The Greek Myths: Stories Of The Greek Gods And Heroes Vividly Retold, Robin Wakefield And Kathryn Wakefield, c. 2011

Chapter 1

Hope for Mankind

The population of the earth

Chapter 2

The Ascent of the Olympian Gods

In the beginning
War against the Titans
War against the Giants
Zeus and his brothers

Chapter 3

The Gods of Olympus

Zeus the king
Hera
Hestia
Demeter
Aphrodite
Ares
Hephaestus
Athena
Apollo
Artemis
Hermes
Dionysus

Chapter  4

The Age of Heroes

The flood
The line of Deucalion
The Argonauts and the Golden Fleece
The Calydonian Boar Hunt
Io and the Daniads
Perseus adn the Gorgon
Bellerophon

Chapter 5

Thebes in the Age of Heroes

Cadmus, Europa, and the Foundation of Thebes
Oedipus
The seven against Thebes

Chapter 6

Mycenae in the Age of Heroes

The curse of the House of Atreus
Atreus and Thyestes
The end of the Atreid curse

Chapter 7

Athens in the Age of Heroes

The first Athenian kings
The Labours of Theseus
Theseus and the Minotaur
King Theseus

Chapter 8

Heracles

The birth of Heracles
The twelve labours of Hercules
Heracles the king-maker
Heracles becomes a god

Chapter 9

The Trojan War

The marriage of Peleus and Thetis
The judgement of Paris
The Abduction of Helen
The Greeks prepare for war
The Greek landing
Achilles withdraws
Agamemnon's dream
Menelaus and Paris
Diomedes' day of glory
Hector triumphant
Envoys and spies
The Assault on the ships
The deception of Zeus
The death of Patrochus
The return of Achilles
The death of Hector
Two funerals
The death of Achilles
The wooden horse
The fall of Troy

Chapter 10

Odysseus' Return

Trouble on Ithaca
Telemachs' journey
Odysseus on Scheria
The Cyclops Polphemus
Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, and Circe
The underworld
Dangers at sea
The cattle of the sun
Odysseus reaches Ithaca
At the swineherd's hut
In the palace
Penelope meets the beggar
Vengeance
Reuninon

Chapter 11
Pandora

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Odysseus on Scheria

Island of Scheria

• Phaeacians
• King Alcinous
• Queen Arete
• Nausicaa, the royal princess

Odysseus ally: Athene

• disguised herself as a childhood companion and convinced Nausicaa to go to the river (where Odysseus was)

Odysseus: arrives at the island of Scheria home of the Phaeacians and the last destination of Odysseus in his 10-year journey before returning home to Ithaca.

Ithaca: one of the seven Ionian islands; off the west coast of Greece; midway between northernmost island and southernmost island.

He had just spent seven years as a captive of Calypso.

Scheria: most likely, Corfu

• within 68 miles of Ithaca
• Thucydides: Corcyra, in Peloponnesian War

Phaeacians did not participate in the Trojan War.

The Phaeacians in the Odyssey did not know Odysseus (although they knew of him, as evidenced by the tales of Demodocus), so they called him a "stranger."

Odysseus however was the king of the majority of the Ionian Islands, not only of Ithaca, but also of Cephallenia, Neritum, Crocylea, Aegilips, Same and Zacynthus so if Scheria was Corfu, it would be surprising that the citizens of one of the Ionian Islands did not know Odysseus.

Kerkyra: Greek isle also known as Corfu in English; Kerkyra is just off shore Greece, and very, very close to Ithaca.

Some suggest Scheria was Crete.

From wiki, the seven islands:

• Kerkyra (Corfu in English)
• Paxi (Paxos)
• Lefkada (Lefkas)
• Ithaki (Ithaca)
• Kefalonia (Cefalonia)
• Zakynthos (Zante)
• Kythira (Cythera) -- southernmost; off the tip of the Peloponnese; not part of the region of the Ionian Islands; included in the region of Attica.

The Ionian Islands: the Ionian Islands are a group of islands in Greece; west side of Greece, in the Ionian Sea, except for Kythera, at the southern tip of the Peloponnese. They are traditionally called the Heptanese ("Seven Islands") but the group includes many smaller islands as well as the seven principal ones.

Not related to Ionia, an Anatolian region.

As a distinct historic region they date to the centuries-long Venetian rule, which preserved them from becoming part of the Ottoman Empire, and created a distinct cultural identity with many Italian influences. The Ionian Islands became part of the modern Greek state in 1864. Administratively today they belong to the Ionian Islands Region except for Kythera, which belongs to the Attica Region.

Nausicaa leads Odysseus to the royal palace.

King Alcinous agrees to outfit a ship to get Odysseus back to Ithaca.

Key point: the bard at the palace of Alcinous, Demodocus, told the story of the wooden horse, and also stated that the plan was hatched by Odysseus.

Odysseus then tells King Alcinous of his past.

• the cyclops Polyphemus
• Aeolus, the Laestrygoians, and Circe
• the Underworld
• dangers at sea

Finally, page 288: Odysseus reaches Ithaca.

Apparently they disembarked / set sail / "cast off with the chariot of the sun descending in the west."

"While it was still dark, they reached Ithaca and beached in a remote cove."

Barely a night's journey.

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Io

Ionian Sea: named for Io, who swam across the Ionian sea, from Greece to Italy

Athens: in the care of Athene
Argos: in the care of Hera; known for its horses and cattle

Father: Inachus, first king of Argos, after whom the Inachus River was named; most ancient god or hero of Argos; one of the river gods, all sons of Titans Oceanus and Tethys, part of the pre-Olympian or "Pelasgian" myths.
Io: born from Inachus alone;
Wife of Inachus as time Io was born, also his sister: Oceanid nymph Melia, daughter of Oceanus

Zeus / Io
transforms Io into a heifer to deceive Hera
Hera asks for the heifer which Zeus gives her
Hera sends 100-eyed Argus Panoptes to watch / protect Io from Zeus
Zeus sends Hermes, who slays Argus

Hera sends a gadfly to continuously sting Io
Io eventually crosses the path between the Propontis and the Black Sea; Bosporus (ox passage)
Io meet Prometheus; had been chained on Mt Caucasus by Zeus
Prometheus tells Io that she will eventually regain human form; become ancestress of the greatest of all heroes, Heracles

Io escapes across the Ionian Sea to Egypt
restored to human form by Zeus
gives birth to Zeus' son Epaphus and a daughter, Keroessa

Io marries Egyptian king Telegonus
their grandson Danaus eventually returned to Greece with his 50 daughters, the Danaids), as recalled in Aeschylus' play, The Suppliants

Io connected with the moon by the ancients
in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, where Io encounters Prometheus, she refers to herself as the "horned virgin"