Week 3 story: The Summoning of Odysseus

Odysseus and Circe by Matthijs Naiveu

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Here we are again. It’s time to summon another servant. My first summoning was unexpected to say the least. I’m still not use to Pygmalion, but that’s a story for another time. Anyways, I can see my instructor is losing patients so I better get the summoning started.

I perform the summoning ritual the same as last time, hoping that this servant will be more on the normal side. Just like last time, after completing the last verse the circle shines brightly and there appears my new servant. I see a rugged man in a toga with a bronze sword at his side and a fierce look in his eyes. He then says:

“I am rider class servant Odysseus, scion of Zeus, son of Laertes. Are you my master?”

At his question, I reply:

“Yes, I’m the one who summoned you. It’s nice to meet you Odysseus.”

He replies with a nod and says:

“Likewise, master. May great Zeus smile upon is in our future battles together.”

Yes, He’s a normal servant! I’m overjoyed at summoning a heroic spirit that seems normal, especially when compared to Pygmalion. Anyways, I have to say I’m quite fortunate to summon such a great hero. If I recall correctly, Odysseus is most well-known for his voyage after the battle with Troy. He faced many trials during that voyage such as: A man eating cyclops, an encounter with a dangerous goddess (or was it a witch?), a journey to meet with the ghosts of the departed, and even an encounter with sirens and the Scylla.

As I’m lost in thought, my servant says to me:

“For what reason do you smile so broadly? Has the great father Zeus granted you a great boon? If so, we must celebrate with the finest wine and meat!”

At his words, I respond with:

“No no, nothing like that. Say Odysseus, what kind of abilities do you have?”

In response, he says:

“My noble phantasm is my fleet of great black ships and my loyal crew. In addition, I have the standard skill of riding that comes with the rider class and my charisma skill is quite high.”

Excellent, Odysseus with be a great ally. I then say:

“That’s good to hear. I have another question. During your voyage you encountered a goddess, Circe, but was she really a goddess? Because she sounded like a witch to me.”

Odysseus responds with:

“Ah fair Circe was most definitely a goddess. Mischievous as she was, not once did she bring harm upon my crew or I. Fair Circe also bestowed upon my crew and I fine wine and meat, and also greatly aided my voyage with her grand knowledge. No witch would have done so.”

At hearing his words, I became even more intrigued and say:

“Really, that’s quite interesting. Could you tell me more of your voyage? I would love to hear how you-“

Before I could finish my sentence, my instructor interrupted and said:

“All right that’s quite enough. If I let you continue we’ll be here all day. There’ll plenty of time for storytelling later.”

Reluctantly, I agreed with my instructor and so ended my second summoning.


Authors Notes:
So the setting of my story is the same as my previous story. I'm most likely going to make this a pattern with my stories. In regards to the actually story, I tried to keep Odysseus's personality close to what it was in the original work. However, it isn't always easy to get a sense of a characters personality in Homer's works. So it might be off. Next, I tried to imagine what kind of abilities Odysseus would have. I thought his noble phantasm would have to be related to his voyage and so I made it his fleet of ships. To elaborate a bit, a noble phantasm is the symbol that is most recognizable about that hero. For instance, King Arthur's is Excalibur and Hercules's is his nine labors. Anyways, I also thought it would be fun to touch on the subject of Circe because she doesn't come off as a goddess in the original tale. I thought I'd have Odysseus give a more clear answer on this.


Bibliography. "Odyssey" by Homer and translated by Tony Kline. Web Source.