Dylan Koch
Professor Edwards
RRE1-The Odyssey
September 24, 2014
Book XII The always thinking and clear minded Odysseus comes across many challenges on his long voyage home back to his land and his companions. The manner in which he faces these challenges is why he is known as the smartest man in the world. At this time in the passage he is given two choices; either to sail into the Wandering Rocks that birds cannot even wing through or to sail by the lair of Scylla who is deadly with six heads and by the divine Charybdis who sucks in saltwater three times a day. Very soon following came another challenge by which he his is forced to make a difficult decision. Odysseus and his men came to the perfect island of Hyperion the Sun where Helios has many immortal cattle grazing the land. Circe herself told Odysseus what he shall do if he stops on this island which is to stay away from slaughtering any of the cattle. He is warned that during his struggles to keep his mind on his journey or he will come home late and badly. The twelve legged, six necked and headed Scylla eats six of Odysseus’s men, just as Circe advised would happen, while leading his men to row by the tall rock home to her lair. We are given proof of Odysseus’s wisdom by his choice of leading them between the rocks of the two monsters rather than the route that only one ship has ever made it through. Circe explains, ‘’Even the doves that bring ambrosia to Zeus crash and perish on that slick stone’’(312). Odysseus makes the choice to sacrifice six of his men opposed to killing all of them including himself. This decision is another example of Odysseus’s thinking mind and is similar to when he and his men were in the Cyclopes cave with an easy way of killing the one eyed monster. They did not kill him though, which would have led to their death given there being a rock that only the Cyclopes could