The Odyssey

The Odyssey (French original title: L'Odyssée d'Astérix ) is the 26th volume in the Asterix series and was published in 1981 in the original language and in 1982 in German. It was both written and drawn by Albert Uderzo .

action

The story begins with a synchronized conversation between two wild boars, one of whom says it is afraid of ending up in Obelix's stomach, like his family before, while the other makes fun of it. A short time later they meet him and his friend Asterix and flee. They are both hunted until they meet a crowd of Romans and can save themselves while the two Gauls beat up the Romans.

When Gaius Iulius Caesar finds out about this, he gets angry and hatches a new plan with the chief of the secret police, Cajus Musencus, to conquer all of Gaul. You have to find out the secret recipe of Miraculix's magic potion, which is only passed on from druid to druid. Therefore, he has the idea to send his best agent Nullnullsix as a druid spy to the village of the indomitable Gauls to obtain the recipe. Caesar learns about the quality of the spy from the null zero six, which is hidden in his rooms as a supposed statue, and sends him off after he has turned it into a car with a button on the base and Musencus has given him a trained fly to send messages.

Meanwhile, the Gauls in the village are concerned about the bad mood of the druid Miraculix and instruct Asterix to find out the reason. Miraculix goes to the beach, waits there until late at night and only mumbles that if he doesn't come soon it will be bad, terrible, horrible and catastrophic. Asterix immediately passes the message on to Chief Majestix.

The next day the news quickly spread that the Phoenician trader Epidemais had arrived on the beach with his goods. When Miraculix heard this news, he went to the beach in a good mood and greeted the trader warmly. The villagers follow the druid and learn that Epidemais has forgotten the druid's order: stone oil . He gets angry at first, but then has a heart attack . Therefore, Asterix and Obelix are assigned by Majestix to track down a druid who can heal Miraculix. They meet the spy Nullnullsix, disguised as a druid, on his wagon, who, when asked for help, immediately accompanies them to the village.

The fake druid heals Miraculix with Scottish schnapps, and Miraculix confesses that there would be no magic potion without rock oil. Therefore Asterix and Obelix decide to travel with Epidemais to Mesopotamia , where the oil can be found. Before leaving, the agent asks Miraculix whether he could give him the recipe for the magic potion. The Gaul becomes suspicious and they negotiate that if Asterix and Obelix cannot get the stone oil, he will tell him the recipe. Nullnullsix decides to keep Asterix and Obelix from finding them and to travel with them because of that. Miraculix tells Asterix that he suspects that the druid is not who he claims to be.

After departure, Nullnullsix reports to Musencus about his agreement with the Gauls and their destination. Caesar sends his galleys, which try in vain to stop them, and blocks the ports of the Levant . Epidemais cannot call at a port with its ship and food on board is becoming scarce. The next day, Epidemais has Asterix, Obelix and Nullnullsix row to a deserted beach on the Judean coast . Soon afterwards they meet the local Jew Josua Steimazel. He helps them because they are enemies of the Romans. Jerusalem's city gates are heavily guarded by the Romans, so they wait for the night in a stable in Bethlehem .

As they climb over the city wall, Zero Zero drops and alarms a Roman patrol with a cry of pain. These and the druid spy are beaten up by Obelix. Now without zero zero they want to buy the rock oil from Samson Himmelschorus. There is none, however, as the Romans burned all the supplies. For this reason, Asterix and Obelix set off the next day with the assistant of the trader Saul Nizahle disguised as locals into the desert to find the stone oil there.

Meanwhile, Nullnullsix informs the Procurator of Judea that Asterix and Obelix have escaped and that he should have beaches and harbors guarded, as the two Gauls would have to embark again at some point in order to get back to Gaul. Meanwhile, Asterix, Obelix and Saul have reached the edge of the desert when they discover a lake that Obelix wants to jump into immediately. However, his body does not sink, he bathes in the Dead Sea . Thereupon she leaves Saul with the hint that to Mesopotamia they simply have to follow the rising sun (east).

After a few days they are shot at by Sumerians with arrows who they take to be Akkadians , their enemies, shortly afterwards by the Akkadians, who they consider to be Hittites , then by the Hittites, who consider them to be Assyrians , then by the Assyrians, who they consider Medes and ultimately they meet Medes who have just got lost in the desert. On the onward journey, Idefix sniffed out stone oil. When he digs for it, rock oil shoots out of the earth. The heroes fill a hose and travel back to Tire. There, dressed as Gauls again, they go to the Epidemais store and ask him if he can bring them back to Gaul. However, he replies that the Romans sank his ship. For the journey home they board a Roman galley that is in the harbor.

On board are Musencus and Nullzullsix, who are overwhelmed by Asterix. During the night the agent sends a message to Caesar by fly that he can now conquer all of Gaul, since the Gauls no longer have a magic potion. Shortly before returning home, Nullnullsix wants to throw the tube with rock oil into the sea. Due to an accident at Obelix, the hose bursts and the oil splashes into the sea. The Brittany has its first oil spill . When Asterix and Obelix land, they are amazed to see how the Gauls beat up the Romans who attacked the village on Caesar's orders. Miraculix was able to replace the stone oil with beetroot juice , which even improved the taste of the drink. When Asterix hears this, he has a heart attack, but Miraculix heals him with the help of the potion. Majestix tells Asterix that Nullnullsix's car suddenly turned into a suitcase and that he was trapped in it for three days. So Asterix comes up with the idea of sending the agents tied up and gagged as a present to Caesar. The same night the Gauls celebrate the return of their heroes as usual.

Remarks

The name and appearance of Nullnullsix and the technology used are a parody of James Bond and his actor Sean Connery . The head of Caesar's secret police, Cajus Musencus, is a caricature by the French actor Bernard Blier , who often played policemen. The Roman governor of Jerusalem, Pontius Penatus, is a caricature by Jean Gabin , his name and his hand-washing gesture allude to Pontius Pilate , whom Gabin played in the 1935 film Golgotha . The overnight stay of the Gauls in a stable in Bethlehem due to a lack of other accommodation options refers to Lk 2.7 EU ; the ox and donkey also present in this stable imitate popular depictions of the birth of Christ . Furthermore, the Herodian temple area can already be seen in the general view of the city of Jerusalem , which, however, was only built around 20 BC. Was expanded.

Saul Nizahle's appearance is based on that of Asterix author Rene Goscinny, who had already passed away at the time. Uderzo also dedicated this volume to him.

The many warring peoples that Asterix and Obelix encounter in the desert can be interpreted as a caricature of the Middle East conflict. Asterix's saying "The desert is alive" is an allusion to the 1953 documentary of the same name .

Albert Uderzo went on a study trip to Israel because of the stone oil .

publication

The first edition of the album L'Odyssée d'Astérix was published in 1981 by Albert René as the 26th volume in the series. The first German edition of the book took place at Ehapa on January 12, 1982, according to information from the comic book Speech Bubble . With the new edition in 2002 this volume got a new cover picture. In 1996 the same publisher published a Low German version under the title De Törn för nix .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ René Goscinny , Albert Uderzo : Asterix snackt flat , Book 2, De Törn för nix . Platt maakt by Hartmut Cyriacks , Reinhard Goltz and Peter Nissen . EHAPA-Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-7704-0467-X

[1] René Goscinny , Albert Uderzo : Asterix snackt flat , Book 2, De Törn för nix . Platt maakt by Hartmut Cyriacks , Reinhard Goltz and Peter Nissen . EHAPA-Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-7704-0467-X