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How to survive sea monsters like Odysseus
Answers for Globle, Chronogram, Metazooa, and more from Oct 7 - Oct 13
Abe Train
October 14, 2024
Coming to your inbox every Monday with a brand new fun-fact and all the answers to Trainwreck Labs games from the past week.
This week, we have…
A fun fact inspired by a recent Fictogram answer
Trivia!
Answers to last week's games
Reader survey
How to survive sea monsters like Odysseus
Thank gods Italy solved its sea monster issue in the days since the Odyssey, or Mediterranean cruises would be awfully unpleasant. Image generated by DALL-E.
Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, spans 24 books and captures the end of one man’s 10 year journey home after the Trojan War. It follows Odysseus (Fictogram guest #325), king of Ithaca, who outsmarts a cyclops, escapes a sorceress, and navigates his way through channel of water with sea monsters on either side.
In the poem, the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis are feared by all for their destructive nature, inhabiting the narrow channel that separates Italy from the island of Sicily. On one side resides Scylla, a vengeful six-headed monster; on the other side, Charybdis, a tempestuous whirlpool. Odysseus chooses to chart his course closer to Scylla and sacrifice six of his men to the monster, in order to save the rest of the men on his ship.
Interestingly, these sea monsters may not be entirely fictional. Scholars say that Odysseus’s demons might in fact be poetic representations of real dangers that sailors faced in the Strait of Messina. Research from the University of Oregon has unpacked some of the geology behind the lore, showing how seismically active faults created a narrow passage filled with hazards. Locals may have used Scylla and Charybdis to explain why so many ships and men perished at the strait. The phrase "between Scylla and Charybdis" has come to symbolize being caught between two perilous options, much like the modern idiom "between a rock and a hard place."
Learn more
Trivia!
In The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men end up on an island with a specific plant that makes them blissful and forgetful, keeping them on the island indefinitely. What is the plant they eat? |
Answers to last week's games
Monday, October 7 to Sunday, October 13.
Globle
| Globle: Capitals
|
Chronogram
| Fictogram
|
Metazooa
| Metaflora
|
Linxicon
The following are the shortest paths from last week:
#238 negotiate -> money -> religion -> sin
#239 transformation -> reform -> government -> public
#240 fiber -> grass -> flower -> rose
#241 video -> motion -> wander
#242 super -> superheroes -> them (this is a weird one)
#243 forever -> lasting -> present -> indicate
#244 significantly -> dangerously -> violence -> gun
#245 Play now!
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
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