The Poseidon Mural © 2007 TellmeOmuse LLC
Tell me ODYSSEUS and the 30 Stories of Odysseus’ Journey
The Tell me ODYSSEUS teaching program includes a story guide for each of the 30 Stories of Odysseus’ Journey. Story guides include: a Ship Count and Count (for Stories 1-11, the Wanderings of Odysseus), story sequence, summary, and helpful background information not provided in the text. Assessment Materials include Tell Me: Quick Questions and Answers; four Homeric Challenges (I. Be A Bard, II. Leadership, III. Winged Words, IV. On The Journey); and Journey Journal questions.
The length of each story guide is based on the length of the story in Homer’s Odyssey, and the complexity of the story. Longer and more complex stories include: Story 3: The Cyclops; Story 6: Circe the Witch Goddess; Story 7: Tiresias and The Land of the Dead; and Story 11: Helios and His Sacred Cattle. Regardless of the length or complexity of the story, all 30 teaching units follow the same basic format and structure.
Here are the first three (of the 30) stories of Odysseus’ journey, beginning with the departure from Troy.
Story 1: The Cicones
After ten long years, the Trojan War is over. The Achaeans (a name for the Greeks) have defeated the Trojans. Odysseus, his men, and their twelve ships, begin their journey home to Ithaca. The storm winds take them to the land of the Cicones where Odysseus and his men sack the main city Ismarus, attack their people, and steal their possessions. Odysseus and each of his men share the stolen riches equally. Odysseus urges that they leave. The crew do not listen. They slaughter the Cicones’ sheep and cattle, and drink their wine. The Cicones call for help. Now stronger and larger in number, the Cicones fight back with force. Odysseus loses six men from each of his twelve ships. He feels he and his men are being punished by Zeus. Odysseus and the rest of his crew sail away before any more men are killed.
Story 2: The Lotus Eaters
After escaping the Cicones and being blown off course by the North Wind, Odysseus and his men come to the land of the Lotus-Eaters. Odysseus sends three men ahead to find out information about these people. The Lotus-Eaters share their lotus fruit with the men who happily eat the fruit and forget to bring information about the Lotus-Eaters back to Odysseus. They also forget about their journey home. All they want is to stay on the island with the Lotus-Eaters and enjoy the honey-sweet lotus fruit. Odysseus drags the men back to their ships against their will, and with help from his crew, the twelve ships set sail once again.
Story 3: The Cyclops
Odysseus and his men discover the unattended cave of Polyphemus – the one-eyed giant Cyclops. The giant returns with his sheep and blocks the doorway with a huge slab. Odysseus asks him to honor the guest-host relationship but he laughs - he does not fear the gods. He eats six of Odysseus’ men. Odysseus gets the Cyclops drunk with strong Ciconian wine. He tells the Cyclops his name is Nobody. When he falls asleep, Odysseus and his men blind his single eye using a large wooden stake. He awakes and yells to his fellow Cyclops from inside the cave that Nobody has attacked him. He moves the slab and sits in the doorway. Odysseus and his men hide under the sheep as they leave the cave. From his ship, Odysseus shouts his real name. The prophet Telemus had warned Polyphemus about Odysseus. Polyphemus calls on Poseidon to punish Odysseus.
Teachers familiar with the new Common Core State Standards (and the Publishers’ Criteria for those Standards) will recognize the importance of the text-dependent focus of the Tell me ODYSSEUS program. This focus is shown in two ways: 1. Clear instructions on how to bring the students into the actual text of Homer’s Odyssey (a text exemplar for Grades 9 and 10), and 2. Text-dependent assessment materials that require students to “demonstrate that they not only can follow the details of what is explicitly stated but also are able to make valid claims that square with all the evidence in the text” (Publishers’ Criteria for the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy, Grades 3-12. David Coleman and Susan Pimentel, http://www.aepweb.org/pdfs/PubCriteriaLiteracy3-12.pdf).
Each of the 30 Story Guides concludes with a Journey Journal question that asks the student to connect the story from Homer’s Odyssey to their own life realities. Journey Journal questions help make Odysseus’ story more familiar, relevant, and meaningful, and provide further motivation for students to read the text.
