Background of the Epic
The Trojan War was over. The clever
The Greeks had been been laying siege to Troy for nine long years, but suddenly it looked like their whole army had departed, leaving the horse behind.
That night, while the Trojans slept, Odysseus and his men emerged from the horse's belly. Opening the city gates, they admitted their comrades, who had snuck back in the dark.
Troy was sacked and the Trojans utterly vanquished. Now it was time for Odysseus and his fellow warriors to return to their kingdoms across the sea. Here begins the tale of the Odyssey, as sung by the blind minstrel Homer.
Eastern influences
Scholars have seen strong influences from Near Eastern mythology and literature in the Odyssey. Martin West has noted substantial parallels between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey.[10] Both Odysseus and Gilgamesh are known for traveling to the ends of the earth, and on their journeys go to the land of the dead. On his voyage to the underworld, Odysseus follows instructions given to him by Circe, a goddess who is the daughter of the sun-god Helios. Her island, Aeaea, is located at the edges of the world, and seems to have close associations with the sun. Like Odysseus, Gilgamesh gets directions on how to reach the land of the dead from a divine helper: in this case, she is the goddess Siduri, who, like Circe, dwells by the sea at the ends of the earth. Her home is also associated with the sun: Gilgamesh reaches Siduri's house by passing through a tunnel underneath Mt. Mashu, the high mountain from which the sun comes into the sky. West argues that the similarity of Odysseus' and Gilgamesh's journeys to the edges of the earth are the result of the influence of the Gilgamesh epic upon the Odyssey
Synopsis
Telemachus, Odysseus's son, is only a month old when Odysseus sets out for Troy to fight a war he wants no part of.[5] At the point where the Odyssey begins, ten years after the end of the ten-year Trojan War, Telemachus is twenty and is sharing his absent father’s house on the island of Ithaca with his mother Penelope and a crowd of 117 boisterous young men, "the Suitors", whose aim is to persuade Penelope that her husband is dead and that she should marry one of them.
Odysseus’s protector, the goddess Athena, discusses his fate with Zeus, king of the gods, at a moment when Odysseus's enemy, the god of the sea Poseidon, is absent from Mount Olympus. Then, disguised as a Taphian chieftain named Mentes, she visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father. He offers her hospitality; they observe the Suitors dining rowdily, and the bard Phemius performing a narrative poem for them. Penelope objects to Phemius's theme, the "Return from Troy"[6] because it reminds her of her missing husband, but Telemachus rebuts her objections.
That night, Athena disguised as Telemachus finds a ship and crew for the true Telemachus. The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be done to the suitors. Accompanied by Athena (now disguised as his friend Mentor), he departs for the Greek mainland and the household of Nestor, most venerable of the Greek warriors at Troy, now at home in Pylos. From there, Telemachus rides overland, accompanied by Nestor's son, to Sparta, where he finds Menelaus and Helen, now reconciled. He is told that they returned to Greece after a long voyage by way of Egypt; there, on the magical island of Pharos, Menelaus encountered the old sea-god Proteus, who told him that Odysseus was a captive of the nymph Calypso
Then the story of Odysseus is told. He has spent seven years in captivity on Calypso's island. She is persuaded to release him by the messenger god Hermes, who has been sent by Zeus in response to Athena's plea. Odysseus builds a raft and is given clothing, food and drink by Calypso. The raft is wrecked by Poseidon, but Odysseus swims ashore on the island of Scherie, where, naked and exhausted, he hides in a pile of leaves and falls asleep. The next morning, awakened by the laughter of girls, he sees the young Nausicaa, who has gone to the seashore with her maids to wash clothes. He appeals to her for help. She encourages him to seek the hospitality of her parents, Arete and Alcinous. Odysseus is welcomed and is not at first asked for his name. He remains for several days, takes part in a pentathlon, and hears the blind singer Demodocus perform two narrative poems. The first is an otherwise obscure incident of the Trojan War, the "Quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles"; the second is the amusing tale of a love affair between two Olympian gods, Ares and Aphrodite. Finally, Odysseus asks Demodocus to return to the Trojan War theme and tell of the Trojan Horse, a stratagem in which Odysseus had played a leading role. Unable to hide his emotion as he relives this episode, Odysseus at last reveals his identity. He then begins to tell the amazing story of his return from Troy.
After a piratical raid on Ismaros in the land of the Cicones, he and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms. They visited the lethargic Lotus-Eaters and were captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus, only escaping by blinding him with a wooden stake. They stayed with Aeolus, the master of the winds; he gave Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds, except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home. However, the sailors foolishly opened the bag while Odysseus slept, thinking that it contained gold. All of the winds flew out and the resulting storm drove the ships back the way they had come, just as Ithaca came into sight.
After pleading in vain with Aeolus to help them again, they re-embarked and encountered the cannibal Laestrygones. Odysseus’s ship was the only one to escape. He sailed on and visited the witch-goddess Circe. She turned half of his men into swine after feeding them cheese and wine. Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave Odysseus a drug called moly, a resistance to Circe’s magic. Circe, being attracted to Odysseus' resistance, fell in love with him and released his men. Odysseus and his crew remained with her on the island for one year, while they feasted and drank. Finally, Odysseus' men convinced Odysseus that it was time to leave for Ithaca. Guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew crossed the ocean and reached a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus sacrificed to the dead and summoned the spirit of the old prophet Tiresias to advise him. Next Odysseus met the spirit of his own mother, who had died of grief during his long absence; from her, he learned for the first time news of his own household, threatened by the greed of the suitors. Here, too, he met the spirits of famous women and famous men; notably he encountered the spirit of Agamemnon, of whose murder he now learned, who also warned him about the dangers of women (for Odysseus' encounter with the dead, see also Nekuia).
Returning to Circe’s island, they were advised by her on the remaining stages of the journey. They skirted the land of the Sirens, passed between the many-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, and landed on the island of Thrinacia. There, Odysseus’ men ignored the warnings of Tiresias and Circe, and hunted down the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios. This sacrilege was punished by a shipwreck in which all but Odysseus drowned. He was washed ashore on the island of Calypso, where she compelled him to remain as her lover for seven years before escaping.
Having listened with rapt attention to his story, the Phaeacians, who are skilled mariners, agree to help Odysseus get home. They deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbor on Ithaca. He finds his way to the hut of one of his own former slaves, the swineherd Eumaeus. Athene disguises Odysseus as a wandering beggar in order to learn how things stand in his household. After dinner, he tells the farm laborers a fictitious tale of himself: he was born in Crete, had led a party of Cretans to fight alongside other Greeks in the Trojan War, and had then spent seven years at the court of the king of Egypt; finally he had been shipwrecked in Thesprotia and crossed from there to Ithaca.
Meanwhile, Telemachus sails home from Sparta, evading an ambush set by the suitors. He disembarks on the coast of Ithaca and makes for Eumaeus’s hut. Father and son meet; Odysseus identifies himself to Telemachus (but still not to Eumaeus) and they determine that the suitors must be killed. Telemachus gets home first. Accompanied by Eumaeus, Odysseus now returns to his own house, still pretending to be a beggar. He experiences the suitors’ rowdy behavior and plans their death. He meets Penelope and tests her intentions with an invented story of his birth in Crete, where, he says, he once met Odysseus. Closely questioned, he adds that he had recently been in Thesprotia and had learned something there of Odysseus’s recent wanderings.
Odysseus’s identity is discovered by the housekeeper, Eurycleia, as she is washing his feet and discovers an old scar Odysseus received during a boar hunt; he swears her to secrecy. The next day, at Athena’s prompting, Penelope maneuvers the suitors into competing for her hand with an archery competition using Odysseus' bow. The man who can string the bow and shoot it through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes part in the competition himself; he alone is strong enough to string the bow and shoot it through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner. He turns his arrows on the suitors and with the help of Athena, Telemachus, Eumaeus and Philoteus the cowherd, all the suitors are killed. Odysseus and Telemachus hang twelve of their household maids, who betrayed Penelope and/or had sex with the suitors; they mutilate and kill the goatherd Melanthius, who had mocked and abused Odysseus. Now at last, Odysseus identifies himself to Penelope. She is hesitant, but accepts him when he mentions that their bed was made from an olive tree still rooted to the ground. Many modern and ancient scholars take this to be the original ending of the Odyssey, and the rest is an interpolation.
The next day he and Telemachus visit the country farm of his old father Laertes, who likewise accepts his identity only when Odysseus correctly describes the orchard that Laertes once gave him.
The citizens of Ithaca have followed Odysseus on the road, planning to avenge the killing of the Suitors, their sons. Their leader points out that Odysseus has now caused the deaths of two generations of the men of Ithaca—his sailors, not one of whom survived, and the suitors, whom he has now executed. The goddess Athena intervenes and persuades both sides to give up the vendetta. After this, Ithaca is at peace once more, concluding the Odyssey. Yet Odysseus' journey is not complete, as he is still fated to wander. The gods have decreed that Odysseus cannot rest until he wanders so far inland that he meets a people who have never heard of an oar or of the sea. He then must build a shrine and sacrifice before he can return home for good.
A Detailed Summary of the Epic Odyssey by Homer
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003
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.......Odysseus yearns to return home after spending seven years on the island of Ogygia as a captive love object of the sea nymph Calypso. As the daughter of the Titan Atlas, she has exercised her divine powers to keep Odysseus on the island against his wishes. Odysseus has already experienced many perilous adventures before landing on Ogygia, situated in the Ionian Sea between southern Greece and southern Italy.
.......On one of these adventures, Odysseus angers the great sea god, Poseidon, by blinding his son, Polyphemus, king of a race of one-eyed giants who inhabit the island of Sicily. In retaliation, Poseidon relentlessly torments Odysseus after he leaves Sicily, imperiling his voyage at every turn.
.......Odysseus yearns to return home after spending seven years on the island of Ogygia as a captive love object of the sea nymph Calypso. As the daughter of the Titan Atlas, she has exercised her divine powers to keep Odysseus on the island against his wishes. Odysseus has already experienced many perilous adventures before landing on Ogygia, situated in the Ionian Sea between southern Greece and southern Italy.
.......On one of these adventures, Odysseus angers the great sea god, Poseidon, by blinding his son, Polyphemus, king of a race of one-eyed giants who inhabit the island of Sicily. In retaliation, Poseidon relentlessly torments Odysseus after he leaves Sicily, imperiling his voyage at every turn.
.......During another adventure, Odysseus incurs the wrath of the sun god, Hyperion, after Odysseus’ crew slaughters and feasts on cows sacred to the god. To appease Hyperion, the mighty king of the gods, Zeus, sunders Odysseus’ ship with thunderbolts. As the ship sinks, the sea swallows the crew, but Odysseus survives by clinging to flotsam. Winds and waves buffet and toss him for nine days. On the night of the tenth day, fatigued and choked with brine, he washes ashore on Ogygia.
.......The island’s only inhabitant, Calypso, greets him kindly and shelters him in her cave. Smitten by her noble guest, she begs him to marry her and remain on the island, offering him immortality if he accepts her suit. Hoping he will one day accede to her wishes, she uses her powers as a goddess to deprive him of the means to resume his voyage home. But Odysseus—longing for the arms of his beloved wife, Penelope, and the joys of life in his homeland of Ithaca, an island off the western coast of Greece—steadfastly refuses her advances, even rejecting the offer of immortality. Weeks become months, and months become years—seven years. Still Odysseus thinks of only home and Penelope.
.......So it is, at the beginning of Homer’s epic, that Odysseus languishes on Calypso’s island as her love captive. But the Olympian gods finally take pity on him thanks to the intercession of Odysseus’ patroness, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war. She speaks on behalf of Odysseus, telling Zeus, her father, that her heart breaks for forlorn Odysseus. Odysseus longs to see the curls of smoke rising from his home fires in Ithaca, she says, but Calypso will not loose her hold on him. She reminds Zeus that Odysseus dedicated many burnt offerings to him at Troy. Swayed by her words, Zeus sends the messenger god, Hermes, to Ogygia with a command to release Odysseus.
.......Meanwhile, in Ithaca, suitors for the hand of Penelope encamp on the estate of Odysseus, feeding on his oxen and sheep and playing draughts, as they press her to accept one of them as her husband. Odysseus is lost, they believe; it is time for Penelope to choose a new husband. They are a greedy, boisterous lot—rogues who covet wealth and Penelope’s beauty. Athena, attired in her magnificent golden sandals, races to Ithaca across the clouds like the swiftest of winds. In disguise, she urges Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, to forestall the suitors and keep alive the hope that his father will return.
.......In response, Telemachus attempts to thwart the suitors, to no avail, then travels abroad to glean news of his father. He visits veterans of the Trojan war, who regale him with stories of Odysseus’ exploits but cannot provide information about Odysseus’ whereabouts or fate.
.......While Telemachus searches for information about his father, Calypso bows to the will of Zeus and helps Odysseus build a raft to carry him forth on the churning seas. But, alas, vengeful Poseidon dances the seas into a fury. The craft succumbs, but Odysseus survives, swimming to the shores of Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians. There, a beautiful maiden, Nausicaa, discovers and escorts the stranger to her father, Alcinous, the king of the Phaeacians. Even though Odysseus does not immediately reveal his identity, Alcinous warmly receives him and promises him a ship manned by 52 sailors to speed him home. After a great feast on roasted sheep, pigs and oxen, a blind poet, Demodocus, plays his lyre and sings of the exploits of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War. Odysseus weeps nostalgically upon hearing the song, but only Alcinous notices. Athletic contests—boxing matches, footraces, wrestling, and other events—follow the feasting. Odysseus, tired and careworn, does not participate. But after an arrogant athlete taunts him, Odysseus throws the discus well beyond the marks of any other participant. As the onlookers stand dumbstruck, Odysseus tells of his other skills and reveals that he fought at the walls of Troy.
.......Demodocus then sings a story of Olympus—of how the blacksmith god, Hephaestus, ensnared his beautiful wife, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, during an assignation with Mars, the god of war. At supper in the evening, Demodocus again sings of Troy, and Odysseus again weeps. When Alcinous asks his name, Odysseus at long last reveals his identity and unabashedly boasts of his accomplishments: “I am Odysseus, son of Laertes, so admired among men for my craft and cunning that my fame ascends even to heavenly Olympus.” He then describes his homeland and, finally, in one of the most important narrative sections of the Odyssey, tells the story of his adventures from the day he left Troy with a fleet of ships to the present. Here, in brief, is the sequence:
One
.......Odysseus sacks Ismarus, the city of the Cicones on the Balkan Peninsula, carrying off treasure. But an army of neighboring Cicones arrives, far outnumbering the forces of Odysseus. After many of Odysseus’ men die in a hard-fought battle, Odysseus and the rest of his forces escape in their fleet of ships. Before he leaves, Odysseus receives skins of excellent wine from Maro, a priest of the Cicones, who is grateful that none of his family died in the sacking of Ismarus. Odysseus later uses this wine to besot the one-eyed giant Polyphemus (as described in Number 3, below).
Two
.......A storm carries the voyagers to the land of the lotus-eaters. When the crewmen eat of the lotus, the fruit induces lethargy and forgetfulness. The men want only to laze in their stupor, but Odysseus manages to muster them and debark.
Three
.......On an island just off Sicily, where goats graze in abundance, Odysseus and his men kill more than one hundred of the animals and store the meat on the twelve ships in the fleet. Curious about the one-eyed giants on Sicily, Odysseus and his crew row there aboard his flagship. Taking along twelve crew members and a skin of wine, he sets outs and finds the cave of Polyphemus, the king of the giants, who is out tending his sheep and goats. He is a Cyclops, meaning “round-eyed,” because of the single eye which he and his kind have in the middle of the forehead. In the cave are stores of cheese and whey, as well lambs and kids, and the crewmen urge Odysseus to steal these provisions and leave.
.......But Odysseus—ever curious about the world and its wonders—decides to await the return of Polyphemus, thinking that perhaps the giant will present him a gift. When the Cyclops returns and enters the cave, he blocks the entrance with a massive boulder and eats two of the crew. The next morning, he eats two more crewmen, then leaves to tend his flocks, setting the boulder in place behind him. In the
evening, after his return, he drives his sheep into the cave, then eats two more men and drinks wine offered by Odysseus. He wants more wine and promises Odysseus a gift. When Odysseus refills the bowl, Polyphemus asks him to identify himself. But not until the giant drinks his third bowl of wine does Odysseus answer.
.......“I am Noman,” he says.
.......The giant then announces his gift: He will eat Odysseus last. However, drunk with wine, the giant collapses and falls asleep. Odysseus then heats a shaft of wood—cut from the giant’s club and sharpened at one end—in the glowing coals of a fire and plunges it into Polyphemus’ only eye. When he cries out, other giants gather outside the cave and call questions to Polyphemus. He says, “Noman is slaying me.” They disperse, believing Polyphemus is in a fit of madness. In the morning, after removing the boulder, Polyphemus posts himself at the entrance of the cave to feel the sheep as they go out to graze. But Odysseus and his men escape by clinging to the fleece on the bottom side of the stoutest rams.
Four
.......Odysseus next experiences more wondrous adventures. At the island of Aeolus, the king of the winds, he sojourns for a month and receives an ox-hide sack, bound with a silver thread, that contains winds to use when the need arises. But as the fleet nears Ithaca, Odysseus’ men—believing the sack holds gifts of gold and silver—open it while their leader sleeps and release the winds. Alas, the winds blow the fleet back to the island of Aeolus. This time, however, Aeolus refuses to help, believing Odysseus and his men are cursed by the gods. Odysseus and his men put out to sea again, using oars because of the loss of their winds.
Five
.......On the seventh day, they reach the city of the Laestrygonians, who—unknown to Odysseus—are another race of giants who feed on men. After Odysseus makes inquiries, thousands of the giants converge on the Greeks from all sides. They devour the crews of all of Odysseus’ ships save one, Odysseus’ own ship. He and his crew narrowly escape.
Six
.......Odysseus lands at Aeaea, the abode of the sorceress Circe. When certain of his crew members explore the environs, they happen upon her. After all but one of them, Eurylochus, eat her food, they turn into pigs but retain the mind and intelligence of a human. When Eurylochus reports the news, Odysseus sets out to investigate. The god Hermes appears to him and gives him an herb that will protect him from Circe’s power. After eating at her table, he remains human in body and mind, then orders her at the point of a sword to restore his men. She complies, then treats her guests cordially—so cordially, in fact, that they remain with Circe a full year. Before Odysseus leaves, Circe tells him he must visit the realm of the dead to receive a prophecy from Tiresias, a blind seer.
Seven
.......After sailing to a land of mist and darkness at the edge of the world, Odysseus follows a river to the entrance of the Underworld, Hades. There, after sacrificing sheep, he sees the ghost of Elpenor, one of his crew members, who died falling off a roof on Circe’s island. At Elpenor’s request, Odysseus agrees to return to the island later to conduct proper funeral rites and cremate Elpenor’s corpse. Then he sees the spirit of his mother, who died after he left for the Trojan war, and weeps for her. Finally, Tiresias emerges carrying his golden scepter, and Odysseus gives him the blood of the sheep to drink. The seer tells him many trials remain to test Odysseus, for Poseidon—that wrathful sea god who had already caused so many of the hero’s misadventures—means to imperil him further. But, says Tiresias, Odysseus will reach Ithaca eventually, avenge himself against the suitors, live on into old age, and die peacefully. Before leaving, Odysseus sees some of his dead comrades-in-arms, including proud Achilles, the mightiest of warriors, who says he would rather be a poor servant on earth than the king of kings in the Underworld.
Eight
.......After returning to Aeaea and presiding at Elpenor’s funeral, Odysseus approaches the island of the Sirens. These are sea nymphs who sing a song so alluring that it attracts to their shore all passing sailors who hear it—and then they sit, transfixed by the song, until they die. But Odysseus plugs the ears of his men with wax, so that they are unable to hear, after ordering them to tie him to a mast. Thus, as they pass the island, Odysseus himself hears the song but cannot go ashore, though he wants to, because he cannot break free of his bonds.
Nine
.......The ship then enters a narrow channel, the Strait of Messina, between the western shore of the Italian mainland and the eastern shore of Sicily. Odysseus knows this channel as the Straits of Scylla and Charybdis. On a rock on the Italian side is a six-headed monster, Scylla; opposite the rock, near the Sicilian shore, is a whirlpool created when a sea monster, Charybdis, gulps water. When the ship passes between the twin perils, Scylla stretches its necks down and devours six of the crew.
Ten
.......The ship nears Trinacia, the island of the sun god, Hyperion, where graze cattle sacred to the god. Because Circe and Tiresias had warned Odysseus not to stop there against the possibility that his men would feed on the cattle, he plans to sail on. But his men, hungry and weary, beg him to anchor there. Odysseus reluctantly heeds their wishes. One day, when Odysseus is off praying for divine favor, the crewmen—though well aware that the cattle are sacred to Hyperion—drive the best of them into the ship and feast on them. Angry Hyperion complains to Zeus and, after the ship leaves Trinacia, the king of the gods sinks it with thunderbolts. Everyone dies except Odysseus, who clings to wreckage until he reaches Calypso’s island, as described in Paragraph 3 of this summary.
Eleven
.......Having completed his story, Odysseus receives the promised ship and crew from King Alcinous and sails to Ithaca. There, in disguise as an old beggar, he plots against the suitors. Penelope, meanwhile, announces a contest: First, each competitor must bend and string the bow of Odysseus, which he left behind before debarking for Troy. Then, he must shoot an arrow through the handle holes of twelve ax heads set in a row. Whoever can do so will earn the right to marry her. She knows, of course, that only one man has the strength and skill to win the contest: Odysseus himself. But she is unaware that Odysseus has returned. The contest is merely a ruse to stall the suitors. When no suitor can meet the challenge, the “old beggar” steps forth, doffs his rags, bends and strings the bow, and sends an arrow through the ax heads.
.......Odysseus!
.......He has returned!
.......With the help of Telemachus, he slays the suitors.
.......But Penelope finds it difficult to believe that Odysseus has really returned. After all, he is much changed after twenty years. Could he be an impostor? So she conducts a test. After Odysseus bathes and puts on fresh clothes, Penelope orders a servant, Euryclea, to remove the bed from the room and outfit it with blankets and fleeces. Penelope well knows that the bed cannot be moved, for Odysseus built the bedroom around an olive tree still rooted in the ground—and made the tree itself part of the bed. Odysseus, becoming angry, says it is impossible to move the bed. Then he describes how he built the bedroom around the olive tree, then fashioned part of the tree into a bedpost, adorning it with gold and silver.
.......Because only Odysseus would know about the bed and its unusual construction, Penelope is satisfied that Odysseus truly stands before her. She breaks down, throws her arms around him, and kisses him, saying she had been worried that a dissembler would come forth and claim the right to lie next to her. All is well.
.......The next day Odysseus goes to the farm of his father, Laertes, who does not yet know his son has returned. After Odysseus embraces the old man and reveals his identity, Laertes wants further proof. Odysseus shows him a scar and identifies vineyard trees Laertes had given him: thirteen pear trees, ten apple trees, and forty fig trees. As Odysseus recites more proofs, Laertes throws his arms around his son, his legs giving out. With the help of Athena, Odysseus then makes peace with the relatives of the slain suitors.
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