The Odyssey: Odysseus’s journey home in Greek mythology

The Odyssey is one of the two great founding epics of Western civilization, attributed to Homer and composed in the eighth century BCE. It tells the ten years of wandering of Odysseus on the road home from Troy to his island of Ithaca — ten years marked by storms, monsters, divine seductions, and an unceasing longing for home.

The legacy of the Trojan War

The Odyssey begins where the Iliad ends. The war is over; Troy has fallen. But coming home is not simple: the gods are divided over the fate of the victors. Athena, angered by sacrileges committed during the sack of Troy, first turns against the Greeks before becoming Odysseus’s protector. Poseidon, furious that Odysseus blinded his son Polyphemus, will pursue him across every sea for ten years.

The Cyclops: the first great trial

The Cyclops episode is one of the most celebrated sequences in all of Antiquity. Arriving on the island of the Cyclopes, Odysseus and his companions are captured by Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, who devours his prisoners one by one. Odysseus blinds the Cyclops with an olive-wood stake hardened in fire and escapes by hiding under the wool of the sheep.

By revealing his true name to the cursing Cyclops, Odysseus commits an act of hubris that triggers Poseidon’s vengeance and extends his wandering by years.

Circe and the transformation

On the island of Aeaea lives Circe, a divine sorceress, daughter of the Sun. She transforms Odysseus’s companions into swine. Guided by Hermes, who gives him the magic herb moly to resist the enchantment, Odysseus defies the spell. Impressed, Circe restores the companions to human form. Odysseus stays with her for a year before resuming his voyage.

The Nekyia: descent to the Underworld

It is at Circe’s direction that Odysseus descends to the Underworld to consult the seer Tiresias. This Nekyia (Book XI) is one of the deepest scenes in the entire epic.

Odysseus summons the souls of the dead and speaks with:

• the shade of his mother Anticleia, who died of grief during his absence
• the seer Tiresias, who maps out his road home
• the shade of Achilles, who delivers a stunning truth: he would rather be the last of slaves among the living than king of the dead

This scene reveals the price of heroic glory — and offers a melancholy counterpoint to the choice Achilles made in life. Cerberus is evoked as the guardian of the inner gates, but Odysseus remains at the threshold without crossing the absolute boundary.

The Sirens, Charybdis and Scylla

The passage of the Sirens — whose enchanting song draws sailors to their destruction — is navigated through cunning: Odysseus has his men stop their ears with wax, and has himself lashed to the mast so he can hear without being able to yield.

Scylla and Charybdis present two opposing dangers in a narrow strait: the first a six-headed monster devouring sailors from her cliff, the second an immense whirlpool engulfing entire ships. Odysseus chooses the lesser evil — losing six men to Scylla rather than the whole ship to Charybdis.

The island of Helios and the punishment of the companions

On the island of Thrinacia, his starving companions slaughter the sacred cattle of Helios despite Odysseus’s explicit prohibition. Zeus, appealed to by Helios, unleashes a storm that destroys the ship and drowns every companion. Odysseus alone survives.

Calypso and the refusal of immortality

Stranded on the island of Ogygia, Odysseus spends seven years with the nymph Calypso, who loves him and offers immortality if he stays. He refuses. Despite the years and the temptation, he desires nothing but the return home. It is Athena who intercedes with Zeus so that Hermes orders Calypso to release him.

This refusal of immortality is the central moral gesture of the epic: Odysseus chooses the human condition, with all its mortality and pain, over a meaningless eternity.

Phaeacia and the story within the story

After yet another shipwreck, Odysseus arrives in Phaeacia where the princess Nausicaa receives him. Before King Alcinous, he recites the entirety of his story — Books IX through XII of the Odyssey present themselves as Odysseus’s own account of himself. The Phaeacians return him to Ithaca while he sleeps.

The return and the reckoning

Back in Ithaca, Odysseus disguises himself as a beggar. He finds his palace overrun by suitors competing for Penelope’s hand, waiting for twenty years. His faithful wife has held them off through a ruse: she weaves a burial shroud by day and unravels it by night, promising to choose once the work is done.

Athena orchestrates the final reckoning. Only Odysseus can string the bow that belongs to him and shoot an arrow through twelve axes lined in a row. The massacre of the suitors that follows is merciless. Odysseus finds Penelope — and the twenty-year circle closes.

The Odyssey as a universal narrative model

The Odyssey gave world literature the word “odyssey” — any long journey marked by transformative trials. It laid the foundations for travel narrative, the picaresque novel, and the inner quest. From Virgil to Joyce, from Dante to Camus, it has never ceased to be rewritten.

Further reading

For the hero whose shade teaches Odysseus the vanity of posthumous glory, read the page on Achilles. For Athena, Odysseus’s protector throughout the journey, see her page. For Poseidon whose anger drives the wandering, read his page. For the passage of the Underworld and its guardian, read the page on Cerberus. For the Trojan War that precedes the Odyssey and whose central figure is Achilles, read his page.