The Odyssey
Book I=1:
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Invocation to the Muse
The narrator is asking the muses for inspiration in
telling this epic tale.
10 years after the finale of the Trojan War.
All soldiers except Odysseus have returned
home, or have died trying to do so.
Odysseus is currently on the island of Ogygia,
with the goddess Calypso.
Calypso has fallen in love with Odysseus and
refuses to let him leave.
Book II=2
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Telemachus calls for an assembly to
discuss the intrusion of the suitors. This is
the first time such an assembly has been
called since the departure of Odysseus
some 20 years before.
Telemachus leaves the assembly and sets
sail for Pylos in hopes of answers for his
father’s prolonged absence.
Book III=3
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Telemachus and Athena (disguised as
Mentor) speak with the king of Pylos (King
Nestor) about Odysseus.
King Nestor can’t provide much information
about Odysseus as he hasn’t seen him
since the ending of the Trojan War.
King Nestor suggests Telemachus travels
to Sparta to speak with King Menelaus.
Book IV=4
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Menelaus reveals that Odysseus is alive
and is being held captive by Calypso.
Back home, the suitors have heard of
Telemachus’s absence and plan to ambush
his ship upon his return.
Book V=5
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Athena gathers with Zeus and the other gods on
Mount Olympus to plead for Odysseus’s release
from Calypso.
Zeus finally agrees and sends his messenger,
Hermes, to Ogygia to demand Odysseus’s
release.
Athena is to provide safe travel home for
Telemachus.
However, Poseidon has other plans and rages up
a storm that ship wrecks Odysseus near the
island of the Phaecians.
Book VI=6
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Odysseus meets the princess Nausicaa of
Phaecia on the beach and she takes him to
her father, King Alcinous, where he seeks
assistance.
Book VII-VIII=7-8
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Athena disguises herself as a young lady and
offers Odysseus assistance as he looks for the
castle. She also covers him with a “protective”
mist to keep him safe as he talks to the king.
Odysseus is to be provided with a Phaecian
ship for travel home, but not before….
Odysseus begins to tell the tale of his travels to
the king and queen.
Book IX=9 – Odysseus’s story begins
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After leaving Troy, strong winds take Odysseus
and his men to Ismarus, city of Cicones.
There, he and his men sack the city, kill the men,
and enslave the women. Odysseus pleads with
his men to leave immediately, but they refuse.
He loses 6 men per ship at the hands of the
reinforced Cicone soldiers.
Book IX=9 continued…..
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After their escape, Zeus and the winds carry
Odysseus and his men to the land of the LotusEaters.
His men eat the seductive lotus fruit with causes
all loss of motivation. Odysseus is forced to trick
and lock his men on the ship in order to leave.
After leaving the Lotus-Eaters, the men land on
the island of the Cyclops.
Book IX=9 continued…..
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After Odysseus and his men eat several of
Polythemus’s (Cyclops and son of Poseidon)
sheep, they encounter the one-eyed giant.
Polythemus turns violent and begins to kill
Odysseus’s men.
The Cyclops places a huge boulder across the
entrance of the cave, locking all of the men in the
cave.
Book IX=9 continued…..
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While he sleeps the men jab a giant wooden spear in his eye
blinding him.
Then Odysseus and his men cleverly attach themselves to
the underbelly of the sheep and wait for the Cyclops to move
the rock.
Once Polythemus has done so, the men are able to leave the
cave without him knowing so because Polythemus only
touches the top of the sheep as they exit.
Odysseus, like the prideful fool he is, reveals his name upon
his exit.
This angers Polythemus’s father, Poseidon, the God of the
Sea!
Book X=10
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Odysseus and his men almost get home,
but his men fearing that Odysseus is
keeping treasure from them, rip open the
bag of “wind” which sends the ship in the
wrong direction.
Odysseus and his men land on the island
of the Laestrygonians—There the powerful
giants kill many of Odysseus’s men and
destroy all but one of his ships.
Book X=10 continued….
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From there, he and his remaining men end up on
the island of Aeaea, the home of the beautiful
witch goddess Circe.
All of Odysseus’s men are turned into swine.
Before Odysseus himself speaks to Circe, he is
told by Hermes (who is in disguise) to ingest a
plant that will make him immune to Circe’s drugs.
Odysseus seduces Circe and becomes her lover
for the next year.
Book X=10 continued….
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After continuing the voyage, Circe informs
Odysseus will need to travel to Hades and
speak to the blind prophet, Teiresias
(remember that dude from Antigone?).
Book XI=11
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Teiresias:He foretells Odysseus's fate—that he
will return home, reclaim his wife and palace from
the wretched suitors, and then make another trip
to a distant land to appease Poseidon. He warns
Odysseus not to touch the flocks of the Sun when
he reaches the land of Thrinacia; otherwise, he
won't return home without suffering much more
hardship and losing all of his crew. When Tiresias
departs, Odysseus calls other spirits toward him.
He speaks with his mother, Anticleia, who updates
him on the affairs of Ithaca and relates how she
died of grief waiting for his return.
Book XII=12
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Odysseus returns to Circe: She describes the
obstacles that he will face on his voyage home
and tells him how to negotiate them.
As they sail, Odysseus is instructed to tie himself
to the ship mast, and demand his men not release
him no matter what. His men plug their ears with
beeswax.
They soon pass by the island of the sirens: The
Sirens' song is so seductive that Odysseus begs
to be released from his fetters, but his faithful men
only bind him tighter.
Book XII=12 continued
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Once they have passed the Sirens' island,
Odysseus and his men must navigate the straits
between Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla is a sixheaded monster who, when ships pass, swallows
one sailor for each head. Charybdis is an
enormous whirlpool that threatens to swallow the
entire ship. As instructed by Circe, Odysseus
holds his course tight against the cliffs of Scylla's
lair. As he and his men stare at Charybdis on the
other side of the strait, the heads of Scylla swoop
down and gobble up six of the sailors.
Book XII=12
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Odysseus next comes to Thrinacia, the
island of the Sun. He wants to avoid it
entirely, but the outspoken Eurylochus
persuades him to let his beleaguered crew
rest there
While there, the men run out of food and
foolishly kill the cattle of the sun (the exact
thing Circe warned them not to)
Book XII=12 continued….
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when the Sun finds out, he asks Zeus to
punish Odysseus and his men. Shortly after
the Achaeans set sail from Thrinacia, Zeus
kicks up another storm, which destroys the
ship and sends the entire crew to its death
beneath the waves. As had been predicted,
only Odysseus survives, and he just barely.
Book XIII=13
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Now we are brought up-to-date, and
Odysseus is planning his departure with a
Phaecian ship.
Odysseus makes it, but the Phaecians ship
is turned to stone and sunken by Poseidon
for their helping of a wayward traveller.
Book XIII=13 continued
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Back in Ithaca, Odysseus wakes to find a country that he
doesn't recognize, for Athena has shrouded it in mist to
conceal its true form while she plans his next move. At first,
he curses the Phaeacians, whom he thinks have duped him
and left him in some unknown land. But Athena, disguised as
a shepherd, meets him and tells him that he is indeed in
Ithaca. With characteristic cunning, Odysseus acts to conceal
his identity from her until she reveals hers. Delighted by
Odysseus's tricks, Athena announces that it is time for
Odysseus to use his wits to punish the suitors.
ITHACA
Book XIV=14
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Athena disguises Odysseus as a beggar in
fear of the suitors murdering the true king if
they were to find out he was here.
Odysseus speaks, in disguise, to Eumaeus,
who reveals the happenings of the suitors
and Penelope’s plans.
Book XV=15
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Athena quickly travels to Sparta to tell
Telemachus to come home and warns him
of the ambush that they have set and
explains how to avoid it. Finally, she
instructs him to head first for the home of
the swineherd Eumaeus, who will convey
the news of his safe return to Penelope.
Book XVI=16
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When Telemachus reaches Eumaeus's hut, he
finds the swineherd talking with a stranger
(Odysseus in disguise). Eumaeus recounts
Odysseus's story and suggests that the stranger
stay with Telemachus at the palace. But
Telemachus is afraid of what the suitors might do
to them. Eumaeus thus goes to the palace alone
to tell Penelope that her son has returned.
Athena changes Odysseus back revealing his true
identity to his son Telemachus.
Odysseus and Telemachus start to plot their plan.
Book XVII=17
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Telemachus leaves Odysseus at Eumaeus's hut
and heads to his palace, where he receives a
tearful welcome from Penelope and the nurse
Eurycleia
The suitors give him food with great reluctance,
and Antinous goes out of his way to insult him.
When Odysseus answers insult with insult,
Antinous gives him a blow with a stool that
disgusts even the other suitors. (This goes
against the greeks policy of hospitality)
Book XVIII=18
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Athena now puts it into Penelope's head to make
an appearance before her suitors. The goddess
gives her extra stature and beauty to inflame their
hearts. When Penelope speaks to the suitors, she
leads them on by telling them that Odysseus had
instructed her to take a new husband if he should
fail to return before Telemachus began growing
facial hair. This is to take place soon!
Book IXX=19
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When the suitors retire for the night, Telemachus and Odysseus
remove the arms as planned. Athena lights the room for them so
that they can see as they work. Telemachus tells Eurycleia that they
are storing the arms to keep them from being damaged.
Before she retires, Penelope describes to Odysseus a dream that
she has had in which an eagle swoops down upon her twenty pet
geese and kills them all; it then perches on her roof and, in a
human voice, says that he is her husband who has just put her
lovers to death. Penelope declares that she has no idea what this
dream means. Rising to the challenge, Odysseus explains it to her.
But Penelope decides that she is going to choose a new husband
nevertheless: she will marry the first man who can shoot an arrow
through the holes of twelve axes set in a line.
Book XX=20
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Tormented by the loss of her husband and
her commitment to remarry, Penelope
wakes and prays for Artemis to kill her. Her
distress wakes Odysseus, who asks Zeus
for a good omen
Book XXI=21
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Penelope gets Odysseus's bow out of the storeroom and
announces that she will marry the suitor who can string it and
then shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axes.
Telemachus sets up the axes and then tries his own hand at
the bow, but fails in his attempt to string it. The suitors warm
and grease the bow to make it supple, but one by one they all
try and fail.
Odysseus follows Eumaeus and Philoetius outside. He
assures himself of their loyalty and then reveals his identity to
them by means of the scar on his foot. He promises to treat
them as Telemachus's brothers if they fight by his side
against the suitors.
Book XXI=21 continued…
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Odysseus easily strings it and sends the
first arrow he grabs whistling through all
twelve axes.
Book XXII=22
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Odysseus shoots a second arrow through the throat of
Antinous. The suitors are confused and believe this shooting
to be an accident. Odysseus finally reveals himself, and the
suitors become terrified. They have no way out, since
Philoetius has locked the front door and Eumaeus has locked
the doors to the women's quarters. Eurymachus tries to calm
Odysseus down, insisting that Antinous was the only bad
apple among them, but Odysseus announces that he will
spare none of them. Eurymachus then charges Odysseus,
but he is cut down by another arrow. Amphinomus is the next
to fall, at the spear of Telemachus.
Book XXII=22 continued…
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full battle now rages in the palace hall. Athena
appears disguised as Mentor and encourages
Odysseus but doesn't participate immediately,
preferring instead to test Odysseus's strength.
Volleys of spears are exchanged, and Odysseus
and his men kill several suitors while receiving
only superficial wounds themselves. Finally,
Athena joins the battle, which then ends swiftly.
Book XXIII=23
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Penelope doesn't believe anything that
Eurycleia says, and she remains in
disbelief even when she comes downstairs
and sees her husband with her own eyes.
Telemachus rebukes her for not greeting
Odysseus more lovingly after his long
absence, but Odysseus has other problems
to worry about.
Book XXIII=23 continued….
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Penelope remains wary, afraid that a god is
playing a trick on her. She orders Eurycleia to
move her bridal bed, and Odysseus suddenly
flares up at her that their bed is immovable,
explaining how it is built from the trunk of an olive
tree around which the house had been
constructed. Hearing him recount these details,
she knows that this man must be her husband.
They get reacquainted and, afterward, Odysseus
gives his wife a brief account of his wanderings.
Book XXIV=24
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The scene changes abruptly. Hermes leads the
souls of the suitors, crying like bats, into Hades.
Agamemnon and Achilles argue over who had the
better death. Agamemnon describes Achilles'
funeral in detail. They see the suitors coming in
and ask how so many noble young men met their
end. The suitor Amphimedon, whom Agamemnon
knew in life, gives a brief account of their ruin,
pinning most of the blame on Penelope and her
indecision. Agamemnon contrasts the constancy
of Penelope with the treachery of Clytemnestra.
Book XXIV=24 continued….
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But when Laertes begins to cry at the memory of
Odysseus, Odysseus throws his arms around
Laertes and kisses him. He proves his identity
with the scar and with his memories of the fruit
trees that Laertes gave him when he was a little
boy. He tells Laertes how he has avenged himself
upon the suitors.
Athena makes the Ithacans forget the massacre
of their children and recognize Odysseus as king.
Peace is thus restored.