Week 3 Story: Pig Out
CURRENT VERSION: https://sites.google.com/view/taletwists/pig-out
Homer's Odyssey, translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004).
"Wow, I can't believe we're gonna meet an actual goddess!" exclaimed Eurylochus. "Thinking about it, when was the last time we even saw a girl at all. This voyage home has turned into the longest boys night ever and"
Odysseus shushed him. "Be quiet, Eury. We don't know if this goddess named Circe is on our team or an enemy, so we need to proceed with caution. However, I cannot deny the need to investigate. Let's draw straws to see who will go to Circe's home."
The straws decided that Odysseus and Eurylochus would stay behind with the main crew, while 22 men went on their trek to the house of Circe. Eurylochus was unhappy with this result and decided to sneak out of the camp to follow the mission group.
After some walking by the group, unknowingly followed by Eurylochus, they reached the large, beautiful gates of Circe's palace. The main group approached the gate, while Eurylochus snuck around the side to try to get a good view. However, his view was blocked by large trees around the estate, so he could only listen in while he looked for a secret entrance.
"Hello! We come in peace!" yelled the frontman of the group. "We, men of Odysseus, mean no harm and would like to trade wine for food if you are willing."
Eurylochus heard a door open abruptly, and the click and clack of a woman's shoes going down a set of stairs.
"You come to my island, my home, and wish to barter with me?" Circe echoed. "No. Those who come to my island are turned into pigs, and the same treatment I shall bestow upon you."
The door shut, and when Eurylochus finally found a spot to overlook the entrance, Circe and the rest of the group was gone. At this sight, Eurylochus ran back to camp as fast as he could to report the news.
"Odysseus, Odysseus, I come bearing horrible news!" Eurylochus wailed. "That wicked goddess Circe turned our scouting group into pigs using her magic!"
"Eury, is this true? This is unforgivable. We will march at once and force Circe to turn them back, or lose our lives trying!" Odysseus exclaimed.
The whole crew then sped off to the gates of Circe's palace in a fit of rage, ready to free their comrades and defeat the one responsible for their suffering.
"Circe! Come out and show yourself!" belted Odysseus.
"Oh! Are you, by chance, Odysseus, leader of the group which found me earlier?" questioned Circe.
"Yes, that is my name. Now return our friends to their original forms, you evil witch," demanded Odysseus.
As soon as he said that, the scouting group came out of the front door, human as can be. In fact, they looked relatively unscathed, besides being a bit bloated.
"Hey, you guys made it!" said one.
"Come join the party!" yelled another.
Eurylochus was shocked. "Guys, I thought Circe said she was going to turn you into pigs? What happened to you all?"
"Turn them into pigs?" Circe interrupted. "That was a figure of speech, I could tell they were hungry so I just wanted to fill them up with as much food as they could eat. Pig out. Get it. And now you come to my house calling me evil? Calling me a witch? Do not expect the same hospitality. I want you all out of my house now."
Even among pleas from the crew that they were hungry, complaints from the scouting crew that Odysseus ruined their feast, and offers from Odysseus to sacrifice Eurylochus for Circe's forgiveness, the men were forced to leave the island and continue on their journey back home to Ithaca.
Author's Note:
The original story has Odysseus and the crew land on the island and send a group to Circe's house. However, Circe actually does turn the group into pigs. Eurylochus does not trust Circe so he does not go to their house and reports back to Odysseus. After that, Odysseus earns the respect of Circe and him and his crew stay for a year, feasting and resting. I took these major points in the story and tried to flip each of them around, to create a sort of opposite story.
Homer's Odyssey, translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004).
"Wow, I can't believe we're gonna meet an actual goddess!" exclaimed Eurylochus. "Thinking about it, when was the last time we even saw a girl at all. This voyage home has turned into the longest boys night ever and"
Odysseus shushed him. "Be quiet, Eury. We don't know if this goddess named Circe is on our team or an enemy, so we need to proceed with caution. However, I cannot deny the need to investigate. Let's draw straws to see who will go to Circe's home."
The straws decided that Odysseus and Eurylochus would stay behind with the main crew, while 22 men went on their trek to the house of Circe. Eurylochus was unhappy with this result and decided to sneak out of the camp to follow the mission group.
After some walking by the group, unknowingly followed by Eurylochus, they reached the large, beautiful gates of Circe's palace. The main group approached the gate, while Eurylochus snuck around the side to try to get a good view. However, his view was blocked by large trees around the estate, so he could only listen in while he looked for a secret entrance.
"Hello! We come in peace!" yelled the frontman of the group. "We, men of Odysseus, mean no harm and would like to trade wine for food if you are willing."
Eurylochus heard a door open abruptly, and the click and clack of a woman's shoes going down a set of stairs.
"You come to my island, my home, and wish to barter with me?" Circe echoed. "No. Those who come to my island are turned into pigs, and the same treatment I shall bestow upon you."
The door shut, and when Eurylochus finally found a spot to overlook the entrance, Circe and the rest of the group was gone. At this sight, Eurylochus ran back to camp as fast as he could to report the news.
"Odysseus, Odysseus, I come bearing horrible news!" Eurylochus wailed. "That wicked goddess Circe turned our scouting group into pigs using her magic!"
"Eury, is this true? This is unforgivable. We will march at once and force Circe to turn them back, or lose our lives trying!" Odysseus exclaimed.
The whole crew then sped off to the gates of Circe's palace in a fit of rage, ready to free their comrades and defeat the one responsible for their suffering.
"Circe! Come out and show yourself!" belted Odysseus.
"Oh! Are you, by chance, Odysseus, leader of the group which found me earlier?" questioned Circe.
"Yes, that is my name. Now return our friends to their original forms, you evil witch," demanded Odysseus.
As soon as he said that, the scouting group came out of the front door, human as can be. In fact, they looked relatively unscathed, besides being a bit bloated.
"Hey, you guys made it!" said one.
"Come join the party!" yelled another.
Eurylochus was shocked. "Guys, I thought Circe said she was going to turn you into pigs? What happened to you all?"
"Turn them into pigs?" Circe interrupted. "That was a figure of speech, I could tell they were hungry so I just wanted to fill them up with as much food as they could eat. Pig out. Get it. And now you come to my house calling me evil? Calling me a witch? Do not expect the same hospitality. I want you all out of my house now."
Even among pleas from the crew that they were hungry, complaints from the scouting crew that Odysseus ruined their feast, and offers from Odysseus to sacrifice Eurylochus for Circe's forgiveness, the men were forced to leave the island and continue on their journey back home to Ithaca.
Circe offering food and drink to Odysseus. Source: Wikimedia
Author's Note:
The original story has Odysseus and the crew land on the island and send a group to Circe's house. However, Circe actually does turn the group into pigs. Eurylochus does not trust Circe so he does not go to their house and reports back to Odysseus. After that, Odysseus earns the respect of Circe and him and his crew stay for a year, feasting and resting. I took these major points in the story and tried to flip each of them around, to create a sort of opposite story.
Hey Andrew!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your modern take on The Odyssey by Homer! I thought it was a really interesting take on a very difficult and advanced story. I always really enjoyed spin-off stories of the Odysseus's journey, and this one was no different! I am studying to be an English teacher, and honestly, a story like this could be a useful resource in the classroom as a tool to help student understand the context of the story. Perhaps your version would keep students more interested than Homer's original version. Overall, great work! I look forward to reading more of your work in the future!
Best wishes,
Mikayla
Hi Andrew!
ReplyDeleteThis retelling was very amusing. I like how you gave it a more modern twist with the word choice. Eury and Circe both use phrases we use with our friends today like "boys' night" and "pig out." I am actually writing about Odysseus' adventures for my storybook, and I included a section about Circe, so it was cool to see your backwards retelling!
Hello Andrew!
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent story. However I do wonder what it could do for your audience if you could elaborate a bit more and use less dialogue and let the readers imagination take hold of what is in front of them. The retelling on the other hand is outstanding as you can easily see where you got the inspiration from and you've added quite a number of twists that the reader can relate to in a sense of it being more of a tale that they themselves could make in this era. One can also critique it by asking what if you had drawn parallels to another source in this story where it can be expanded on just more than Homer's Iliad such as other Greek mythology stories that are abundant in numerical value.
Hey Andrew!
ReplyDeleteThe suspense that you built as Odysseus and his crew were headed to attack Circe to save his men and then the moment of comedy as it turned out that they were perfectly fine was great! That was by far my favorite part of the story. I do wonder though if you could have added more imagery to this story so that the even more suspense and wonderment could be built during the story as it seemed somewhat fast paced and the reveal that the men were ok came a little quickly. What if Circe turned Eurylochus into a pig and let all the other men eat and enjoy themselves at her house? I feel like this could have been another good twist to the story and added a level of more fair punishment. This would have made Circe seem more kind as the rest of the men did not mean any harm or malice from their accusation as they were just reacting form what Eurylochus had told them. Keep up the good work!
Hi Andrew!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a great story. Great job retelling it and adding a kick to it. What if instead of having Circe turn everyone away when Eurylochus and Odysseus arrived, she turned them and their crew into pigs as punishment for calling her a witch and thinking that she was evil. I think that might add some humor to the story. They went to Circe's house acting big and tough and verbally attacking her right away, so if she instantly turned them into pigs it would be almost instant karma. The first group that went would still be humans.
Great job on all the dialogue that you used. I feel like adding dialogue to a story makes it more interesting and easier to understand for readers because there is not as many blanks to fill in. This is my favorite story that I have read so far and the way that you split the dialogue and the paragraphs made it very easy to read.
Hey Andrew!
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun twist in the retelling of this story! I enjoyed that your depiction of Circe wasn't as an evil women. She was helping the men and only sent them away after she was offended. I also enjoyed the humor you placed in the story. It is always fun to read stories that make you laugh. I also enjoyed the level of dialogue you used. I like to use dialogue like this in my stories, but I haven't seen too many stories with dialogue to this level. Great story!