Odyssey, << OD uh see, >> an epic poem, is perhaps the most influential and most popular work in ancient Greek literature. The Odyssey ranks among the greatest adventure stories in literature. It became a model for many later adventure stories.
According to tradition, the Odyssey was composed by the Greek poet Homer, probably in the 700’s B.C. The central character is Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin), the king of Ithaca. The poem describes Odysseus’s journey home after fighting for Greece against the city of Troy in the Trojan War. The author told about this war in the Iliad, another great epic poem. See Homer .
The Odyssey consists of 24 books (sections). The story takes place over about 10 years. The tale begins after much of the action has already occurred. This device of starting a story in the middle and returning to the start is called in medias res. Many later writers used it.
The Odyssey begins
on the island of Ogygia, where Odysseus has been the prisoner of the sea nymph Calypso for seven years. At a council of the gods on Mount Olympus, Zeus decides the time has come for Odysseus to return to his wife, Penelope, in Ithaca.
The scene then changes to Odysseus’s palace in Ithaca, where a group of unruly young noblemen has settled. The noblemen want Penelope to assume that her husband is dead. They demand that she marry one of them and thus choose a new king of Ithaca. Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, resents the noblemen. The goddess Athena suggests that he go on a journey to seek news of his father. Telemachus agrees and leaves Ithaca.
The tale next returns to Odysseus’s adventures. The god Hermes makes Calypso release Odysseus. Odysseus sails away on a raft, but the sea god Poseidon causes a storm and he is shipwrecked on the island of the Phaeacians. Nausicaa, the beautiful daughter of the Phaeacian king, discovers him.
Odysseus describes his wanderings
since the Trojan War while being entertained by the Phaeacians. He tells of his visit to the land of the lotus-eaters, whose magic food makes people forget their homeland. Some of his men who ate the food wanted to stay with the lotus-eaters, but Odysseus forced them to leave with him. Odysseus and his men then sailed to an island where they were captured by Polyphemus, a one-eyed giant called a Cyclops. They escaped after blinding the Cyclops with a heated stake. But the Cyclops prayed to his father, Poseidon, to avenge him by making Odysseus’s homecoming as difficult as possible.
After more adventures, the ship carrying Odysseus and his men landed on the island of the enchantress Circe. Circe changed Odysseus’s men into pigs and made Odysseus her lover. She told Odysseus that to get home, he must visit the underworld to consult the prophet Teiresias. In the underworld, Odysseus saw the ghosts of his mother and of Trojan War heroes. He also witnessed the punishment of sinners.
Teiresias warned Odysseus of the dangers awaiting him, and Circe told him how to sail past the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis. Circe also warned him about the Sirens, sea nymphs who use their beautiful singing to lure sailors to death on a magic island. Odysseus’s ship sailed past these dangers and seemed ready to reach Ithaca without further trouble. But some of Odysseus’s men stole and ate the sacred cattle of the sun on the island of Thrinacia. As punishment, the ship was destroyed by a thunderbolt and the men drowned. Odysseus was washed up on Ogygia, where the story began.
Odysseus returns home.
After Odysseus finishes his story, the Phaeacians take him to Ithaca. Athena tells him of the noblemen in his palace and advises him to return home in disguise. Odysseus goes to his palace disguised as a beggar. Penelope has agreed to marry the man who can string Odysseus’s huge bow and shoot an arrow through 12 axes. Odysseus wins the contest, kills the noblemen, and is reunited with Penelope.
The Odyssey as literature.
The Odyssey is a skillfully told adventure story. The story combines realistic accounts of life in ancient Greece and elements of historical events with fairy tales about imaginary lands.
The work also contains skillful characterization. Odysseus represents the model of a man of courage and determination. In spite of many setbacks, he never abandons his goal of returning home. But he has other human traits that keep him from being only a symbol. He enjoys life, even while struggling to get home. He is restless, clever, and even tricky and is able to invent lies easily. In fact, some later Greek dramatists made Odysseus a symbol of deceit. Penelope stands for the faithful, loving wife. Telemachus symbolizes the youth who matures by facing a difficult challenge. The travels of Odysseus and Telemachus may represent the human journey through life and the search for self-fulfillment and self-knowledge.
