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O
ne of several Greek heroes
who fought at Troy, as
related in Homer’s first
epic poem, the Iliad, Odysseus
stands out by virtue of his cunning
and resourcefulness. When he
becomes the subject of Homer’s
second great epic, the Odyssey,
those qualities are tested to the
limit. The fateful events related in
both works are thought to be part
of a long oral tradition that arose
hundreds of years before they were
written down and later attributed
to Homer, their legendary author.
Odysseus’s return from Asia
Minor to his kingdom on the Ionian
isle of Ithaca—off the west coast of
Greece—should have taken a week
at most by sea. No matter how
strong or weak the wind was, an
ancient Greek galley could make
good headway, thanks to its bank
of 25 oars on each side. Odysseus’s
voyage, however, took him some 10
years—a consequence of the
obstacles and challenges that the
sea god Poseidon set in his way.
As an indication of the forces that
stood against Odysseus, Homer
wrote that the hero’s very name
means “victim of enmity.”Stitches in time
The Odyssey is a drama of delay;
each step forward is followed
almost immediately by a setback.
At the story's beginning, actually
set more than midway through
Odysseus's journey, the action was
already at a standstill. Calypso, a
seductive nymph, held Odysseus
captive on her island (possibly
Gozo, off Malta). Between bouts of
lovemaking with the captive hero,
she worked away at her loom, using
a golden shuttle.
Ironically, Calypso’s weaving
echoed the heroic handiwork of
Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, at home
in Ithaca. She too was extremelybusy at her loom. Although many
on the island despaired of ever
seeing the return of Odysseus,
and despite the failure of his son
Telemachus’s searches, Penelope
remained devoted to her husband’s
memory. She kept her many eager
and increasingly insistent suitors at
bay by promising she would decide
which to marry once her tapestry
was complete. Each night, however,
she toiled for hours unpicking all
her stitches from the day before;
like Calypso, Penelope held up
time, but her delaying tactics also
showed her to be her husband’s
counterpart in cunning.Double standards
An admirer of Odysseus as a man
of action, Athena, goddess of war,
decided to intervene on his behalf
with her father, Zeus. Calypso
was compelled to let Odysseus go,
and the hero built a ship to escape
the nymph’s island and return
home. When Poseidon discovered
this, he stirred up a storm to thwartTHE QUEST OF ODYSSEUS
Calypso displays the charms with
which she entraps Odysseus on her
isle in a painting by the 16th-century
Flemish artist Hendrick van Balen.IN BRIEF
THEME
Heroic journeysSOURCE
Odyssey, Homer,
8th century bce.SETTING
The Trojan War, 13th–12th
century bce. The Aegean Sea;
Asia Minor (western Turkey);
the Peloponnese peninsula of
southern Greece.KEY FIGURES
Odysseus A cunning warrior.Poseidon God of the sea.Telemachus Odysseus's son.Penelope Odysseus’s
faithful wife.Calypso A nymph.Alcinous King of Phaecia;
father of Nausicaa.Polyphemus The one-eyed
giant, or Cyclops.Circe A sorceress.Of all those creatures
which exist on earth,
none is more weak
or worthless than
a man.
OdysseyUS_066-071_Odysseus.indd 68 30/11/17 4:55 pm
69
Odysseus. Shipwrecked and cast
ashore alone on the coast of
Phaecia (perhaps Corfu), Odysseus
was discovered by Nausicaa, the
daughter of Alcinous, the country’s
king. Smitten by Nausicaa’s beauty,
Odysseus made his way to the
king’s palace to seek her hand.
While Odysseus and his men were
being entertained as guests in the
hall of King Alcinous, the hero told
the king the impressive story of
their wanderings to date.Sweet stupor
Odysseus began with the tale of
his sojourn in the land of the Lotus-
Eaters; he had gone there after his
men sacked Ismarus, their first stop
after Troy. The Lotus-Eaters livedin a permanent trance. The lotus
blossoms not only provided
nutritional sustenance; they also
induced a daze of calmness and
contentment. Only Odysseus was
sufficiently quick-thinking and
self-disciplined to recognize the
danger when his shipmates
encountered the narcotic flowers.
Seizing the men by force, he
marched them back to their ship
and ordered his crew to set sail.Cyclops and sea god
Hungry and tired after further
days at sea, Odysseus and his men
reached another coast, where they
dropped anchor. Going ashore to
forage, the men stumbled on a
cave and were thrilled to find ❯❯See also: The Olympian gods 24–31 ■ The war of the gods and Titans 32–33 ■
The many affairs of Zeus 42–47 ■ The founding of Athens 56–57ANCIENT GREECE
I–IV
Struggles of
Telemachus
to hold on to his
father’s houseIX–XII
Wanderings
of Odysseus
as his voyage
home to Ithaca
is dogged by
setbacksXII–XIV
Odysseus
returns home,
reunites with his
son, and reclaims
his houseV–VIII
Odysseus
is freed
from captivity
with Calypso but
struggles to
return homeThe 14 books of the Odyssey
Who was Homer?
The poet credited with both
the Iliad and the Odyssey was
almost certainly mythical.
Ancient tradition portrayed
him as a blind and bearded
bard, strumming on a lyre. He
was said to come from Ionia,
on the coast of Asia Minor, in
modern-day Turkey. It is
unlikely that such a person
existed, and that a single poet
created the Iliad or the
Odyssey, let alone both.
Instead, “Homer” appears
to have been an after-the-fact
rationalization to account for
the existence of the two great
works. They are probably a
compilation of stories told by
innumerable anonymous
bards, working in an oral
tradition that dated back as
far as the 12th century bce.
Such narrators could memorize
vast screeds of narrative verse
and fluently improvise new
storylines; they would have
used many formulaic narrative
elements and ready-made
images that were widely
accepted and are strongly
evident in the Iliad and
Odyssey. The “writing” of
the two works in the 8th
century bce was most probably
a conclusive setting down,
rather than an originating act.US_066-071_Odysseus.indd 69 30/11/17 4:55 pm