The Odyssey

Structure

Terms and Conventions Poetics Figurative Language Structure Who's who Places Themes Overview

Image source: http://www.beloit.edu/~classics/main/courses/classics100/museum2/art_museum2.html

Note: This site is designed to be used with Robert Fagles' translation of the Odyssey, published by Penguin USA. It was prepared for a 9th grade English class.

The Odyssey is not structured chronologically. Although it is clearly a poem about Odysseus, we do not meet the hero until book five (Note that the division of the Odyssey into 24 books is believed to have taken place long after Homer, perhaps as a result of transcribing the poem onto papyrus rolls which could only hold a limited amount of text). The books can be divided as follows:

Books 1-4: Athena has received "permission" from Zeus to enable Odysseus to return to Ithaca, his home. She inspires his son Telemachus to stand up to the suitors who have been courting his mother Penelope, whom she has been deceiving in order to forestall a marriage to them. Odysseus has been away for almost twenty years and no one, including Telemachus, believes he will return. During the 3rd and 4th book, Telemachus visits two of the Captains who fought beside Odysseus at Troy. He learns from Menelaus, who surprisingly still seems "happily" married to Helen, that Odysseus is probably still alive, stranded on an island with the immortal nymph Calypso.

Books 5-8: We meet Odysseus on Ogygia. He is by himself and weeping, longing for home, captive of the immortal nymph Calypso. Hermes on instructions from Zeus tells Calypso she must release her captive. Odysseus has a long, storm filled journey to Phaeacia, overcoming the wind and waves stirred up by Poseidon, who is angry at Odysseus for having blinded his son, the Cyclops, Polyphemus. After being virtually washed up on Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians, Odysseus is discovered by the king's daughter Nausicaa who, inspired by Athena, bathes him and invites him to the palace of King Alcinous, and Queen Arete. Once there, Odysseus is treated as an honored (and initially anonymous) guest and he stirs only when he is insulted at the "games." He responds to goading by hurling a stone discus long past any of the Phaeacian's efforts. Alcinous has noticed that Odysseus weeps whenever the bard Demodocus sings of Troy. Finally, he is pressed by Alcinous to tell his story.

Books 9-12: After revealing that he is the legendary Odysseus, he tells of his life from his leaving Troy until his journey to Ogygia. In order, these adventures describe his men's foolish greed at the land of the Cicones, their temptation by the Lotus Eaters, Odysseus' wounding of the monstrous Cyclops, a squandered gift from Aeolus, a hazardous expedition to the land of the Lastrygonians, a year long sojourn with the bewitching Circe who sends Odysseus to Hades so he can hear the prediction of his future from the blind seer Tiresias, and where he meets his mother and several of his fellow Captains from Troy, including Agamemnon who tells of his betrayal by his wife; after returning to Circe's island to bury a fallen comrade, Circe gives him advice that enables him to travel past the seductive Sirens, between the hideous Scylla and terrifying Charybdis, only to be blown onto Thrinacia, Island of Helios, the sun god, where, after a month, his men succumb to temptation and eat Helios' sacred cattle. When Odysseus and his men leave, Zeus strikes their ship with a thunderbolt. Odysseus, who did not eat the cattle, is spared, and clinging to the wreckage, he finally lands on Ogygia. At the end of the recounting of his story, Odysseus is offered a ship by Alcinous, many gifts, and a transport back to Ithaca.

Books 13-24: The last half of the Odyssey follows Odysseus from his landing on Ithaca to his eventual reunion with Telemachus, the defeat of the suitors, and his reunions with Penelope and his father. Following the advice of Athena, who is never far from him during these books, he is disguised as a beggar until he reveals himself to the terrified suitors at the beginning of Book 22. During this time, he has endured humiliations at the hands of many of the suitors, including his goatherd, but he has also discovered the loyalty of the swineherd and the cowherd, as well as that of his son, his wife (who, like the swineherd and the cowherd, do not recognize him) and his old nurse, Eurycleia (who, because of a scar from childhood, does recognize him). Through the help of the swineherd and Telemachus, and the sporadic in attentiveness of the somewhat drunk suitors, he manages to be allowed to enter a contest to string his old bow. After he succeeds, he reveals himself. His onslaught is ferocious but not without a moment when Athena feels the need to chastise him for his lack of spirit (and faith in her). After reuniting with Penelope (who stubbornly refuses at first to recognize him) and his father Laertes, he has a final showdown with the families of the suitors who have come to revenge the deaths of the children. After a brief skirmish, Athena (in disguise) and her "team" rout the Ithacans to route. The poem end when Athena restrains Odysseus from wrecking further havoc.

Odyssey Overview