The Odyssey, attributed to Homer and probably composed in the late eighth or the seventh century BC, is the epic of Odysseus's ten-year journey home after the fall of Troy. Shipwrecks, monsters, enchantresses and a descent to the underworld lead to the hero's return to Ithaca in disguise, where he must fight the suitors besieging his wife Penelope. Guesseo quotes Samuel Butler's prose translation of 1900.
The story
Twenty years after Odysseus left for the Trojan War, his house on Ithaca is overrun by suitors who want to marry his wife Penelope and are eating up his wealth. His son Telemachus, guided by the goddess Athena, sets out to seek news of his father.
Odysseus, held for seven years by the nymph Calypso, is finally released and washed up on the island of the Phaeacians. There he tells his adventures: the Cyclops Polyphemus, the enchantress Circe, the visit to the land of the dead, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis. Taken home, he returns disguised as a beggar and takes revenge on the suitors.
The structure of the poem
The Odyssey is divided into twenty-four books. It does not tell the story in order: it begins with Telemachus, then joins Odysseus near the end of his wanderings, and his earlier adventures are told in a long flashback in books nine to twelve.
The second half takes place on Ithaca, where the themes of disguise, testing and recognition dominate, ending with Penelope's test of the marriage bed, which only her husband can pass.
Samuel Butler's translation
Samuel Butler, the English author of the satirical novel Erewhon, translated the Iliad in 1898 and the Odyssey in 1900 into plain modern prose, without the archaic language of earlier versions.
His version, now in the public domain, is one of the most widely available English translations. Countless works have been inspired by the poem, from Virgil's Aeneid to James Joyce's Ulysses, and the word odyssey has come to mean any long and eventful journey.
Anecdotes
Nobody
Trapped in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus, Odysseus tells the giant that his name is Nobody. When he blinds him and the other Cyclopes come to help, Polyphemus cries that Nobody is hurting him, and they go away.
A mentor
When Athena advises young Telemachus, she takes the form of Mentor, an old friend of Odysseus. Through a later French novel by Fénelon about Telemachus's education, the name became an ordinary word for a wise adviser.
Frequently asked questions
How long is Odysseus away from home?
Twenty years: ten years of war at Troy and ten years of wandering.
How many books are there in the Odyssey?
Twenty-four, like the Iliad.
What is the difference between the Iliad and the Odyssey?
The Iliad tells of the anger of Achilles during the Trojan War; the Odyssey tells of Odysseus's journey home after the war.