Summary

In Chapter 33, Penelope, we return to Penelope’s letters and learn that her patience is "stretched like the thinnest thread, held above a fluttering candle" (253). As Penelope writes it has been a year since Odysseus left the island of Aeaea. We learn that he sailed straight back to Circe like "her loyal hound" in order to bury Elpenor (253). He then left quite quickly so he could have the chance to be "the only man ever to hear the Sirens’ song and survive" while lashed to the mast of his ship as his men rowed with beeswax in their ears so they could avoid the fatal temptations of the deadly song (254). Again at Circe’s suggestion Odysseus sails for home through a thin passage lying between the twin dangers of Scylla and Charybdis. The former is a man-eating monster with many heads, and the...