The Odyssey Summary
The Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic poem by Homer that tells the story of Odysseus’s ten-year struggle to return home to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War.
- In Odysseus’s absence, his wife, Penelope, is plagued by destructive suitors, and his son, Telemachus, has become a young man.
- Odysseus and his crew undergo many trials and suffer the wrath of the god Poseidon. The goddess Athena protects Odysseus, but all of his men die during the journey.
- After arriving in Ithaca, Odysseus slaughters the suitors with the aid of Athena and reunites with his wife and son.
Summary
Homer’s Odyssey takes place in the aftermath of the Trojan War, after the events of the Iliad. It follows the hero Odysseus and the ten ill-fated years it takes for him to return to Ithaca, his homeland. It is divided into twenty-four books.
Book 1 begins with the speaker invoking the Muse so that he may be granted guidance in telling Odysseus’s tale. Odysseus is the only one of the Danaans whose fate is unknown to his people, as all else who fought in the Trojan War have either returned home or perished.
For seven years now, Odysseus has been a captive guest of the nymph Calypso on the island of Ogygia. On Ithaca, meanwhile, Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus, are beset by scores of suitors who feast recklessly on their stores, believing Odysseus dead.
The goddess Athena, who has always favored Odysseus, implores Zeus to send Hermes to Ogygia and compel Calypso to set him free. For her part, Athena travels to Ithaca and disguises herself as one of Odysseus’s old friends, Mentor, in order to console Telemachus and give him advice concerning the suitors and Odysseus’s imminent homecoming.
In a ploy to protect Telemachus from the hot-blooded suitors, she bids him assemble a crew of trustworthy men and journey to the Greek mainland to collect information on Odysseus.
Books 2 to 4 center on Telemachus and his stay on the Greek mainland, first at Pylos, in the household of King Nestor, one of the Greek chieftains who fought in the war. Because King Nestor is able to provide little information as to what happened to Odysseus, he sends Telemachus with his son, Pisistratus, to Sparta—where King Menelaus, the brother of the late King Agamemnon, resides with his wife, Helen.
In Sparta, Telemachus is given a grand welcome and regaled with tales of his father’s heroism and wit. King Menelaus also reveals that Odysseus is still very much alive, trapped on Ogygia by the nymph Calypso. Meanwhile, on Ithaca, the suitors discover that Telemachus has left the island and plot to ambush and murder him when he returns.
Book 5 centers on Odysseus’s travels following his release from Ogygia. When Poseidon finds Odysseus sailing on the open sea, he sends a great storm which Odysseus only survives with the help of Athena and the sea nymph Leucothea.
Odysseus swims ashore to Scheria, land of the seafaring Phaeacians. Books 6 to 8 relate how Odysseus, posing as a wanderer, is welcomed by King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Scheria. When he finally reveals to the court of Scheria who he is, he is asked to tell the unfortunate tale of how he came to wander the seas for more than nine years.
Books 9 to 12 tell Odysseus’s tale—the three years of trials and tribulations he endures after the Trojan War. Book 9 relates his unpleasant encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus, who trapped him and his men in a cave, devouring some of his men in the process. Odysseus devises a cunning plan of escape and, in the process, blinds Polyphemus—and so incurs the wrath of Poseidon, Polyphemus’s father.
Book 10 is an account of how Aeolus, the master of winds, gifts Odysseus with an ox-skin pouch of winds to help him and his men journey homeward. Odysseus uses this pouch to great success, with Ithaca coming within view on the tenth day of their sailing.
Odysseus’s men, however, suspect there to be hidden riches in the pouch and open it while Odysseus is asleep—and so their ships are blown back to Aeolus, who refuses to help them a second time. Odysseus then loses all ships but his own in a gruesome attack from the Laestrygonians, a race of cannibalistic giants. After the ordeal, the survivors make port at the island of Aeaea, home of the goddess Circe.
Book 11 is an account of Odysseus’s journey to the Land of the Dead. Circe informs Odysseus that, in order to reach Ithaca, he must first go to Land of the Dead and speak with Tiresias, the blind prophet. In the Land of the Dead, Tiresias reveals to Odysseus that Odysseus is cursed by the god Poseidon, whom he angered by blinding Polyphemus. He also informs Odysseus that he will eventually reach home—alone, after many struggles—and find his household in chaos. Apart from Tiresias, Odysseus also speaks with his mother, Achilles, Agamemnon, and many others.
Book 12 is an account of Odysseus’s departure from Circe’s island and the hardships he endures with the Sirens, the Prowling Rocks, and the six-headed monster Scylla, who devours six of his men in exchange for letting their ship pass. After these trials, Odysseus’s ship makes port at Thrinacia, where the sun god Helios keeps his cattle—sacred animals Circe had warned Odysseus not to touch. Odysseus’s men defy him, however, and slaughter one of the cattle. This prompts Zeus to send a terrible storm, killing all of the men but Odysseus, who washes up ashore on Ogygia, where he spends the next seven years as the captive guest of Calypso. Thus Odysseus’s tale ends.
Books 13 to 14 center on Odysseus’s return to Ithaca with the help of the Phaeacians. Once on the island, Athena transforms Odysseus’s appearance to that of a beggar so that he may collect information before revealing himself to his people. Under this disguise, Odysseus befriends the loyal swineherd Eumaeus and questions him about Ithaca’s state of affairs.
Books 15 to 16 center on Telemachus’s return to Ithaca, evading the suitors’ ambush with Athena’s guidance. Athena also advises Telemachus to visit Eumaeus before heading home. Odysseus reveals his true form to Telemachus, and the two reunite in joy.
Books 17 to 20 center on Odysseus’s return to his estate, disguised as a beggar. There he is able to observe and pass quiet judgment on the suitors, as well as the household servants who have betrayed him. He also uses this disguise to talk to Penelope and approve of her plan to hold a contest the following day to decide, once and for all, who is to be her husband. Books 21 to 22 center on Odysseus’s violent retribution.
Penelope announces that whoever can shoot through the openings of twelve axes with Odysseus’s great back-strung bow shall be her husband. The suitors all take turns trying, but none are able to even string the bow. Finally, the disguised Odysseus volunteers and successfully accomplishes Penelope’s task. He then casts off his disguise, denounces the suitors’ crimes, and proceeds to slaughter them all with the help of Telemachus, the swineherd Eumaeus, and the cattle foreman Philoetius. After the suitors have all been killed, Odysseus orders the execution of the servants who had betrayed him in his absence.
Book 23 describes the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope, who first tests his knowledge of their marriage bed in order to ensure that he is truly her husband. Odysseus passes this test, and the two reunite joyfully.
Finally, in book 24, Odysseus visits his father, Laertes, who rejoices to see him again. The people of Ithaca, however, are angered at the killings and march toward Laertes’s land to apprehend Odysseus. Once they are face to face with Odysseus, however, Athena intervenes and declares that neither blood nor civil unrest must ensue on Ithaca—and so the two parties make peace.
Expert Q&A
Have any famous critics written about The Odyssey? Who are they?
Quick answer:
The Odyssey is a poem that has been studied by scholars for thousands of years. The poem has also inspired many other works of literature, including the epic film Troy. The story begins with the main character, Odysseus, who after fighting in the Trojan War (where he fought on the Greek side), is trying to make his way home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus after ten years of being away. Odysseus' journey home takes him through many ordeals involving gods and monsters alike. He is shipwrecked several times, but always manages to get off his island and make it to shore in one piece.Many Homeric scholars have spent their entire careers studying and writing about the Odyssey. Some of these critics have also used their knowledge of the poem to complete new translations of Homer's Ancient Greek epic as well. Criticism of the text has occurred in three main phases: classical scholarship, eighteenth and nineteenth-century scholarship, and modern scholarship.
Classical scholarship regarding the Odyssey goes back to ancient times. The earliest Homeric scholars aimed to ensure that written versions of the epic poem were consistent in Greek language use and poetic rhythm. Even well-known ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle wrote frequently about Homer and quoted his works.
Criticism of the Odyssey changed in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to focus on what we now call the Homeric Question: did Homer write every book of the Odyssey (and his other famous work the Iliad)? These critics aimed to fact-check the epic and find inconsistencies with historical references and language use. Famous critics of this time period include the Scottish scholar Thomas Blackwell and the German scholars Johann Hermann and Karl Lachmann.
Modern scholars have focused on many different aspects of the epic, including appropriate translation from Ancient Greek to modern English and the social issues addressed in the poem. Two notable women have written extensively about the gender bias present in both the original story and in male translators' versions of the story. The first female scholar, Mary Beard, has critiqued how the Odyssey is one the earliest examples of misogyny (defined as a hate and/or distrust in women) in literature. Beard says the poem's focus on Odysseus's and Telemachus's journeys often comes at the expense of all the female characters they silence and take advantage of. The second female scholar, Emily Wilson, recently completed the first modern English translation of the Odyssey by a woman. Wilson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has written about the ways that previous translations by men were full of biases in language use that made male characters in the epic appear to be more important than female characters, even in scenes that did not require this unequal power dynamic. Her translation of the Odyssey aimed to fix these instances of gender bias and make the language more accessible for modern readers.
The relationship between mankind and the gods in Homer's epics
Summary:
In Homer's epics, the relationship between mankind and the gods is complex and interactive. The gods frequently intervene in human affairs, often guiding, aiding, or hindering individuals based on their own whims and relationships with mortals. Humans show reverence and seek favor through prayers and sacrifices, acknowledging the gods' immense influence over their fates and fortunes.
How does Homer portray the relationship between gods and man in the Odyssey?
The relationship between gods and mortals in the Odyssey leaves no doubt that the gods are firmly in charge. The world presented to us by Homer is their world, a world over which they exercise complete control at all times. Whatever happens on Earth, no matter how much human initiative appears to be involved, is either a direct expression of divine will or has simply been allowed to happen by the gods. Either way, it's the gods who are in charge, not humans.
One thing we learn from the Odyssey, as with other tales from Greek mythology, is that the gods like to intervene in human affairs. They're forever getting involved, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way; it all depends on which god is intervening and why.
Numerous examples of good intervention come from the goddess Athena. At various points of the story, for example, she gives crucial help and assistance to Odysseus and Telemachus, such as disguising the former as a beggar to make it easier for him to go undetected, and guiding the latter in how to conduct himself as a man before other men.
But not all divine intervention in the Odyssey is so benevolent. The father of the gods, Zeus, destroys Odysseus's ship, punishing him and his men for eating of the oxen of the sun-god Helios. This is a reminder to Odysseus that, no matter how physically strong, cunning, and heroic he may be, he's still a mortal, and as such his fate remains in the hands of the gods.
Interesting facts about The Odyssey and its author, Homer
Summary:
Homer's The Odyssey is an epic poem that follows Odysseus's 10-year journey home after the Trojan War. Interesting facts include that Homer might have been blind and that his existence is debated among scholars. The poem is a cornerstone of ancient Greek literature and has influenced countless works over centuries.
What are three interesting facts from the introduction of Homer's Odyssey?
The first fact would be concerning the opening, which is a traditional appeal to a Muse in order to give the author inspiration to be able to tell his tale. Other epic texts begin in a similar way, with the author appealing to divine inspiration to help him narrate the tale. This is why the story begins in this fashion:
Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
A second fact would be that Odysseus, the "ingenious hero" in the passage, was a character who was very much involved in the siege of Troy, which Homer wrote about in his other major epic, the Iliad. It was only after the sacking of Troy and the end of the battle that he was able to think about going back home to Ithaca and to his wife, Penelope. Lastly, it was Odysseus who came up with the idea that successfully resulted in victory for Agamemnon's forces, as he was the person who thought up the cunning plan of the Trojan Horse, which allowed the Greeks to place a small group of men within the city who could then open the gates and allow the Greek army to enter the city and sack it. The three facts to the opening of this tale therefore relate to its style and also its heroic figure, Odysseus, and his exploits before the tale starts.
What are three interesting facts about the author of The Odyssey?
Homer is the reputed author of The Odyssey and the Iliad. However, nothing is actually known about him for certain. Some even wonder if he existed at all. The sources of information about him are mostly based on conjecture and rumor. Therefore, any reputed facts about him must be taken with a certain degree of skepticism.
It is often said that Homer was blind. This may have originated from a reference to the blind bard Demodocus in The Odyssey. Homer praises this fictional poet above all others, and it has often been assumed that this may have been self-referential.
It is believed that Homer was from Ionia based on the particular style of the Greek language used in the two epic poems. These lands are part of the Aegean coast of what is now Turkey. Some historians have placed his birthplace in the Ionian city of Chios. During ancient times, these lands were largely inhabited by Greeks.
Homer would have had an incredible memory. Poems of his time were generally spoken aloud. Poets often included long and complicated sections of their poems that were meant to show off their gift of memorization. For instance, the long catalog of the Greek ships and their crews in the second book of the Iliad would have served this purpose. It was only until long after Homer's time that his works would have been written down.
The Odyssey's Historical Context
Summary:
The Odyssey, attributed to Homer, is believed to have been composed in the 8th or 9th century BCE, though some suggest it dates back to around 1178 BCE based on astronomical evidence. The poem likely evolved from oral traditions before being transcribed, as supported by scholars like Milman Parry. Homer, possibly blind, may have compiled existing tales into a sophisticated narrative rather than writing it himself. The earliest Greek writings date to around 725-675 BCE, aligning with this timeline.
What is the age of the story The Odyssey?
The Odyssey, attributed to Homer, is commonly dated to around 800 BC, written on the author's home Iona, now the oceanside coast of Turkey.
Interestingly, there are some who feel that the story actually comes from around 1170. That's almost 400 years older than previously thought. They have used a computer to analyze astronomical data from the general time period and to try to match it with clues from the story:
"The first clue is Odysseus's sighting of Venus just before dawn as he arrives on Ithaca. The second is a new moon on the night before the massacre of the suitors. The final clue is a total eclipse, falling over Ithaca around noon, when Penelope's suitors sit down for their noon meal. The seer Theoclymenus approaches the suitors and foretells their death, saying, 'The Sun has been obliterated from the sky, and an unlucky darkness invades the world.'"
They used computer software to scan the positions of all 1684 new moons during that general time period for dates that match all of the evidence, an occurrence that doesn't happen very often. This is how they came up with the year 1178. This actually kind of corresponds with another event in the book, the fall of Troy, which archaeological evidence suggests was about 1190 (putting it at just about the right time frame for Homer's story.) Anthropologists hadn't thought the Greeks were well versed at astronomy during this time, but these findings show that Homer must have understood a lot about the stars to include them in his story.
When was Homer's Odyssey written?
Since the answers so far were good, I would just like to add a few things about the oral nature of poetry. Some people might believe that Homer's Iliad an Odyssey are too long for there to be any accurate transmission from oral poetry to written language. This is a reasonable assumption when you consider the length of these poems, but a scholar by the name of Milman Parry was able to prove that oral poetry could be recited from generation to generation from memory. He made his case from studying Slavic bards that recounted their tales. So, if Milman Parry is correct, much of Homer could have been preserved in oral form before it was committed to writing, probably sometime in the 700s.
When was Homer's Odyssey written?
The answer to your question is explored in depth in Bernard Knox's introduction to Robert Fagles's translation. According to Professor Knox, the earliest examples of Greek writing go back to around 725-675 BCE, and that is believed to be the time of that The Iliad was committed to writing. The Odyssey is believed to have been composed sometime later.
The most reliable theory, according to Knox, is that the poem was composed orally, and over an extended period of time committed to writing.
As to the argument that Homer simply strung together a collection of ancient tales, Professor Knox debunks that theory. The structure of the poem is too sophistocated, particularly in terms of chronology, to have been a compilation.
So to answer your question briefly, you could safely say, as Gbeatty suggests below, the seventh or eighth century BCE. It was originally performed entirely from memory, and that the written text probably evolved over considerable period of time.
When was Homer's Odyssey written?
Ah, but what do you mean by "written"?
To expand on that a bit, Homer's version was composed during his lifetime, which was the seventh or eighth century BC.
However, versions of the story circulated for some time before that, and some scholars think he didn't write the poem as much as he simply compiled a single version from oral folk transmission.
What's more, some ancient traditions held that Homer was blind, which would have meant he composed orally and that his poem was written down by someone else.
When was The Odyssey written?
The Odyssey was most likely written in the eighth or ninth century B.C. by Homer, but no one knows for sure.
The Odyssey tells a tale of a hero from long ago, as is evidenced from the opening line.
TELL ME, O MUSE, of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. (book 1, ch 6)
It is impossible to give an exact date for when The Odyssey was written. It is clearly written after the Trojan War in Ancient Greece. We are not even entirely sure who wrote it, even though it is widely attributed to Homer. We do not even know when Homer lived.
Still, the common theory dictates that Homer lived on the western coast of Asia Minor (in modern-day Turkey) in the city of Smyrna circa the eighth or ninth century B.C. (enotes, overview)
The Trojan war “was already several centuries old in Homer’s day” (enotes, overview). None of the original texts survived, but the “earliest papyrus fragments date back to the 3rd century BC” (Wikipedia). Some scholars believe The Odyssey is even older (salon.com).
In the end, it does not really matter what The Odyssey was written. It captures a long ago time in a beautiful and entertaining way, whoever wrote it.
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