![]() Moved by his story, the Phaeacians deliver Odysseus to Ithaca, where he: after so long a wait and so much pain, was filled with happiness at last. ( Greece’s river to the ‘underworld’ now lures adventure travelers.) Along the way, his fleet wrecks, and his men are lost. He takes a trip to the underworld, withstands the deadly sirens’ song, and navigates the treacherous waters between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis. Odysseus escapes numerous perils, like the cannibalistic Laestrygonians and the sorceress Circe, who turns his men into swine. The Cyclops then prays to his father, the god Poseidon, to curse the king and force him to wander for 10 years. Odysseus taunts the enraged Polyphemus and tells him his name. Odysseus craftily gets the monster drunk and blinds him when he passes out. The audience is enthralled by Odysseus, whose troubles begin when his men are trapped by the Cyclops Polyphemus. He sets out on a raft and reaches the island of the Phaeacians, to whom he reveals his true identity and tells the story of his 10-year voyage since the end of the Trojan War. The gods intercede and command her to release him. The immortal Calypso is in love with him and will not let him go, but Odysseus continues to long for home. Meanwhile, Odysseus has spent seven years waylaid on a nymph’s island. ( Revealing the hidden lives of ancient Greek women.) Telemachus, encouraged by the goddess Athena, has begun searching for his father, much to the displeasure of the suitors. ![]() To buy time, at night she has been secretly unraveling the work she had done that day, all the while holding out hope for Odysseus’ return. There are still some insights to be gleaned about life during the Mycenaean period or just after through Odysseus’ travels, making it not only a thrilling trickster tale but also an important historical snapshot. Historians believe that The Odyssey incorporates earlier oral traditions from that period while reflecting the cultural norms of Homer’s era. ( How do we know what ancient Greek warriors wore for battle? It's in The Iliad.)Īlthough it was written down centuries later, The Odyssey is set in Mycenaean Greece during the middle of the Bronze Age, between 16 B.C. ![]() Time after time, the enraged god thwarts Odysseus’ progress, yet the wily trickster manages to survive again and again. The voyage should have taken days, but instead it stretches across a decade because Odysseus has drawn the ire of Poseidon, god of the sea. The Odyssey recounts his return home to his kingdom, wife Penelope, and son Telemachus. The king of Ithaca, Odysseus fights for the Greeks. Odysseus first appears in another work attributed to Homer, The Iliad, which tells the story of a feud between Achilles and Agamemnon during the 10-year war between the Greeks and Trojans. ![]()
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