They narrowly escaped from the cannibal Laestrygones, only to encounter the witch-goddess Circe soon after. Despite the help of Aeolus, King of the Winds, Odysseus and his crew were blown off course again just as home was almost in sight. Odysseus tells how he and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms, and how they visited the lethargic Lotus-Eaters with their memory-erasing food, before being captured by the giant one-eyed cyclops Polyphemus (Poseidon’s son), only escaping after he blinded the giant with a wooden stake. He is found by the young Nausicaa and her handmaidens and is made welcome by King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, and begins to tell the amazing story of his return from Troy. Calypso is finally persuaded to release him by Hermes and Zeus, but Odysseus’ makeshift boat is wrecked by his nemesis Poseidon, and he swims ashore onto an island. The scene then changes to Calypso’s island, where Odysseus has spent seven years in captivity. Menelaus tells Telemachus that he has heard that Odysseus is being held captive by the nymph Calypso. They receive him sumptuously and recount the ending of the Trojan War, including the story of the wooden horse. Ten years after the Fall of Troy, and twenty years after the Greek hero Odysseus first set out from his home in Ithaca to fight with the other Greeks against the Trojans, Odysseus’ son Telemachus and his wife Penelope are beset with over a hundred suitors who are trying to persuade Penelope that her husband is dead and that she should marry one of them.Įncouraged by the goddess Athena (always Odysseus’ protector), Telemachus sets out to look for his father, visiting some of Odysseus’ erstwhile companions such as Nestor, Menelaus and Helen, who have long since arrived home. His adventure-filled ten year journey took him through the Ionian Islands and the Peloponnese and as far away as Egypt and North Africa and the western Mediteranean, as the displeased sea-god Poseidon prevented him from reaching his home. The poem focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus ( or Ulysses, as he was known in Roman myths) and his long journey home to Ithaca following the fall of Troy. It is widely recognized as one of the great stories of all time, and has been a strong influence on later European, especially Renaissance, literature. It was probably composed near the end of the 8th Century BCE and is, in part, a sequel to “The Iliad”.
“The Odyssey” (Gr: “Odysseia”) is the second of the two epic poems attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer (the first being “The Iliad”), and usually considered the second extant work of Western literature. Introduction | Synopsis | Analysis | Resources Introduction Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire (Catullus 8).Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus (Catullus 5).Passer, deliciae meae puellae (Catullus 2).
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