Editing Odyssey (section)

===Odysseus's account of his adventures (Books 9–12)===
[[File:Francesco_Hayez_028.jpg|thumb|''Odysseus Overcome by [[Demodocus (Odyssey character)|Demodocus]]' Song'', by [[Francesco Hayez]], 1813–15]]
Odysseus recounts his story to the Phaeacians. After a failed raid against the [[Cicones]], Odysseus and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms. Odysseus visited the [[lotus-eaters]] who gave his men their fruit which caused them to forget their homecoming. Odysseus had to drag them back to the ship by force.

Odysseus and his men landed on a lush, uninhabited island near the land of the [[Cyclopes]]. The men entered the cave of [[Polyphemus]], where they found all the cheeses and meat they desired. Upon returning to his cave, Polyphemus sealed the entrance with a massive boulder and begins to eat Odysseus's men. Odysseus devised an escape plan in which he, identifying himself as "Nobody", plied Polyphemus with wine and blinded him with a wooden stake. Polyphemus cried for help but was left by his neighbours after Polyphemus claimed that "Nobody" had attacked him. Odysseus and his men finally escaped the cave by hiding on the underbellies of the Cyclops's sheep as they were let out of the cave.

As they escaped, Odysseus taunted Polyphemus and revealed himself. The Cyclops prayed to his father Poseidon, asking him to curse Odysseus to wander for ten years. After the escape, [[Aeolus (Odyssey)|Aeolus]] gave Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home. Just as Ithaca came into sight, the sailors opened the bag while Odysseus slept, thinking it contained gold. The winds flew out, and the storm drove the ships back the way they had come. Aeolus, recognizing that Odysseus had drawn the ire of the gods, refused to further assist him.

After the cannibalistic [[Laestrygonians]] destroyed all of his ships except his own, Odysseus sailed on and reached the island of [[Aeaea]], home of witch-goddess [[Circe]]. She turned half of his men into swine with drugged cheese and wine. Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave Odysseus an herb called [[Moly (herb)|moly]], making him resistant to Circe's magic. Odysseus forced Circe to change his men back to their human forms and was seduced by her. They remained with her for one year. Finally, guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew crossed the ocean and reached a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus [[Nekyia|sacrificed to the dead]]. Odysseus summoned the spirit of the prophet [[Tiresias]] and was told that he may return home if he is able to stay himself and his crew from eating the sacred [[Cattle of Helios|livestock of Helios]] on the island of Thrinacia and that failure to do so would result in the loss of his ship and his entire crew. He then meets his dead mother [[Anticlea|Anticleia]] and first learns of the suitors and what happened in Ithaca in his absence. Odysseus also converses with his dead comrades from Troy.[[File:Odysseus_Sirens_BM_E440_n2.jpg|right|thumb|Odysseus and the Sirens, eponymous vase of the [[Siren Painter]], {{Circa|480–470 BC}} ([[British Museum]])]]
Returning to Aeaea, they buried [[Elpenor]] and were advised by Circe on the remaining stages of the journey. They skirted the land of the [[Siren (mythology)|Sirens]]. All of the sailors had their ears plugged up with beeswax, except for Odysseus, who was tied to the mast as he wanted to hear the song. He told his sailors not to untie him as it would only make him drown himself. They then passed between the six-headed monster [[Scylla]] and the whirlpool [[Charybdis]]. Scylla claimed six of his men.

Next, they landed on the island of Thrinacia, with the crew overriding Odysseus's wishes to remain away from the island. Zeus caused a storm that prevented them from leaving, causing them to deplete the food given to them by Circe. While Odysseus was away praying, his men ignored the warnings of Tiresias and Circe and hunted the sacred cattle. [[Helios]] insisted that Zeus punish the men for this sacrilege. They suffered a shipwreck, and all but Odysseus drowned as he clung to a fig tree. Washed ashore on [[Ogygia]], he remained there as Calypso's lover.