The Odyssey is an epic poem by the Greek poet Homer, recounting the wanderings of the Greek hero Odysseus after the fall of Troy, Like the Iliad, it is regarded as one of the greatest books ever produced. Particularly noteworthy in the Odyssey are the majesty of language, the saga like descriptions of Odysseus' desperate efforts to return to his home in Ithaca, and the detailed declination of the hero's character.
Homer's narrative begins with the victorious Greeks returning to their homes after sacking Troy. Odysseus' ships are driven by a storm on the coast of Thrace, where he plunders the land of the Chicones but loses a number of his crew. When he re embarks, a north wind blows his vessels to the country of the Lotophagi, on the coasts of Libya, where some of the companions of Odysseus eat the wondrous fruit and wish to rest forever. However their leader compels them to leave the land, and, sailing north again, they touch at the Island of Goats, where Odysseus leaves his fleet. Thence, with one ship, he proceeds to the land of the Cyclopes, where occurs the adventure in the cave of Polyphemus. With his reunited fleet he now visits the island of AEolus, ruler of the winds, who gives him a favoring breeze and the unfavorable winds tied in a skin. His companions, in search of treasure, open the skin, and at once they are swept back to island from which they are now sternly excluded. They then reach the land of the Laestrygonians, a race of cannibals who destroy all the ships but one, in which Odysseus escapes, landing next on the island of AEaea, inhabited by the sorceress Circe. After a year's sojourn there he is sent by Circe to the Kingdom of Hades, to inquire about his return from the seer Tiresias. Tiresias tells Odysseus the implacable enmity of the sea god Poseidon, whose son, Polyphemus, Odysseus has blinded, but encourages him at the same time with assurance that he will yet reach Ithaca in safety, if he does not meddle with the herds of the sun god Helios in Thrinacia.
Odysseus next passes in safety the perilous island of Sirens, but, when he sails between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, Scylla devours six of his companions. He next comes to Thrinacia, where his crew insists on landing; while they are storm bound and while Odysseus is asleep, they kill, in spite of their oath, some of the cattle of Helios. When they sail away a fierce storm arises and Zeus sends forth a flash of lightning that destroys the ship. Everyone on board is drowned except Odysseus, who clings to the mast and is finally washed ashore on the island of Ogygia, the abode of the nymph Calypso, by whom he is held for seven years. The nymph offers him immortality if he will remain, but his love for his wife Penelope and longing for his home is too strong, and at the entreaty of his special guardian, Athena, Zeus sends Hermes, messenger of the gods, to command his release. Sailing eastward in a skiff of his own building, he is seen by the implacable Poseidon, who rouses against him a terrible storm which wrecks his skiff. He barely escapes, by the aid of the sea goddess Leucothea to the land of the Phaeacians. Naked and worn by fatigue, Odysseus falls asleep, but is found by Nausicaa, daughter of the King, Alcinous; she receives him kindly and brings him to the city. Entering the palace under Athena's protection, he is entertained by the King, who promises him safe convoy to his home. On the magic Phaeacian ship he falls asleep, and is landed, at Ithaca, with the rich presents of the Phaeacians, while still unconscious.
Disguised as a beggar, he goes to the hut of the swineherd Eumaeus, and there meets and reveals himself to his son Telemachus. The next day he is brought by Eumaeus to the palace, where he is recognized only by his old dog, Argus, and is harshly treated by the suitors of his wife, who during his long absence have been living riotously on his estate. After an interview with the unsuspecting Penelope, to whom he foretells her husbands return, he is recognized by his old nurse. Eurycleia, whom he binds to silence. When the suitors all fail to string the great bow, the test Penelope has proposed for her suitors, Odysseus takes it, easily strings it, and shoots the arrow through a row of twelve axes. Then, aided by Telemachus, Eumaeus, and the cowherd Philaetius, he slays all the insolent suitors. The last book of the Odyssey records his recognition by his father, Laertes, and a final reconciliation with the friends of the suitors, brought about by Athena's aid.
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