A summary of Book 9 in Homer's The Odyssey. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Odyssey and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.

Read the full text of The Odyssey: Book IX.

Just as Odysseus taunts the blinded Polyphemus in book 9 by boasting about his defeat of the Cyclops, the members of his crew prove unable to resist looking into Aeolus’s bag, and their greed ends up complicating their nostos, or homeward voyage.

A list of all the characters in The Odyssey. The Odyssey characters include: Odysseus, Telemachus, Penelope, Athena, Calypso, Circe, Poseidon, Zeus, Antinous, Polyphemus, Tiresias, Nestor, Menelaus, Helen, Agamemnon, Achilles.

Important quotes from Book 9 Quotes in The Odyssey.

A short summary of Homer's The Odyssey. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Odyssey.

The Iliad tells the story of the Greek struggle to rescue Helen, a Greek queen, from her Trojan captors. The Odyssey takes the fall of the city of Troy as its starting point and crafts a new …

Take a quiz about the important details and events in of The Odyssey.

In this metaphor, the Fates are compared to Spinners, or weavers, and Odysseus’s life to a thread that they finished spinning before he was even born; in other words, the events of his life have been predetermined. Book 9

His most distinguishing trait, however, is his sharp intellect. Odysseus’s quick thinking helps him out of some very tough situations, as when he escapes from the cave of the Cyclops in Book 9, or when he hides his slaughter of the suitors by having his minstrel strike up a …