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The Odyssey is the second of the two great Greek epic poems ascribed to Homer, the first being the Iliad. The book follows the events of the voyage of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, returning from the Trojan War and the story of Odysseus' son Telemachus who sets out to find his father. During two nights in the company of the Phaeacians Odysseus describes his adventures during the ten year-long voyage home, before returning to reclaim his throne.
In the English language as well as in many other languages, the word odyssey has come to refer to an epic voyage.
The Odyssey as known today consists of twenty-four books or chapters. The first four books give the background to the epic and are known as the Telemachy.
The story opens with Odysseus held on the island of Calypso and unable to return home to his wife Penelope. All the gods, except for Poseidon, are sympathetic to his plight. With Poseidon away in EthiopiaThe Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ityop'iya Amharic ) is a country of northeastern Africa. It has one of the most extensive known histories as an independent nation in the continent. Unique among African countries, the Ethiopian monarchy maintai for a feast, the others gather and AthenaThis article is about the goddess Athena. For other uses see Athena (disambiguation). Aegina Athena ( Phoenician Onga also transliterated as Athene the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategy, and war associated by the Romans with their Etruscan goddess Minerva asks ZeusZeus Kronios (descendant of Cronus), or simply Zeus or Zdeus ( Greek ) or Dias (Greek ) ("divine king") is the leader of the gods and god of the sky and thunder in Greek mythology. Etymology Zeus is the continuation of Dyeus, the supreme god in Indo-Europ to allow Odysseus to return. Poseidon has kept Odysseus away from home on account of the blinding of his son PolyphemusPolyphemus ( transliterated as Polyphemos in Robert Fitzgerald's translation), a character in Greek Mythology, is a Cyclops, a son of Poseidon and Thoosa. Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey In the story of Homer's Odyssey a scouting party led by the Trojan War and Odysseus' claiming to have tricked the Trojans by himself, but Zeus agrees to let him return. HermesDionysus, by Praxiteles Hermes (Greek: 'pile of marker stones'), in Greek mythology, is the god of travelers, shepherds, land travel, orators, literature, cunning, poets, athletics, weights and measures, and thieves, and the messenger from the gods to hum is to be sent to Calypso to ask for his release. Athena travels to the island of IthacaThis article is about the island in Greece. For other places named Ithaca, see Ithaca (disambiguation). Ithaca or Ithaka Ithaki in modern Greek) is an island in the Ionian Sea, in Greece with an area of 96 kmē and 5,000 inhabitants. It is the legendary ho, advising Odysseus' son Telemachus to call an assembly of the AchaeansThis article is about the ancient people of the Achaeans. See AchaeaMud for the MUD created by Iron Realms Entertainment. The Achaeans (also Akhaians Greek ) is the collective name given to the Greek forces in Homer's Iliad. An alternative name, used inte to speak out against the suitors of Penelope, then to travel to PylosPylos (Greek Πυλος) is the name of a bay and a town on the west coast of the Peloponnese, in the district of Messenia in southern Greece. Pylos was the site of a Bronze Age fortress, and also the site of a battle between A and Sparta to seek tidings of his father's return.
In Book 2, Telemachus assembles the people and makes a weak appeal to the suitors' consciences. They answer with scorn and are warned of their fate by Halitherses, but refuse to take any notice. Telemachus borrows a ship and travels by night to Pylos accompanied by Athena. In Book 3, they arrive in Pylos and are received by Nestor. However he has no news about Odysseus and Athena disappears. In Book 4 Telemachus drives a chariot to Pherae, halfway to Sparta, accompanied by Nestor's son, Peisistratus. They arrive in Sparta and are received by Menelaus and Helen. Menelaus describes his return from Troy and says that he has heard from Proteus, the old man of the sea, that Odysseus is still alive and held captive on an island. Menelaus invites Telemachus to stay for 11 or 12 days, which he declines. Later in the book it turns out that Telemachus made an even longer stay in Sparta after all. Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, the suitors learn that Telemachus is searching for his father and they decide to lay an ambush for him on his return.
Book 5 is set amongst the gods of Olympus. Athena again urges the release of Odysseus and Hermes is sent to Calypso, where he presents the message. Zeus prophecies that Odysseus will reach the Phaeacians at Scheria after 20 days sailing, who will take him to Ithaca. Calypso releases Odysseus.
Odysseus constructs a raft, which he uses to leave the island on the twelfth day. After sailing for 18 days he sees the peninsula of Scheria. However, Poseidon raises a storm against him in revenge for Odysseus blinding his son, Polyphemus and his landing on the island of the Phaeacians is postponed.
In books 6 and 7, Odysseus meets Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, the Phaeacian King. With the help of Athena and Nausicaa he is favourably received in the palace. He describes how he arrived from Calypso's island. The next day, after the conduct of sports, he describes the two year voyage between the fall of Troy and his captivity in the island of Calypso.
In Books 8-13 Odysseus tells of his Trojan adventures including the Trojan Horse. He recounts departing with his crew from the Trojan War, sacking Ismarus and sailing to Malea, the southern point of Greece. However from there they were driven by winds to the Lotus-eaters, most likely in an unexplored part of the world. They sailed to the land of the Cyclopes, where they were forced to escape after blinding Polyphemus, thus drawing the wrath of Poseidon. They sailed to the island of Aeolus, who tried to help them return by confining all the contrary winds in a bag. Then to Telepylos, a city of the cannibal Laestrygonians. Odysseus could escape with only a single ship to the Island of Circe, where they spent a year. Circe commanded them to visit Hades to learn the way home from the ghost of Tiresias. Odysseus learnt that they must avoid injuring the cattle of Helios, god of the Sun, on the island of Thrinacia, if the crew were to return home. Returning to Circe, then sailing on, they avoided the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, although with the loss of some crew to reach Thrinacia. On account of hunger they devoured the sacred cattle of Helios, for which they were punished with shipwreck. Only Odysseus survived, and after floating for ten days on a raft, reached the island of Calypso where he spent the next eight years.
The following day the Phaeacians take Odysseus to Ithaca in a magical barque loaded with gifts. Odysseus awakens in Ithaca and learns from Athena of the suitors of his wife.
In Books 14 and 15 Odysseus disguises himself as an old man with the assistance of Athena, he goes to the hut of his loyal swineherd Eumaeus. Eumaeus does not recognise his master but tells of the abuses of his hospitality by the suitors. In Book 15 Athena goes to fetch Telemachus from Lacedaemon where he has resided for a month. The next day is spent by Odysseus in the swineherd's hut while Telemachus reaches Pherae, halfway to Pylos. On the 38th day Telemachus reaches Pylos and boards a ship without visiting Nestor, taking with him Theoclymenus, a prophet who is on the run after killing a man. Telemachus lets Theoclymenus hide on his ship and then leaves him in the care of a friend . The ship evades the ambush of the suitors at night. Odysseus meanwhile is listening to the history of Eumaeus.
In Book 16, Telemachus reaches Ithaca and sends his ship to the city, while he himself is directed by Athena to the hut of Eumaeus. There he meets his disguised father, whom nobody yet recognises. After Eumaeus is sent to Penelope, Athena reveals Odysseus to Telemachus and, reunited, the two plot the death of the suitors. In the evening Eumaeus returns to the hut, where Odysseus is again disguised.
In Books 17-19, Telemachus travels to the city and calls Theoclymenus to the palace. In the afternoon, Odysseus and Eumaeus reach the city, where Odysseus pretends to be a beggar. After some minor conflicts he meets Telemachus and they obtain weapons. Odysseus talks to Penelope, who does not recognise him. She explains that she does not know whether Odysseus is dead, and doesn't want to remarry: she has put the suitors off by insisting that she must first weave her husband's father, Laertes, a burial shroud, and every night she undoes that day's weaving. However she says that the following day, the feast of the archer Apollo, she will agree to wed the man who can send an arrow through the holes in twelve axe-blades set up in a row, using the bow of Odysseus.
In Books 20-22 the suitors decline to kill Telemachus on the holy day of Apollo. However none of them can draw the bow of Odysseus. Odysseus, revealing himself to two of his servants, has them lock the doors. After sending an arrow through the axe-blades with his bow, he and Telemachus slaughter the suitors.
In Books 23 and 24, the suitors' ghosts reach Hades and so Agamemnon and Achilles hear of Odysseus' victory. Odysseus is reunited with his father and the kin of the suitors unsuccessfully attempt revenge. Athena reconciles the feud.
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