Chapter O'Connell's Tail to Odyssey of O by Brewer's Readers Handbook

In Thackeray’s Vanity Fair there is an Irishwoman called Mrs. O’Dowd.

O’Dowd (Cornelius), the pseudonym of Charles James Lever, in Blackwood’s Magazine (1809–1872).

Odyssey. Homer’s epic, recording the adventures of Odysseus (Ulysses) in his voyage home from Troy.

Book I. The poem opens in the island of Calypso, with a complaint against Neptune and Calypso for preventing the return of Odysseusto Ithaca.

II. Telemachos, the son of Odysseus, starts in search of his father, accompanied by Pallas in the guise of Mentor.

III. He goes to Pylos, to consult old Nestor, and

IV. Is sent by him to Sparta, where he is told by Menelaos that Odysseus is detained in the island of Calypso.

V. In the mean time, Odysseus leaves the island, and, being shipwrecked, is cast on the shore of Phæacia,

VI. Where Nausicaa, the king’s daughter, finds him asleep, and

VII. Takes him to the court of her father Alcinöos, who

VIII. Entertains him hospitably.

IX. At a banquet, Odysseus relates his adventures since he started from Troy. Tells about the Lotus- eaters and the Cyclops, with his adventures in the cave of Polyphemos. He tells how

X. The wind-god gave him the winds in a bag. In the island of Circê, he says, his crew were changed to swine, but Mercury gave him a herb called moly, which disenchanted them.

XI. He tells the king how he descended into hadês;

XII. Gives an account of the syrens; of Scylla and Charybdis; and of his being cast on the island of Calypso.

XIII. Alcinoös gives Odysseus a ship whi ch conveys him to Ithaca, where he assumes the disguise of a beggar.

XIV. And is lodged in the house of Eumœos, a faithful old domestic.

XV. Telemachos, having returned to Ithaca, is lodged in the same house,

XVI. And becomes known to his father.

XVII. Odysseus goes to his palace, is recognized by his dog Argos; but

XVIII. The beggar Iros insults him, and Odysseus breaks his jaw-bone.

XIX. While bathing, the returned monarch is recognized by a scar on his leg;

XX. And when he enters his palace, becomes an eye-witness to the disorders of the court, and to the way in which

XXI. Penelopê is pestered by suitors. To excuse herself, Penelopê tells her suitors he only shall be her husband who can bend Odysseus’s bow. None can do so but the stranger, who bends it with ease. Concealment is no longer possible or desirable;