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A path for schools · ages 11-14

The Odyssey in 9 Cards

Odysseus's journey home lasts ten years and is full of monsters, sorceresses and trials. According to tradition, some stops on the journey are in Italy: the Strait of Messina, the Sicily of the Cyclopes, the Bay of Naples, Mount Circeo. This trail puts them in order.

  1. Odysseuscunning hero

    Odysseus was the king of the island of Ithaca, famous more for his cunning than for his strength.

  2. Polyphemus the Cyclops and Etnagiant

    According to a tradition later than Homer, the Cyclopes, giants with a single eye, lived in the caves of Etna.

  3. Circesorceress

    Circe was a powerful sorceress, a daughter of the Sun, who lived in a palace on an island surrounded by strangely tame wolves and lions.

  4. The Sirenssea creatures

    The Sirens lived on an island and sang with voices so beautiful that sailors, to hear them, steered their ships onto the rocks and never came home.

  5. The Siren Parthenopesiren

    Parthenope was one of the Sirens of Greek myth, who lured sailors with their song.

  6. Scylla and Charybdissea monsters

    In the Odyssey, Ulysses has to sail through a very dangerous strait.

  7. Athenagoddess of wisdom

    Athena is the goddess of wisdom, intelligence and the arts, but also of strategy in war.

  8. Poseidongod of the sea

    Poseidon is the brother of Zeus and the lord of the seas.

  9. Hermesmessenger of the gods

    Hermes is the messenger of the gods, lightning fast thanks to his golden, immortal sandals, which carry him over sea and land.

Questions for the class

  1. On a map of the Mediterranean, mark the Italian places linked to the Odyssey that you find in the cards.
  2. Does Odysseus win more often through strength or through cunning? Give two examples.
  3. The Greek Sirens were bird-women: why do you think they became fish-women in the Middle Ages?

An activity

Write the ship's log of one of Odysseus's companions for one stop on the journey, in ten lines.

Ciro Simone Irmici

Who's behind this

Ciro Simone Irmici

I build websites, apps and games. I built the Atlas with artificial intelligence and I check every card and every source myself. I am not a scholar of mythology: I tell these legends with respect and always say where they come from. If you know a legend from your town, write to me.

More of my work: free audiobooks on YouTube · ebooks on Gumroad · Apple Books · music on Spotify and YouTube Music

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