitan) on duty during various royal jubilees and coronations were eligible for commemorative medals. Since 1951, in common with all members of U.K. police forces, officers can receive the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal after 20 (formerly 22) years of duty.[40]

text: Female police officers[edit]

text: When a male police officer was asked in 1916 whether women would ever be police constables, he burst out laughing, replying: "No, not even if the war lasts 50 years."[41] However, the Women’s Police Service, made up of volunteers, had been founded in 1914.[42] Female police officers first joined the Metropolitan Police in 1919, although the then Commissioner, Sir Nevil Macready, insisted he did not want any “vinegary spinsters” or “blighted middle-aged fanatics” in its ranks.[42] The female police officers were distinguished from their male counterparts, who had wider authority, by the prefix 'woman' before their rank, such as "Woman Police Constable" (WPC) and "Woman Police Sergeant" (WPS).

text: The first female police officer in the Metropolitan Police was Sofia Stanley in 1919, and she designed the first women's police uniform, known as the Stanley uniform.[43] Initial duties of female police officers included patrolling areas frequented by prostitutes, along with care and observation of female and juvenile detainees, deterring prostitution, helping prevent the deceitful practice of fortune telling (then illegal), and looking after women who attempted to commit suicide (also then illegal).[42] Female officers were allowed to go into brothels, nightclubs and betting houses to observe and gather evidence of untoward behaviour, but at the first sign of crime being committed, they had to call in male colleagues. They were not allowed to carry handcuffs unless instructed to by a senior officer, and were not allowed to make arrests until 1923.[44][45]

text: Female police officers were initially given six-day, 48-hour work weeks, and were not allowed to work night shifts apart from when on-call duties until 1973. Female officers did in fact do a week of nights at least from 1965. Female officers were usually seconded to the Criminal Investigation Department, but in 1921 Lilian Wyles was appointed the first female Inspector to the Criminal Intelligence Department.[46] A policy in place from 1927 until 1946 forced women to leave the Metropolitan Police if they got married.[43] Female police officers were not authorised to take fingerprints until 1937.[43] The Police Federation, the rank-and-file staff association, let women join in 1948.[42]

text: The first women police officers to receive George Medals for courage were Sergeant Ethel Bush and Kathleen Parrott, who had been separately attacked by a sex offender they were on a stakeout in pursuit of in 1955.[43] In 1968 Sislin Fay Allen became the Metropolitan Police’s first black female officer.[42] On February 1, 1971, Karpal Kaur Sandhu, born in Zanzibar but of Indian heritage, joined the Metropolitan Police and thus became the Metropolitan Police's (and Britain's) first female Asian police officer.[47] This was before India itself had female police officers (the first female police officer in India was Kiran Bedi in 1972).[47]

text: The first Woman Detective Constable was appointed in 1973. 1973 was also the year that the separate Women's Department was fully integrated into the Metropolitan Police.[42] Female police officers did not get equal pay with male police officers until 1974.[43] In 1976 the first Woman Chief Superintendent was appointed to take charge of a subdivision.[48] In 1977 the first female traffic officer, Dee O’Donoghue, was hired.[48] In 1979 the first female dog handler, Nicola Gray, was hired.[48] Prior to this, women were prohibited from being dog handlers since rules stated that an officer should have a wife who could look after a puppy while the officer went to work.[43] In 1995 Pauline Clare became the first female chief constable, for Lancashire.[42] The prefix "Woman" in front of female officers' ranks has been obsolete since 1999. In 2017 Cressida Dick became the first female Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service and therefore the most senior Police Officer in England and Wales.[42]

text: Fallen officers[edit]

text: Between 1990 and 2010, over 50 serving MPS officers died in service, with eight being murdered or fatally injured by an assailant.[49]


document_title: Odyssey

question_text: when did the events in the odyssey take place

root

text: Odyssey

text: Synopsis

text: Exposition

text: The Odyssey begins ten years after the end of the ten-year Trojan War (the subject of the Iliad), and Odysseus has still not returned home from the war. Odysseus' son Telemachus is about 20 years old and is sharing his absent father's house on the island of Ithaca with his mother Penelope and a crowd of 108 boisterous young men, "the Suitors", whose aim is to persuade Penelope to marry one of them, all the while reveling in Odysseus' palace and eating up his wealth.

tag: p

text: Odysseus' protectress, the goddess Athena, requests to Zeus, king of the gods, to finally allow Odysseus to return home when Odysseus' enemy, the god of the sea Poseidon, is absent from Mount Olympus. Then, disguised as a Taphian chieftain named Mentes, she visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father. He offers her hospitality; they observe the suitors dining rowdily while the bard Phemius performs a narrative poem for them. Penelope objects to Phemius' theme, the "Return from Troy",[6] because it reminds her of her missing husband, but Telemachus rebuts her objections, asserting his role as head of the household.

text: That night Athena, disguised as Telemachus, finds a ship and crew for the true prince. The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be done with the suitors. Accompanied by Athena (now disguised as Mentor), he departs for the Greek mainland and the household of Nestor, most venerable of the Greek warriors at Troy, now at home in Pylos.

text: From there, Telemachus rides overland, accompanied by Nestor's son Peisistratus, to Sparta, where he finds Menelaus and Helen, who have somewhat reconciled. While Helen laments the fit of lust brought on by Aphrodite that sent her to Troy with Paris, Menelaus recounts how she betrayed the Greeks by attempting to imitate the voices of the soldiers' wives while they were inside the Trojan Horse. Telemachus also hears from Helen, who is the first to recognize him, that she pities him because Odysseus was not there for him in his childhood because he went to Troy to fight for her and also about his exploit of stealing the Palladium, or the Luck of Troy, where she was the only one to recognize him. Menelaus, meanwhile, also praises Odysseus as an irreproachable comrade and friend, lamenting the fact that they were not only unable to return together from Troy but that Odysseus is yet to return.

text: Both Helen and Menelaus also say that they returned to Sparta after a long voyage by way of Egypt. There, on the island of Pharos, Menelaus encountered the old sea-god Proteus, who told him that Odysseus was a captive of the nymph Calypso. Incidentally, Telemachus learns the fate of Menelaus' brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and leader of the Greeks at Troy: he was murdered on his return home by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. The story briefly shifts to the suitors, who have only just now realized that Telemachus is gone; angry, they formulate a plan to ambush his ship and kill him as he sails back home. Penelope overhears their plot and worries for her son's safety.

text: Escape to the Phaeacians

text: The second part recounts the story of Odysseus. After he has spent seven years in captivity on Ogygia, the island of Calypso, she falls deeply in love with him, even though he has consistently spurned her advances. She is persuaded to release him by Odysseus' great-grandfather, the messenger god Hermes, who has been sent by Zeus in response to Athena's plea. Odysseus builds a raft and is given clothing, food, and drink by Calypso. When Poseidon learns that Odysseus has escaped, he wrecks the raft, but, helped by a veil given by the sea nymph Ino, Odysseus swims ashore on Scherie, the island of the Phaeacians. Naked and exhausted, he hides in a pile of leaves and falls asleep. The next morning, awakened by the laughter of girls, he sees the young Nausicaa, who has gone to the seashore with her maids to wash clothes after Athena told her in a dream to do so. He appeals to her for help. She encourages him to seek the hospitality of her parents, Arete and Alcinous (or Alkinous). Odysseus is welcomed and is not at first asked for his name. He remains for several days, takes part in a pentathlon, and hears the blind singer Demodocus perform two narrative poems. The first is an otherwise obscure incident of the Trojan War, the "Quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles"; the second is the amusing tale of a love affair between two Olympian gods, Ares and Aphrodite. Finally, Odysseus asks Demodocus to return to the Trojan War theme and tell of the Trojan Horse, a stratagem in which Odysseus had played a leading role. Unable to hide his emotion as he relives this episode, Odysseus at last reveals his identity. He then begins to tell the story of his return from Troy.

text: Odysseus' account of his adventures

text: After a failed piratical raid on Ismaros in the land of the Cicones, Odysseus and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms. Odysseus visited the lethargic Lotus-Eaters who gave his men their fruit that would have caused them to forget their homecoming had Odysseus not dragged them back to the ship by force. Then, they entered the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus on the underbellies of sheep, escaping by blinding him with a wooden stake. While they were escaping, however, Odysseus foolishly told Polyphemus his identity, and Polyphemus told his father, Poseidon, that Odysseus had blinded him. Poseidon then cursed Odysseus to wander the sea for ten years, during which he would lose all his crew and return home through the aid of others. After the escape, Odysseus and his crew stayed with Aeolus, a king endowed by the gods with the winds. He gave Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds, except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home. Just as Ithaca came into sight, the greedy sailors naively opened the bag while Odysseus slept, thinking it contained gold. All of the winds flew out and the resulting storm drove the ships back the way they had come.

text: After unsuccessfully pleading with Aeolus to help them again, they re-embarked and encountered the cannibalistic Laestrygonians. All of Odysseus' ships except his own entered the harbor of the Laestrygonians' Island and were immediately destroyed. He sailed on and visited the witch-goddess Circe. She turned half of his men into swine after feeding them cheese and wine. Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave Odysseus a drug called moly which gave him resistance to Circe's magic. Odysseus forced the now-powerless Circe to change his men back to their human form. They remained with her on the island for one year, while they feasted and drank. Finally, guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew crossed the ocean and reached a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus sacrificed to the dead. He first encountered the spirit of Elpenor, a crewman who had gotten drunk and fallen from a roof to his death, which had gone unnoticed by others, before Odysseus and the rest of his crew had left Circe. Elpenor's ghost told Odysseus to bury his body, which Odysseus promised to do. Odysseus then summoned the spirit of the prophet Tiresias for advice on how to appease Poseidon upon his return home. Next Odysseus met the spirit of his own mother, who had died of grief during his long absence. From her, he got his first news of his own household, threatened by the greed of the Suitors. Finally, he met the spirits of famous men and women. Notably, he encountered the spirit of Agamemnon, of whose murder he now learned, and Achilles, who told him about the woes of the land of the dead (for Odysseus' encounter with the dead, see also Nekuia).

text: Returning to Circe's island, they were advised by her on the remaining stages of the journey. They skirted the land of the Sirens, who sang an enchanting song that normally caused passing sailors to steer toward the rocks, only to hit them and sink. All of the sailors had their ears plugged up with beeswax, except for Odysseus, who was tied to the mast as he wanted to hear the song. He told his sailors not to untie him as it would only make him want to drown himself. They then passed between the six-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, narrowly avoiding death, even though Scylla snatched up six men. Next, they landed on the island of Thrinacia. Zeus caused a storm which prevented them leaving. While Odysseus was away praying, his men ignored the warnings of Tiresias and Circe and hunted the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios as their food had run short. The Sun God insisted that Zeus punish the men for this sacrilege. They suffered a shipwreck as they were driven towards Charybdis. All but Odysseus were drowned; he clung to a fig tree above Charybdis. Washed ashore on the island of Ogygia, he was compelled to remain there as Calypso's lover, bored, homesick and trapped on her small island, until she was ordered by Zeus, via Hermes, to release Odysseus. Odysseus did not realise how long it would take to get home to his family.

text: Return to Ithaca

text: Having listened with rapt attention to his story, the Phaeacians, who are skilled mariners, agree to help Odysseus get home. They deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbour on Ithaca. He finds his way to the hut of one of his own slaves, the swineherd Eumaeus. Athena disguises Odysseus as a wandering beggar so he can see how things stand in his household. After dinner, he tells the farm laborers a fictitious tale of himself: He was born in Crete, had led a party of Cretans to fight alongside other Greeks in the Trojan War, and had then spent seven years at the court of the king of Egypt; finally he had been shipwrecked in Thesprotia and crossed from there to Ithaca.

text: Meanwhile, Telemachus sails home from Sparta, evading an ambush set by the Suitors. He disembarks on the coast of Ithaca and makes for Eumaeus's hut. Father and son meet; Odysseus identifies himself to Telemachus (but still not to Eumaeus), and they decide that the Suitors must be killed. Telemachus goes home first. Accompanied by Eumaeus, Odysseus returns to his own house, still pretending to be a beggar. When Odysseus' dog (who was a puppy before he left) saw him, he becomes so excited that he dies.[7] He is ridiculed by the Suitors in his own home, especially by one extremely impertinent man named Antinous. Odysseus meets Penelope and tests her intentions by saying he once met Odysseus in Crete. Closely questioned, he adds that he had recently been in Thesprotia and had learned something there of Odysseus's recent wanderings.

text: Odysseus's identity is discovered by the housekeeper, Eurycleia, when she recognizes an old scar as she is washing his feet. Eurycleia tries to tell Penelope about the beggar's true identity, but Athena makes sure that Penelope cannot hear her. Odysseus then swears Eurycleia to secrecy.

text: Slaying of the Suitors

text: The next day, at Athena's prompting, Penelope maneuvers the Suitors into competing for her hand with an archery competition using Odysseus' bow. The man who can string the bow and shoot it through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes part in the competition himself: he alone is strong enough to string the bow and shoot it through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner. He then throws off his rags and kills Antinous with his next arrow. Then, with the help of Athena, Odysseus, Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius the cowherd kill the rest of the Suitors, first using the rest of the arrows and then by swords and spears once both sides have armed themselves. Once the battle is won, Odysseus and Telemachus also hang twelve of their household maids whom Eurycleia identifies as guilty of betraying Penelope, having sex with the Suitors, or both; they mutilate and kill the goatherd Melanthius, who had mocked and abused Odysseus and also brought weapons and armor to the suitors. Now, at last, Odysseus identifies himself to Penelope. She is hesitant but recognizes him when he mentions that he made their bed from an olive tree still rooted to the ground. Many modern and ancient scholars take this to be the original ending of the Odyssey, and the rest to be an interpolation.

text: The next day he and Telemachus visit the country farm of his old father Laertes, who likewise accepts his identity only when Odysseus correctly describes the orchard that Laertes had previously given him.

text: The citizens of Ithaca have followed Odysseus on the road, planning to avenge the killing of the Suitors, their sons. Their leader points out that Odysseus has now caused the deaths of two generations of the men of Ithaca: his sailors, not one of whom survived; and the Suitors, whom he has now executed (albeit rightly). Athena intervenes as a "dea" ex machina, as it were, and persuades both sides to give up the vendetta. After this, Ithaca is at peace once more, concluding the Odyssey.

text: Character of Odysseus

text: Odysseus' name means "trouble" in Greek, referring to both the giving and receiving of trouble—as is often the case in his wanderings. An early example of this is the boar hunt that gave Odysseus the scar by which Eurycleia recognizes him; Odysseus is injured by the boar and responds by killing it. Odysseus' heroic trait is his mētis, or "cunning intelligence": he is often described as the "Peer of Zeus in Counsel". This intelligence is most often manifested by his use of disguise and deceptive speech. His disguises take forms both physical (altering his appearance) and verbal, such as telling the Cyclops Polyphemus that his name is Οὖτις, "Nobody", then escaping after blinding Polyphemus. When asked by other Cyclopes why he is screaming, Polyphemus replies that "Nobody" is hurting him, so the others assume that "If alone as you are [Polyphemus] none uses violence on you, why, there is no avoiding the sickness sent by great Zeus; so you had better pray to your father, the lord Poseidon".[8] The most evident flaw that Odysseus sports is that of his arrogance and his pride, or hubris. As he sails away from the island of the Cyclopes, he shouts his name and boasts that nobody can defeat the "Great Odysseus". The Cyclops then throws the top half of a mountain at him and prays to his father, Poseidon, saying that Odysseus has blinded him. This enrages Poseidon, causing the god to thwart Odysseus' homecoming for a very long time.

text: Structure

text: The Odyssey is written in dactylic hexameter. It opens in medias res, in the middle of the overall story, with prior events described through flashbacks or storytelling. This device is also used by later authors of literary epics, such as Virgil in the Aeneid, Luís de Camões in Os Lusíadas[9] and Alexander Pope in The Rape of the Lock.

text: The first four books of the poem trace Telemachus' efforts to assert control of the household, and then, at Athena's advice, his efforts to search for news of his long-lost father. Then the scene shifts: Odysseus has been a captive of the beautiful nymph Calypso, with whom he has spent seven of his ten lost years. Released by the intercession of his patroness Athena, through the aid of Hermes, he departs, but his raft is destroyed by his divine enemy Poseidon, who is angry because Odysseus blinded his son, Polyphemus. When Odysseus washes up on Scherie, home to the Phaeacians, he is assisted by the young Nausicaa and is treated hospitably. In return, he satisfies the Phaeacians' curiosity, telling them, and the reader, of all his adventures since departing from Troy. The shipbuilding Phaeacians then loan him a ship to return to Ithaca, where he is aided by the swineherd Eumaeus, meets Telemachus, regains his household, kills the Suitors, and is reunited with his faithful wife, Penelope.

text: All ancient and nearly all modern editions and translations of the Odyssey are divided into 24 books. This division is convenient, but it may not be original. Many scholars[who?] believe it was developed by Alexandrian editors of the 3rd century BC. In the Classical period, moreover, several of the books (individually and in groups) were given their own titles: the first four books, focusing on Telemachus, are commonly known as the Telemachy. Odysseus' narrative, Book 9, featuring his encounter with the cyclops Polyphemus, is traditionally called the Cyclopeia. Book 11, the section describing his meeting with the spirits of the dead is known as the Nekuia. Books 9 through 12, wherein Odysseus recalls his adventures for his Phaeacian hosts, are collectively referred to as the Apologoi: Odysseus' "stories". Book 22, wherein Odysseus kills all the Suitors, has been given the title Mnesterophonia: "slaughter of the Suitors". This concludes the Greek Epic Cycle, though fragments remain of the "alternative ending" of sorts known as the Telegony.

text: This Telegony aside, the last 548 lines of the Odyssey, corresponding to Book 24, are believed by many scholars to have been added by a slightly later poet.[10] Several passages in earlier books seem to be setting up the events of Book 24, so if it were indeed a later addition, the offending editor would seem to have changed earlier text as well. For more about varying views on the origin, authorship and unity of the poem see Homeric scholarship.

text: Geography of the Odyssey

text: The events in the main sequence of the Odyssey (excluding Odysseus' embedded narrative of his wanderings) take place in the Peloponnese and in what are now called the Ionian Islands.[citation needed] There are difficulties in the apparently simple identification of Ithaca, the homeland of Odysseus, which may or may not be the same island that is now called Ithake. The wanderings of Odysseus as told to the Phaeacians, and the location of the Phaeacians' own island of Scheria, pose more fundamental problems, if geography is to be applied: scholars, both ancient and modern, are divided as to whether or not any of the places visited by Odysseus (after Ismaros and before his return to Ithaca) are real.[citation needed]

text: Influences on the Odyssey

text: Scholars have seen strong influences from Near Eastern mythology and literature in the Odyssey. Martin West has noted substantial parallels between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey.[11] Both Odysseus and Gilgamesh are known for traveling to the ends of the earth, and on their journeys go to the land of the dead. On his voyage to the underworld, Odysseus follows instructions given to him by Circe, a goddess who is the daughter of the sun-god Helios. Her island, Aeaea, is located at the edges of the world and seems to have close associations with the sun. Like Odysseus, Gilgamesh gets directions on how to reach the land of the dead from a divine helper: in this case, the goddess Siduri, who, like Circe, dwells by the sea at the ends of the earth. Her home is also associated with the sun: Gilgamesh reaches Siduri's house by passing through a tunnel underneath Mt. Mashu, the high mountain from which the sun comes into the sky. West argues that the similarity of Odysseus' and Gilgamesh's journeys to the edges of the earth are the result of the influence of the Gilgamesh epic upon the Odyssey.

text: In 1914, paleontologist Othenio Abel surmised the origins of the cyclops to be the result of ancient Greeks finding an elephant skull. The enormous nasal passage in the middle of the forehead could have looked like the eye socket of a giant, to those who had never seen a living elephant.[12] Classical scholars, on the other hand, have long realized that the story of the cyclops was originally a Greek folk tale, which existed independently of The Odyssey and which only became embedded in it at a later date. Similar stories are found in cultures across Europe and the Middle East.[13] According to this explanation, the cyclops was originally simply a giant or ogre, much like Humbaba in the Epic of Gilgamesh;[13] the detail about it having one eye was simply invented in order to explain how the creature was so easily blinded.[14]

text: Themes

text: Homecoming

text: An important factor to consider about Odysseus' homecoming is the hint at potential endings to the epic by using other characters as parallels for his journey.[15] For instance, one example is that of Agamemnon's homecoming versus Odysseus' homecoming. Upon Agamemnon's return, his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, kill Agamemnon. Agamemnon's son, Orestes, out of vengeance for his father's death, kills Aegisthus. This parallel compares the death of the suitors to the death of Aegisthus and sets Orestes up as an example for Telemachus.[15] Also, because Odysseus knows about Clytemnestra's betrayal, Odysseus returns home in disguise in order to test the loyalty of his own wife, Penelope.[15] Later, Agamemnon praises Penelope for not killing Odysseus. It is because of Penelope that Odysseus has fame and a successful homecoming. This successful homecoming is unlike Achilles, who has fame but is dead, and Agamemnon, who had an unsuccessful homecoming resulting in his death.[15]

text: Wandering

text: Only two of Odysseus's adventures are described by the poet. The rest of Odysseus' adventures are recounted by Odysseus himself. The two scenes that the poet describes are Odysseus on Calypso's island and Odysseus' encounter with the Phaeacians. These scenes are told by the poet to represent an important transition in Odysseus' journey: being concealed to returning home.[16] Calypso's name means "concealer" or "one who conceals," and that is exactly what she does with Odysseus.[17] Calypso keeps Odysseus concealed from the world and unable to return home. After leaving Calypso's island, the poet describes Odysseus' encounters with the Phaeacians—those who "convoy without hurt to all men"[18]—which represents his transition from not returning home to returning home.[16] Also, during Odysseus' journey, he encounters many beings that are close to the gods. These encounters are useful in understanding that Odysseus is in a world beyond man and that influences the fact he cannot return home.[16] These beings that are close to the gods include the Phaeacians who lived near Cyclopes,[19] whose king, Alcinous, is the great-grandson of the king of the giants, Eurymedon, and the grandson of Poseidon.[16] Some of the other characters that Odysseus encounters are Polyphemus who is the cyclops son of Poseidon; God of Oceans, Circe who is the sorceress daughter of the Sun that turns men into animals, Calypso who is a goddess, and the Laestrygonians who are cannibalistic giants.[16]

text: Guest-Friendship

text: Throughout the course of the epic, Odysseus encounters several examples of guest-friendship which provide examples of how hosts should and should not act.[20] One example of good guest-friendship is that of the Phaeacians. The Phaeacians feed Odysseus, give him a place to sleep, and give him a safe voyage home, which are all things a good host should do. He also encounters some bad hosts. For instance, the cyclops's "gift" to Odysseus was that he would eat him last.[20] He was not a very good host. Another host that was not well versed in guest-friendship was Calypso, who did not allow Odysseus to leave her island.[20] Another important factor to guest-friendship is that kingship implies generosity. It is assumed that a king has the means to be a generous host and is more generous with his own property.[20] This is best seen when Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, begs Antinous, one of the suitors, for food and Antinous denies his request. Odysseus essentially says that while Antinous may look like a king, he is far from a king since he is not generous.[21]

text: Testing

text: Another theme throughout the Odyssey is testing.[22] This occurs in two distinct ways. Odysseus tests the loyalty of others and others test Odysseus' identity. An example of Odysseus testing the loyalties of others is when he returns home.[22] Instead of immediately revealing his identity, he arrives disguised as a beggar and then proceeds to determine who in his house has remained loyal to him and who has helped the suitors. After Odysseus reveals his true identity, the characters test Odysseus' identity to see if he really is who he says he is.[22] For instance, Penelope tests Odysseus' identity by saying that she will move the bed into the other room for him. This is a difficult task since it is made out of a living tree that would require being cut down, a fact that only the real Odysseus would know, thus proving his identity. For more information on the progression of testing type scenes, read more below.[22]

text: Omens

text: Omens occur frequently throughout the Odyssey, as well as many other epics. Within the Odyssey, omens frequently involve birds.[23] It is important to note who receives the omens and what these omens mean to the characters and to the epic as a whole. For instance, bird omens are shown to Telemachus, Penelope, Odysseus, and the suitors.[23] Telemachus and Penelope receive their omens as well in the form of words, sneezes, and dreams.[23] However, Odysseus is the only character that receives thunder or lightning as an omen.[24][25] This is important to note because the thunder came from Zeus, the king of the gods. This direct relationship between Zeus and Odysseus represents the kingship of Odysseus.[23]

text: Type scenes in Homer's Odyssey

text: Finding Scenes

text: Finding scenes occur in the Odyssey when a character discovers another character within the epic. Finding scenes proceed as followed:[16]

text:
The character encounters or finds another character.
The encountered character is identified and described.
The character approaches and then converses with the found character.

tag: ol

text: These finding scenes can be identified several times throughout the epic including when Telemachus and Pisistratus find Menelaus when Calypso finds Odysseus on the beach, and when the suitor Amphimedon finds Agamemnon in Hades.[16][26]

text: Omens

text: Omens are another example of a type scene in the Odyssey. Two important parts of an omen type scene are the recognition of the omen and then the interpretation.[23] In the Odyssey specifically, there are several omens involving birds. All of the bird omens—with the exception of the first one in the epic—show large birds attacking smaller bird.[23][26] Accompanying each omen is a wish; this wish can be either explicitly stated or implicitly implied.[23] For example, Telemachus wishes for vengeance[27] and for Odysseus to be home,[28] Penelope wishes for Odysseus' return,[29] and the suitors wish for the death of Telemachus.[30] The omens seen in the Odyssey are also a recurring theme throughout the epic.[23][26]

text: Testing

text: While testing is a theme with the epic, it also has a very specific type scene that accompanies it as well. Throughout the epic, the testing of others follows a typical pattern. This pattern is:

text:
Odysseus is hesitant to question the loyalties of others.
Odysseus then tests the loyalties of others by questioning them.
The characters reply to Odysseus' questions.
Odysseus proceeds to reveal his identity.
The characters test Odysseus' identity.
There is a rise of emotions associated with Odysseus' recognition, usually lament or joy.
Finally, the reconciled characters work together.[22][26]

text: Guest-Friendship

text: Guest-Friendship is also a theme in the Odyssey, but it too follows a very specific pattern. This pattern is:

text:
The arrival and the reception of the guest.
Bathing or providing fresh clothes to the guest.
Providing food and drink to the guest.
Questions may be asked of the guest and entertainment should be provided by the host.
The guest should be given a place to sleep and both the guest and host retire for the night.
The guest and host exchange gifts, the guest is granted a safe journey home and departs.

text: Another important factor of guest-friendship is not keeping the guest longer than they wish and also promising their safety while they are a guest within the host's home.[20][26]

text: Cultural impact

text: The Odyssey is regarded as one of the most important foundational works of western literature.[31] It is widely regarded by western literary critics as a timeless classic.[32]

text: Straightforward retellings of The Odyssey have flourished ever since the Middle Ages. Merugud Uilix maicc Leirtis ("On the Wandering of Ulysses, son of Laertes") is an eccentric Old Irish version of the material; the work exists in a 12th-century AD manuscript, which linguists believe is based on an 8th-century original.[33][34] Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, first performed in 1640, is an opera by Claudio Monteverdi based on the second half of Homer's Odyssey.[35] The first canto of Ezra Pound's The Cantos (1917) is both a translation and a retelling of Odysseus' journey to the underworld.[36] The poem "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is narrated by an aged Ulysses who is determined to continue to live life to the fullest. The Odyssey (1997), a made-for-TV movie directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, is a slightly abbreviated version of the epic.

text: Other authors have composed more creative reworkings of the poem, often updated to address contemporary themes and concerns. Cyclops by Euripides, the only fully extant satyr play,[37] retells the episode involving Polyphemus with a humorous twist.[38] A True Story, written by Lucian of Samosata in the 2nd century AD, is a satire on the Odyssey and on ancient travel tales, describing a journey sailing westward, beyond the Pillars of Hercules and to the Moon, the first known text that could be called science fiction.[39]

text: James Joyce's modernist novel Ulysses (1922) is a retelling of The Odyssey set in modern-day Dublin. Each chapter in the book has an assigned theme, technique, and correspondences between its characters and those of Homer's Odyssey.[40] Homer's Daughter by Robert Graves is a novel imagining how the version we have might have been invented out of older tales. The Japanese-French anime Ulysses 31 (1981) updates the ancient setting into a 31st-century space opera. Omeros (1991), an epic poem by Derek Walcott, is in part a retelling of the Odyssey, set on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. The film Ulysses' Gaze (1995) directed by Theo Angelopoulos has many of the elements of the Odyssey set against the backdrop of the most recent and previous Balkan Wars.[40]

text: Similarly, Daniel Wallace's Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions (1998) adapts the epic to the American South, while also incorporating tall tales into its first-person narrative much as Odysseus does in the Apologoi (Books 9-12). The Coen Brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? is loosely based on Homer's poem. Margaret Atwood's 2005 novella The Penelopiad is an ironic rewriting of The Odyssey from Penelope's perspective. Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey (2007) is a series of short stories that rework Homer's original plot in a contemporary style reminiscent of Italo Calvino. The Heroes of Olympus, by Rick Riordan, is based entirely off of Greek mythology and includes many aspects and characters from the Odyssey.[41]

text: Ever since the ancient times, various authors have sought to imagine new endings for The Odyssey. In canto XXVI of the Inferno, Dante Alighieri meets Odysseus in the eighth circle of hell, where Odysseus himself appends a new ending to The Odyssey in which he never returns to Ithaca and instead continues his restless adventuring.[42][43] Nikos Kazantzakis aspires to continue the poem and explore more modern concerns in his epic poem The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, which was first published in 1938 in modern Greek.[44]

text: English translations

text: This is a partial list of translations into English of Homer's Odyssey.

text:
George Chapman, 1616 (couplets)
Thomas Hobbes, 1675
Alexander Pope, 1725–1726 (iambic pentameter couplets); Project Gutenberg edition; Gutenberg.org
William Cowper, 1791 (blank verse) An audio CD recording abridged by Perry Keenlyside and read by Anton Lesser is available (ISBN 9626345314), 1995.
Samuel Henry Butcher and Andrew Lang, 1879 (prose); Project Gutenberg edition
William Cullen Bryant, 1871 (blank verse)
Mordaunt Roger Barnard, 1876 (blank verse)
William Morris, 1887
Samuel Butler, 1898 (prose); Project Gutenberg edition or Perseus Project Od.1.1
Padraic Colum, 1918 (prose), Bartleby.com
A. T. Murray (revised by George E. Dimock), 1919; Loeb Classical Library (ISBN 0-674-99561-9). Available online here.
George Herbert Palmer, 1921, prose. An audio CD recording read by Norman Deitz is available (ISBN 1-4025-2325-4), 1989.
T. E. Shaw (T. E. Lawrence), 1932 ISBN 1 85326 025 8
W. H. D. Rouse, 1937, prose
E. V. Rieu, 1945, prose (later revised in 1991 by D.C.H. Rieu for increased literal accuracy)
Ennis Rees, 1960, Random House.
Robert Fitzgerald, 1963, unrhymed poetry with varied-length lines (ISBN 0-679-72813-9) An audio CD recording read by John Lee is available (ISBN 1-4159-3605-6) 2006
Richmond Lattimore, 1965, poetry (ISBN 0-06-093195-7)
Albert Cook, 1967 (Norton Critical Edition), poetry, very accurate line by line version[citation needed]
Walter Shewring, 1980 (ISBN 0-19-283375-8), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), prose
Allen Mandelbaum, 1990 Verse Translation[45]
Robert Fagles, poetry, 1996 (ISBN 0-14-026886-3); an unabridged audio recording by Ian McKellen is also available (ISBN 0-14-086430-X).
Stanley Lombardo, Hackett Publishing Company, 2000 (ISBN 0-87220-484-7). An audio CD recording read by the translator is also available (ISBN 1-930972-06-7).
Martin Hammond, 2000, prose
Rodney Merrill, 2002, unrhymed dactylic hexameter, accurate line by line version, University of Michigan Press
Edward McCrorie, 2004, ISBN 0-8018-8267-2
Barry B. Powell, 2014, ISBN 978-0199360314
Emily Wilson, 2017, ISBN 978-0393089059, iambic pentameter, the first complete translation into English by a woman[46]

tag: ul


document_title: Arya Stark

question_text: who helps arya stark escape king's landing

question_tokens: who helps arya stark escape king 's landing

text: Arya Stark

text: Character[edit]

text: Background[edit]

text: Arya is the third child and younger daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark, and is nine years old at the beginning of the book series. She has four siblings: an older brother, Robb, two younger brothers Bran and Rickon, and an older sister, Sansa. She also grows very close to her bastard half-brother Jon Snow, who resembles her in looks and is also regarded socially as an outcast.

text: Description[edit]

text: Arya is left-handed and talented in sums and housekeeping, and is excellent at horse-riding. In contrast to her more praised sister Sansa, who favors activities traditionally befitting a noblewoman and expresses disdain for outdoor activities, Arya shows no interest in dancing, singing and sewing, and revels in fighting and exploring, much to the chagrin of her mother and household tutor Septa Mordane. She is described as "wolf-blooded", blunt, impulsive and "always difficult to tame" by her mother, and was given the nickname "Arya Underfoot" by the guards of Winterfell. She is particularly close to her bastard half-brother Jon Snow, who encourages her to learn how to fight and gives her the smallsword Needle.[7] The sword is well suited to Arya's slender build and her favored "Water Dance" (fencing) style which emphasizes speed and agility with a thin, light rapier used in quick thrusting attacks. Throughout her travels, Arya displays great resourcefulness and cunning, and also becomes increasingly ruthless.

text: Arya is the only one out of her full-siblings to inherit the Stark features and is said to resemble her late aunt Lyanna in both looks and temperament.[8] At the start of the series, she is generally regarded as messy and plain-looking, and often mistaken for a boy; but there are multiple instances in the books of her (favorable) comparison to the beautiful Lyanna,[8] and catching the eye of men later on in the series. She is also a skinchanger, capable of telepathically possessing her direwolf Nymeria in dreams, as well as psychically bonding with a street cat in Braavos.[9]

text: Storylines[edit]

text: Novels[edit]

text: A Game of Thrones[edit]

text: Arya is in love with her adopted direwolf cub, which she names Nymeria after a legendary warrior queen. She travels with her father, Eddard, to King's Landing when he is made Hand of the King. Before she leaves, her half-brother Jon Snow has a smallsword made for her as a parting gift, which she names "Needle" after her least favorite ladylike activity.

text: While taking a walk together, Prince Joffrey and her sister Sansa happen upon Arya and her friend, the low-born butcher apprentice Mycah, sparring in the woods with broomsticks. Arya defends Mycah from Joffrey's torments and her direwolf Nymeria helps Arya fight off Joffrey, wounding his arm in the process. Knowing that Nymeria will likely be killed in retribution, Arya chases her wolf away;[10] but Sansa's direwolf Lady is killed in Nymeria's stead and Mycah is hunted down and killed by Sandor Clegane, Joffrey's bodyguard.[11]

text: In King's Landing, her father discovers Arya's possession of Needle, but instead of confiscating it he arranges for fencing lessons under the Braavosi swordsmaster Syrio Forel, who teaches her the style of fighting known as "water dancing". After her father's arrest, Syrio is killed protecting her and Arya narrowly escapes capture. She later witnesses the public execution of her father before falling under the protection of the Night's Watch recruiter Yoren.

text: A Clash of Kings[edit]

text: Arya escapes King's Landing with Yoren and his party of recruits; and on the road, she clashes with the other Night's Watch child recruits Lommy, Gendry, and Hot Pie but eventually befriends them.[12] On the way, the party is attacked by Amory Lorch when Yoren refuses to yield Gendry, who is actually a bastard son of the late King Robert, to the Lannisters. The Night's Watch convoy is overrun and massacred, but Arya and the other children escape through a tunnel. Before escaping, she rescues three prisoners locked in a wagon cage, among them a mysterious man named Jaqen H'ghar.[13]

text: Arya and her friends are later captured by Ser Gregor Clegane and taken to Harrenhal as slave laborers.[14] After witnessing the torture death of her fellow prisoners, Arya begins nightly reciting the names of the people upon whom she wishes to exact revenge. At Harrenhal she re-encounters Jaqen, now under the employ of the Lannisters, who offers to kill for her any three people she names;[15] whereupon she names two people who hurt her at Harrenhal. When Jaqen asks her to name the last target, Arya extorts him to help her free northern prisoners by naming Jaqen himself as the third person. In order to get Arya to retract the name, Jaqen stages a massive prison riot that overwhelms the Lannister garrison. Afterwards, Jaqen offers to take Arya with him, but Arya expresses wish to go home, so he gives Arya a strange Braavosi iron coin to ensure her induction into his guild, the Faceless Men, and tells her to remember the passphrase "Valar Morghulis" ("All men must die" in High Valyrian) before leaving. The next morning, Roose Bolton captures the castle, and Arya becomes his personal cupbearer. Eventually, Arya escapes Harrenhal with her friends Gendry and Hot Pie after killing a guard.[16]

text: A Storm of Swords[edit]

text: While Arya and her companions are making their way north, she begins dreaming of her lost direwolf, Nymeria.[9] Later, she and her companions are discovered by the guerrilla group, the Brotherhood Without Banners, and is recognized as Arya Stark.[17] At the Brotherhood's secret base, Arya encounters Sandor Clegane, where she accuses him of Mycah's murder; but the Hound survives a trial by combat and is released.[18]

text: Arya eventually escapes the Brotherhood alone, but is captured by the Hound,[19] who plans to return her to her family for a ransom.[20] They reach the Twins just as her brother and mother are killed during the Red Wedding, and Sandor knocks her unconscious to prevent her from being killed.[21] That night, Arya skinchanges into Nymeria during sleep and pulls her mother's corpse out of the river for the Brotherhood to find. Later, Sandor plans to ransom her to her aunt Lysa at the Vale, but is unable to proceed due to the weather. Sandor decides to instead take her to her great-uncle Brynden Tully. On their way to Riverrun, they encounter two men on Arya's death list, Tickler and Polliver, who were both Gregor Clegane's men-at-arms at Harrenhal. In the ensuing fight, Arya personally stabs Tickler to death and reclaims her sword Needle from Polliver's corpse, but Sandor is severely injured. When Sandor becomes gravely ill from his wounds, Arya refuses to give him the gift of mercy and abandons him to die under a tree by the Trident river. She travels to the port town Saltpan and gains passage to Braavos on a merchant galleass, Titan's Daughter, by presenting the ship's captain with the iron coin that Jaqen gave her along with the Valyrian phrase "Valar Morghulis."[22]

text: A Feast for Crows[edit]

text: Arriving in Braavos, Arya makes her way to the headquarters of the Faceless Men, the House of Black and White,[23] where she is initiated into the guild by a priest in charge, whom she calls "the Kindly Man". The Kindly Man demands her to dispose of all her past possessions, and she complies by throwing in the river but still secretly hides her sword Needle, which is the one thing reminding of her sweet childhood memories. For her training, Arya adopts the identity of "Cat of the Canal", a street child who helps selling seafood, and continues having increasing more frequent and vivid wolf-dreams, which further prevents her from discarding her old identity.[24] During her training, she briefly meets Samwell Tarly and later vigilantely murders the Night's Watch deserter Dareon.[25] After admitting her unauthorized killing to her mentor, she is given a milk potion to drink; the next morning, she wakes up blind.[26]

text: A Dance with Dragons[edit]

text: Arya remains blind in the service of the House of Black and White for half a year. She continues to dream through the eyes of her direwolf, Nymeria, but speaks of it to no one. While she is blind, Arya wanders the streets of Braavos under the identity of "Beth", a blind beggar girl, and becomes better at sensing without her eyes, as well as lying and detecting the lies of others.[27]

text: After skinchanging into a stray tomcat that followed her back to the temple, Arya is able to identify the Kindly Man as the person who sneak-attacks her with a stick every night and later surprise-hits him. For this achievement she passes the test and regains her vision,[27] and is given her first assassination assignment. When she successfully poisons a crooked insurance salesman without rousing any suspicion or collateral damage, the Kindly Man gives Arya an acolyte's robe and assigns her to begin her first apprenticeship inserted within a theatrical group.[28]

text: Family tree of House Stark[edit]

text:
[hide]

v
t
e

Descendants of Rickard Stark

Rickard[a]

Lyarra[b]

Brandon[a]

Catelyn
Tully[c]

Eddard[a]

Lyanna[a][d]

Benjen[a]

Robb[c]

Jeyne
Westerling[e]

Sansa[c]

Tyrion
Lannister[f]

Arya[c]

Brandon[c]

Rickon[c]

Jon
Snow[c][d]

Notes:

^ Jump up to: a b c d e Martin, George R. R. (1996). "Chapter 4: Eddard". A Game of Thrones. pp. 36–45. ISBN 978-0-553-89784-5.
Jump up ^ Martin, George R. R.; García Jr., Elio M.; Antonsson, Linda (2014). "Appendix: Stark Lineage". The World of Ice & Fire. ISBN 978-0-553-80544-4.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Martin. "Appendix: House Stark". A Game of Thrones. pp. 785–786.
^ Jump up to: a b In the TV series Game of Thrones, Jon is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna
Jump up ^ Martin, George R. R. (2000). "Chapter 14: Catelyn". A Storm of Swords. pp. 192–193. ISBN 978-0-553-89787-6.
Jump up ^ Martin, George R. R. (2000). "Chapter 28: Sansa". A Storm of Swords. pp. 382–393. ISBN 978-0-553-89787-6.

tag: table

text: Television series[edit]

text: Arya Stark is played by British actress Maisie Williams in the television adaption of the book series, this being Williams' first role as an actress.[29] Williams was chosen from among 300 actresses across England.[30]

text: First season[edit]

text: Arya accompanies her father Ned and her sister Sansa to King's Landing. Before their departure, Arya's half-brother Jon Snow gifts Arya a sword which she dubs "Needle". On the Kingsroad, Arya is sparring with a butcher's boy, Mycah, when Sansa's betrothed Prince Joffrey Baratheon attacks Mycah, prompting Arya's direwolf Nymeria to bite Joffrey. Arya shoos Nymeria away so she is not killed, but is furious when Sansa later refuses to support her version of events. Mycah is later killed by Joffrey's bodyguard Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, earning him Arya's hatred. Ned arranges for Arya to have sword lessons with the Braavosi Syrio Forel, who later defends her from Ser Meryn Trant after Joffrey ascends to the throne and kills the Stark household. Arya flees the Red Keep, accidentally killing a stable boy in her escape, hiding out as a beggar in the streets of King's Landing. Ned is eventually taken to the Great Sept of Baelor to face judgment; he spots Arya in the crowd, and alerts the Night's Watch recruiter Yoren to her presence. Yoren prevents Arya from witnessing Ned's execution and has her pose as a boy as she joins Yoren's recruits on the march north.

text: Second season[edit]

text: The recruits are attacked by Lannister soldiers under Ser Amory Lorch, who have been ordered by Cersei Lannister to kill Robert Baratheon's bastard Gendry, who is part of the party. Needle is confiscated by a soldier, Polliver, who then uses it to kill Arya's friend Lommy Greenhands (who Arya later claims is Gendry). The recruits are taken to Harrenhal, where Tywin Lannister recognises her as a girl and takes her as his cupbearer. Jaqen offers to kill three people for Arya as reward for saving his life and those of his cellmates during the attack; Arya picks Harrenhal's torturer The Tickler and Ser Amory. When Arya is unable to have Tywin killed before his departure, she has Jaqen help her, Gendry and her friend Hot Pie escape. Jaqen offers to take Arya to Braavos to join the Faceless Men assassin guild, and although she declines he gives her an iron coin that will allow her to obtain passage to Braavos.

text: Third season[edit]

text: Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie encounter Thoros of Myr, a Red Priest who is a member of the Brotherhood Without Banners, a group of men sent by Ned to restore order in the Riverlands. As Thoros takes them to the Brotherhood's hideout they encounter the Hound, a captive of other Brotherhood men. The Hound is brought before the Brotherhood's leader, Ser Beric Dondarrion, and after Arya accuses him of Mycah's murder Beric sentences him to trial by combat. The Hound wins, to Arya's fury, and is released by Dondarrion. Arya is further enraged when the Brotherhood sells Gendry to Melisandre and escapes the Brotherhood. She is captured by the Hound, who intends to take her to The Twins to ransom her to her brother Robb. However, as they arrive the Freys betray the Starks and slaughter their forces, with Arya barely escaping the massacre. In the aftermath of their escape, Arya encounters a Frey soldier bragging about his role in desecrating Robb's corpse. Arya stabs the soldier to death, marking the first time she has deliberately killed another person.

text: Fourth season[edit]

text: Arya and the Hound encounter Polliver in a tavern; Arya reclaims Needle and uses it to kill Polliver to avenge Lommy. They also encounter Rorge and Biter, Jaqen's fellow prisoners, and Arya kills Rorge after recalling he had threatened to rape her. The Hound takes Arya to the Vale to ransom her to her aunt Lysa Arryn, only to be turned away at the Bloody Gate when they are informed that Lysa has apparently committed suicide. Returning from the Bloody Gate, they are approached by Brienne of Tarth, who had sworn to Catelyn Stark to take Arya to safety. Distrusting Brienne's allegiances, the Hound attempts to kill her but is severely beaten and is seemingly mortally wounded. Arya manages to hide from Brienne in the confusion, and after Brienne leaves, Arya takes the Hound's silver, leaving him to die. She then encounters a Braavosi captain, who offers her passage to Braavos after she gives him the iron coin.

text: Fifth season[edit]

text: Arya arrives in Braavos and is accepted into the House of Black and White by a man who wears Jaqen H'ghar's face. After impressing Jaqen with her ability to lie undetected by convincing a terminally ill girl to drink poison, she is given the assignment of assassinating a corrupt insurance salesman. However, she is distracted from her mission by the arrival in Braavos of Ser Meryn Trant. Assuming the identity of the girl she had poisoned, Arya disguises herself as a prostitute and infiltrates a brothel, where she kills Meryn. However, when she returns to the House of Black and White she is caught by Jaqen, who chides that Arya has not dissociated from her identity and that as a result wearing another person's face will poison her. Arya is subsequently struck blind.

text: Sixth season[edit]

text: Arya is forced to beg on the streets of Braavos, with her fellow acolyte the Waif arriving daily to attack her. Eventually, Jaqen brings Arya back to the House of Black and White and restores her vision. She is tasked to assassinate an actress named Lady Crane, but Arya has a change of heart at the last minute, instead warning Lady Crane of the attempt on her life. The Waif witnesses this disobedience, and is given permission by Jaqen to kill Arya. Aware that she is now in danger, Arya retrieves her sword Needle from its hiding place and arranges for passage out of Braavos, but is stabbed by the Waif and barely escapes. Lady Crane nurses her back to health, but the Waif reappears, kills Lady Crane and pursues a recovering Arya. Arya leads the Waif to her quarters underneath Braavos and extinguishes the only candle in the room, her experience fighting blind ultimately giving her the advantage and allowing her to kill the Waif. She removes the Waif's face and adds it to the Hall of Faces before telling an impressed Jaqen that she is Arya Stark, and returns to Westeros.

text: Arya travels to the Twins, assuming the identity of a servant girl. She kills Lord Walder Frey's sons, Black Walder Rivers and Lothar Frey, before cooking them in a pie that she serves to Walder Frey. After revealing her subterfuge and her true identity to Walder, she cuts his throat, avenging Robb and Catelyn.

text: Seventh season[edit]

text: Taking the face of Walder Frey, Arya gathers the men of House Frey for a feast before killing them all with poisoned wine. Arya then journeys south, intending to travel to King's Landing to assassinate Cersei (now Queen of the Seven Kingdoms following the extinction of House Baratheon). However, Arya changes her mind after learning from Hot Pie that Jon has ousted House Bolton from Winterfell and has been crowned King in the North, and decides to return to her ancestral home. Along the way she encounters a wolf pack led by her long-lost direwolf Nymeria. Nymeria recognizes Arya, but she has grown feral and ignores Arya when she asks her to come North with her.

text: Arriving at Winterfell, Arya finds that Jon has traveled to Dragonstone but is reunited with Sansa and Bran, the latter of whom reveals his knowledge of Arya's kill list through greenseeing and presents her with a Valyrian steel dagger, which had been given to him by Littlefinger. Arya is also reunited with Brienne, who continues to serve the Starks, and manages to equal the female warrior during sparring despite her smaller size.

text: Littlefinger seeks to increase his influence on Sansa by driving a wedge between the Stark sisters. To this end, he allows Arya to witness him receiving a confidential message obtained from Maester Luwin's records. Arya breaks into Littlefinger's quarters to steal the message, which is a plea sent by Sansa following Ned's imprisonment to Robb imploring him to bend the knee to Joffrey. Arya, outraged, confronts Sansa, and is unconvinced by her explanation that she did so to try and save Ned's life. Later, Arya catches Sansa looking at her collection of faces, and threatens Sansa before leaving. Some time later, Sansa summons Arya to the great hall and begins an accusation of treason and murder; however, the accusation is directed towards Littlefinger, whose crimes have been discovered by Bran's greenseeing. Despite Littlefinger's pleas for mercy, Arya cuts his throat with the Valyrian steel dagger and Sansa's approval. The Stark sisters later resolve their differences, and acknowledge that the Starks must stay together to survive winter.

text: Recognition and awards[edit]

text: Maisie Williams has received several award nominations for her portrayal of Arya. For her performance in the series she received two Portal Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Young Actor in 2012,[31] an EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2014,[32] and a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Television Series in 2015.[33]

text: Williams was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2016.[34] Other nominations include the Portal Award for Best Young Actor in 2011,[35] the SFX Awards for Best Actress in 2012 and 2015,[36][37] the Gold Derby TV Awards for Breakthrough Performer of the Year in 2012,[38] the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series by a Supporting Young Actress in 2013,[39] the EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2015,[40] and the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Television Series in 2016.[41]