Characters
- Aeolus Hippotades — lord of the winds; giver then refuser
- Antiphates — Laestrygonian king; eats a scout
- Antiphates’ daughter — leads scouts to the palace
- Laestrygonians — giant cannibals; destroy the fleet
- Odysseus — guest of Aeolus; fails to watch the bag; escapes Laestrygonians alone among captains
- Odysseus’s crew — open the bag; mostly die at Telepylus
Places
- Aeolia — Aeolus’s floating island
- Circe’s land — next destination (Circe)
- Near Ithaca — almost-home ruined by the opened bag
- Telepylus — harbor of massacre
Themes
Narrative
Odysseus next reached Aeolia, floating island of Aeolus Hippotades, steward of the winds. Aeolus feasted him a month, then gave a sack of tied winds and a west breeze to drive him home, warning that only Odysseus should manage the bag. Ithaca’s shores were already in sight when the exhausted hero slept; his crew, suspecting gold, opened the sack. The winds burst out and drove them back to Aeolus, who refused a second gift—clearly the man was hated by the gods—and cast them out.
Six days’ rowing brought them to Telepylus of the Laestrygonians, where night and day almost meet. Scouts met Antiphates’ daughter at a spring; she led them to her father’s house. The king seized one for dinner; the Laestrygonians swarmed, hurling rocks from the cliffs, spearing men like fish, and smashing eleven of the twelve ships in the narrow harbor. Only Odysseus’s vessel, moored outside, escaped. The remnant sailed on toward Aeaea—and Circe—with the fleet almost annihilated by greed and by cannibal giants.