I think that the olive tree connects to Odysseus because everything changed rapidly around it, while the actual tree only changed very slightly. Also, the tree is the last to change, like Odysseus.  Odysseus fears that the bed has been misplaced like his position as master of the house has, but finds that it is still the same as when he had left.

I think that Odysseus has successfully untangled himself because the stays firm and planted, unlike the tree that was half and half at the beginning of the poem.  Which means that Odysseus has overcome his most pressing obstacles and can return to a normal family life.

Those suitors got what was coming to them.  I think that they knew it too, by the look on their faces when I had finally revealed myself to them.  My actions were more out of revenge than for justice.  The women who slept with the suitors and disobeyed my wife were almost as bad as the suitors themselves!  I told the women that “I won’t allow a clean death for these women-/the suitor’s sluts-who have heaped reproaches upon my own head and upon my mother’s”(Book 22 Line 485-488).  Those women dishonored me.  I suppose that the could have lived, but I thought that my home needed to be purged of all of its wrongdoers.  So I killed them all without mercy.

I am very worried that the suitors may actually be as strong as my great Odysseus, but I know that that fear has no possible way of coming true.  None but the mighty Odysseus can string the bow.  I have nothing to fear from these suitors.  However, I was a bit shocked by the attitude that my son gave me.  He seemed to think that he put me in my place when he told me “This bow is men’s business, and business/especially, since I am the master of this house”(Book 21 line 376-377).  Telemachus seems to know what he is doing, so I will have to trust his judgement.

As I returned home at last and I saw my dog, Argus sitting in the dung pile.  I am told that in his glory days, he was an amazing dog that could do anything, but now he is old and forgotten, just I will be.  “Now , his master gone, he lay neglected/in the dung of mules and cattle outside the doors” (Book 17 Line 321-322).  Some day, it will be me sitting on that dung heap, wasting away as the younger people go about their day.  Hopefully that day will not come for some time.

My men are usually so obedient.  I am both angry and disappointed with them.  Although they followed my orders throughout the rest of our journey, they failed me when it was the most important that they follow my instructions.  They killed the god’s cows and now we must fear his wrath.  Even before we left, Circe said “If you leave these unharmed and keep your mind/on your journey, you might yet struggle home/to Ithaca”(book 12 line 142-145).  If only they had listened, we would have all made it home quickly, but instead, I alone survived and it even though many years have passed, I still not home.

 As I tell my story, I feel both delighted with my conquests and ashamed with my pride.  When my men and I plundered the city of Cicones, we got good food to eat and sweet wine to drink.  Also, only six men per ship perished.  It was their fate.  They, at least, did not have to go anywhere near the cyclops.  The cyclops trapped me and twelve of my best men in a cave and ate us two at a time.  However, not long after our entombment in that cave, i came up with a brilliant idea.  Four other men and myself blinded the cyclops after I had told him that my name was noman so that no one would help him.  I am ashamed however, that “I called the Cyclops again, with my men /hanging over me and begging me not too”(Book 9 Line 491-492).  I told the cyclops my name so that he could know the name of the brilliant man who caused him this pain and injustice.  Little did I know, though, that he would pray to his father to make life almost impossible for me and cause my return home to be delayed and all of my men to die.

The people here at Phaeacian are really very hospitable.  They are helping me return home and for that, I am very grateful.  However, the stories that they told brought back some painful memories for me, but never the less, I was honored that they knew my story.  My temper was tested however, when that young man insulted my pride.  But I showed him.  No one will ever again say that I am not a good athlete.  I beat all of the Phaeacian athletes easily.

Curse the gods! Am I never to return home to Ithaca?  When I finally am allowed to return to my homeland by Calypso, it is on a raft.  A raft I ask you.  Have I not suffered enough?  Twenty years is a long time to be away from home.  And yet it has been decided that my journey has yet to come to an end.  I have decided that I can no longer trust the gods.  When I was floating helplessly in the water and the goddess told me to swim to shore, I could not help thinking “Not another treacherous god/scheming against me, ordering me to abandon my raft./  I will not obey”(Book V line 158-160).  The gods are the beings that put me in this situation in the first place.  I will take my own advice from now one, with the exception of Athena because her advice has never lead me to harm.