Odysseus is another well-known hero from the Trojan War, and
one with a more intricate tale. He spent
ten
years fighting in the Trojan War, and another ten just trying to get back
home. Though The Odyssey details these
travels, plus what’s going on back in Ithaca
with his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus, Odysseus doesn’t enter it
until book five. Penelope is fending off
one-hundred
suitors in the palace vying for her hand, and her son has a small
quest of his own in the first four books to help with that defense.
Odysseus has been freed of Calypso at Athena’s urging after
seven years. Poseidon holds up Odysseus,
though, for vengeance regarding his son, Cyclops. He’s shipwrecked and thus tells the tale of
the last ten years: of how his first attempt to reach Ithaca was thwarted by a
storm that took him to the Lotus-eaters, how afterwards he explores the
island of the Cyclops and must blind him to get away, lose all but Odysseus’ ship in
an attack by the cannibalistic Laestrygonians, run into Circe for a year,
sail to the Land of the Dead, resist the Sirens and the six-headed Scylla, and
finally end up on the island of Helios.
There, his men feast on the cattle of the god despite warnings not to,
and thus are destroyed along with the ship.
Odysseus washes ashore at Calypso’s island, where he is unable to leave
for seven years. His story finished, his
hosts, the Phaeacians, sail him home themselves. Telemachus avoids the ambush of the suitors
with Athena’s help, and she helps father and son reunite in Ithaca
quietly. He goes to the palace as a
beggar and is discovered by his nurse, but Penelope is suspicious. She orders a contest for the suitors, and the
one who can string Odysseus bow and shoot an arrow through a dozen axes as he used to will have her hand. He wins, and
a happy ending is found for all.
More reviews about the The Odyssey