Odysseus' crew lands next on the island of Aiolia,
ruled by Aiolos, the god of the winds. Aiolos welcomes
the Ithakans and listens to their tale of the Trojan
War. They stay at his home for a month.
When they leave, the gracious Aiolos gives Odysseus a
bag of storm winds. Odysseus doesn't tell his men
what's in the bag, and just takes care of steering the
ship by himself for nine days. Then, predictably, he
falls asleep, exhausted. His men see Ithaka on the
horizon, but before waking their m...(+)
Odysseus' crew lands next on the island of Aiolia,
ruled by Aiolos, the god of the winds. Aiolos welcomes
the Ithakans and listens to their tale of the Trojan
War. They stay at his home for a month.
When they leave, the gracious Aiolos gives Odysseus a
bag of storm winds. Odysseus doesn't tell his men
what's in the bag, and just takes care of steering the
ship by himself for nine days. Then, predictably, he
falls asleep, exhausted. His men see Ithaka on the
horizon, but before waking their master decide to check
out what's in the sack; they think it may be treasure
of some sort. This is a phenomenally bad idea. The
moment they open the sack all the storm winds rage out
and blow the ship backwards, undoing all their nine
days of sailing.
Odysseus rows all the way back to Aiolia and begs for
more help. Aiolos now realizes that the gods have
cursed Odysseus, because there's no other way he
could've messed that one up. The god refuses to help
him. So the Ithakans row for six more days and again
see land.
Instrumentation:
3 flutes
6 violins or doubled (6 stands)
3 violas or doubled (3 stands)
2 violoncelli or doubled (4 stands)
1 double bass (or 2 in larger version)
cembalo
percussion
SHEET MUSIC