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The Odyssey (; ). is one of two major Epic poetry of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the Iliad, the Odyssey is divided into 24 books. It follows the heroic king of Ithaca, Odysseus, also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, and his homecoming journey after the ten-year long Trojan War. His journey from Troy to Ithaca lasts an additional ten years, during which time he encounters many perils and all of his crewmates are killed. In Odysseus's long absence, he is presumed dead, leaving his wife Penelope and son Telemachus to contend with a group of unruly suitors competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.
The Odyssey was first composed in Homeric Greek around the 8th or 7th century BC; by the mid-6th century BC, it had become part of the Greek literary canon. In antiquity, Homer's authorship was taken as true, but contemporary scholarship Homeric Question that the Iliad and the Odyssey were composed independently, forming as part of long . Given widespread illiteracy, the poem was performed for an audience by an or rhapsode.
Key themes in the epic include the ideas of (νόστος; 'return', homecoming), wandering, (ξενία; 'guest-friendship'), testing, and omens. Scholars still explore on the narrative significance of certain groups in the poem, such as women and slaves, who have larger roles than in other works of ancient literature. This focus is especially remarkable when contrasted with the Iliad, which centres the exploits of soldiers and kings during the Trojan War.
The Odyssey is regarded as one of the most significant works of the Western canon. The first Translation of the Odyssey was in the 16th century. Adaptations and re-imaginings continue to be produced across a wide variety of media. In 2018, when BBC Culture polled experts around the world to find literature's most enduring narrative, the Odyssey topped the list.
John Miles Foley said that performance is crucial part of their meaning. The performance of epic poetry is a subject of both, with the Odyssey depicting professional singers like Phemius and Demodocus. The singers' performances might indicate that the epic was performed at the houses of distinguished families as part of banquets or dinners in the 2nd and early 1st millennia BC, and that observers may have directed or participated in them.
Like the Iliad, the Odyssey is divided into twenty-four parts. Early scholars suggested these correspond to the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet, but this is widely considered ahistorical. The division was probably made long after the poem's composition but is generally accepted as part of the poem's modern structure. There are many theories as to how they arose. Some suggest they were an authentic part of the oral tradition or invented by Alexandria scholars. Pseudo-Plutarch attributed the divisions to Aristarchus of Samothrace, but there is some evidence against this. Some scholars connect the epics' segmentation to the tradition of performance, for example as a creation of rhapsodes.
Both epics assume some knowledge of their audiences—for example, concerning the Trojan War. This strongly indicates that the epics were engaging with a pre-existing mythological tradition. Arguments exist for either epic having been composed first; it is not clear. While the Trojan War is an important element for both, the Odyssey does not directly reference any events from the Iliad depiction of the war, and they are generally considered to have formed independently from one another.
Scholars have explored whether figures originate within the poem or belong to a tradition outside of it. Adrienne Mayor says that the Austrian paleontologist Othenio Abel made unfounded claims about the fifth-century BC philosopher Empedocles connecting the cyclops to prehistoric elephant skulls. Whether the epic poem created, popularised, or simply retold the tale of Polyphemus is a long-standing dispute, but Anderson says there is some amount of scholarly consensus that the story existed separately from the epic. William Bedell Stanford notes there are some indications that Odysseus existed independently of Homer, although it is inconclusive.
The goddess Athena, disguised first as Mentes then as Mentor, tells Odysseus's son Telemachus to seek news of his father. The two leave Ithaca and visit Nestor, who tells them that Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek army at Troy, was murdered soon after the war. Telemachus travels to Sparta to meet Agamemnon's brother Menelaus, who in turn describes his encounter with the shape-shifting god Proteus. Menelaus says he learned from Proteus that Odysseus is alive, but held captive by the nymph Calypso.
Athena petitions Zeus to rescue Odysseus, and Zeus sends Hermes to negotiate his release. As Odysseus leaves Calypso's island, Poseidon destroys his raft with a storm. The sea nymph Ino protects Odysseus as he swims to Scheria, home of the Phaeacians, and Athena leads the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa to recover him. In the court of Nausicaä's parents Arete and Alcinous, Odysseus excels at athletic games and is overcome with emotion when the bard Demodocus sings about the Trojan War. Odysseus reveals his identity and recounts his adventures following the war.
On leaving Troy, Odysseus's men unsuccessfully raided the Cicones. Afterward, on an island of lotus-eaters, they found intoxicating fruit which made them forget about reaching home. On another island, they were captured by the cyclops Polyphemus. Odysseus, deceptively calling himself "Nobody", escaped by intoxicating the cyclops and blinding him. However, he boastfully revealed his true identity while escaping, and Polyphemus asked his father Poseidon to take revenge.
Odysseus's crew nearly arrived in Ithaca, but were blown off course after opening a bag of winds they received from Aeolus. Afterwards, all but one of their ships were destroyed by giant cannibals called Laestrygonians. On the island of Aeaea, the witch-goddess Circe turned Odysseus's men into pigs. Hermes helped Odysseus resist Circe's magic using the herb moly, and Odysseus forced her to restore the crew's human forms. Odysseus and Circe then became lovers for a year until he left to continue home. Next, Odysseus traveled to the edge of Oceanus, where the living can speak with the dead. The spirit of the prophet Tiresias told Odysseus he would successfully return home, but must eventually undertake another journey. Odysseus also met the spirits of his mother Anticlea and former comrades Agamemnon and Achilles.
Odysseus' crew then sailed past the Sirens, whose enticing song lured sailors to their deaths. His crewmen plugged their ears with beeswax to avoid hearing them, while Odysseus tied himself to the ship's mast. Next, they navigated the narrow passage between the whirlpool Charybdis and the multi-headed monster Scylla. Finally, on the island of Thrinacia, Odysseus' men killed and ate sacred cattle belonging to the sun god Helios. Helios asked Zeus to punish them, which he did by destroying their last ship. Odysseus, the sole survivor, washed ashore on the island Ogygia. There he met Calypso, who took him captive as her lover until Hermes eventually intervened.
After hearing Odysseus' story, the Phaeacians take him to Ithaca, where Athena disguises him as an elderly beggar. Without knowing his identity, the swineherd Eumaeus offers him lodging and food. Telemachus returns home from Sparta, evading an ambush from the suitors. Odysseus reveals himself to his son and the two return home, where Odysseus's elderly dog Argos recognizes him through his disguise. The suitors mock and mistreat Odysseus in his own home. He and Telemachus hide the suitors' weapons in preparation for violent revenge. Odysseus also reencounters Penelope and her servant Eurycleia, who recognizes him from a scar on his feet.
Penelope announces she is ready to remarry, and that she will choose whoever wins an archery contest with Odysseus's bow. After each suitor fails to even string the bow, Odysseus successfully strings it and fires an arrow through a series of axe heads. Having won the contest, he kills the suitors; Telemachus also hangs a group of servants who had sex with them. Odysseus reveals his identity to Penelope, who tests him by asking to move their bed. He correctly states that the bed, which he carved from the trunk of an olive tree, is immovable, and the two lovingly reunite.
The next day, after Odysseus reveals himself to his father Laertes, the families of the murdered suitors gather to get revenge. Athena intervenes and prevents further bloodshed.
In Classical Greece, some books or sections were provided with their own titles. Books 1 to 4, which focus on the perspective of Telemachus, are called the Telemachy. Books 9 to 12, wherein Odysseus provides an account of his adventures, are called the Apologos or Apologoi. Book 22 was known as Mnesterophonia ( + ). Book 22 is generally said to conclude the Greek Epic Cycle, but fragments remain of a lost sequel known as the Telegony.
Debate exists over what constitutes the "original" Odyssey. Some scholars regard the Telemachy as a later additional while others note that later parts do not make sense without those books. Likewise, the poem's ending has been the subject of debate since antiquity—Aristarchus of Samothrace and Aristophanes of Byzantium regarded the epic's real ending as lines 293–295 of book 23. Similar debates over the poem's ending occur today.
The narrative is primarily related through speech—that is, characters talking to themselves or to somebody else. Consequently, they frequently serve as narrators alongside the Homeric narrator, and their speech is the primary method of Characterization.
The language is simple, direct, and fast-paced. It is also high in style—the vocabulary was likely never the vernacular of any Greek population. An important feature is the Homeric simile. These are comparative metaphors that can be long or short, typically deriving from the natural world or everyday life. Irene de Jong describes them as "omnitemporal"—they may use epic tense (blending past and present); or present a timeless truth (Gnomic Aorist); or use the simple present tense. Their functions vary; examples include characterisation, the reinforcement of theme.
Traditionally, the Homeric simile was regarded as a predecessor of European literary similes. This has been contested—for example by Oliver Taplin. Modern scholars generally agree that the Homeric similes formed as part of the epics' oral tradition, but earlier writers suggested they were added by one or more later poets.
An important element of Homeric texts is their use of epithets—in English, these translate into compound adjectives like much-nourished or much-nourishing.
Following Agamemnon's homecoming, his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, kill Agamemnon. Agamemnon's son, Orestes kills Aegisthus for vengeance, paralleling the death of the suitors with the death of Aegisthus; Athena and Nestor famously use Orestes as an example for Telemachus, motivating him to action. During Odysseus' trip to the underworld, Agamemnon tells him about Clytemnestra's betrayal. After reaching Ithaca, Athena transforms Odysseus into a beggar so he can test the loyalty of his wife Penelope.
Agamemnon eventually praises Penelope for not killing Odysseus, and her faithfulness ensures Odysseus both fame and a successful homecoming compared to the other Achaeans. Agamemnon's failed homecoming caused his death; Achilles achieved fame but died and was denied homecoming.
Calypso's name comes from the Greek word (), meaning 'to cover' or 'conceal', which is apt, as this is exactly what she does with Odysseus. Calypso keeps Odysseus concealed from the world and unable to return home. After leaving Calypso's island, the poet describes Odysseus' encounters with the Phaeacians—those who "convoy without hurt to all men"—which represents his transition from not returning home to returning home.
Also, during Odysseus' journey, he encounters many beings that are close to the gods. These encounters are useful in understanding that Odysseus is in a world beyond man and that influences the fact he cannot return home. These beings that are close to the gods include the Phaeacians who lived near the Cyclopes, whose king, Alcinous, is the great-grandson of the king of the giants, Eurymedon, and the grandson of Poseidon. Some of the other characters that Odysseus encounters are the cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon; Circe, a sorceress who turns men into animals; and the cannibalistic giants, the Laestrygonians.
According to J. B. Hainsworth, guest-friendship follows a very specific pattern:
Another important factor of guest-friendship is not keeping the guest longer than they wish and also promising their safety while they are a guest within the host's home.
Testing also has a very specific type scene that accompanies it. Throughout the epic, the testing of others follows a typical pattern. This pattern is:
Omens are another example of a type scene in the Odyssey. Two important parts of an omen type scene are the recognition of the omen, followed by its interpretation. In the Odyssey, all of the bird omens—with the exception of the first—show large birds attacking smaller birds. Accompanying each omen is a wish which can be either explicitly stated or only implied. For example, Telemachus wishes for vengeance and for Odysseus to be home, Penelope wishes for Odysseus' return, and the suitors wish for the death of Telemachus.
Scholars of at least two ancient libraries—the Library of Alexandria and the Library of Pergamum—studied ancient versions of the Homeric epics. Alexandrian scholars included Zenodotus (early 3rd century BC), 2nd-century Aristophanes of Byzantium (early 2nd century BC) and Aristarchus of Samothrace (mid-2nd century BC). Emily Wilson says allegory was a very common interpretation in antiquity, using it "to make sense of puzzling or disturbing scenes in the Odyssey". Crates of Mallus, a scholar at Pergamon, thought the Homeric texts were allegorical, containing insight into cosmology and geography. Heraclitus and Porphyry also understood them as allegory. Heraclitis argued that Telemachus' encounter with Athena represented "the development of rationality" as he becomes a man. Porphyry saw the nymphs' caves as representing human life. Clarke says these interpretations protected Homer from allegations that he disrespected the gods; Xenophanes famously provided this criticism.
Many ancient editions of the Homeric epics existed; the Library of Alexandria possessed some. In material derived from the commentary of the 4th-century scholar Didymus, ancient versions were divided into "city editions" and "individual editions". City editions were likely created within the city (perhaps as "official" versions) while individual editions were prepared independently by scholars. He mentions individual versions owned by Antimachus, Aristophanes of Byzantium, Sosigenes, Rhianus, Callistratus, and Philemon. City editions are known in Marseille, Chios, Crete, Cyprus, and Marseille.
Throughout antiquity, the Iliad and the Odyssey were textbook in lands where the Greek language was spoken. They were probably a core part of the ancient Greek education system, certainly for the elite of Classical Athens. By the 6th century, the Homeric poems had a canonical place within the institutions of ancient Athens. In 566 BC, the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus or his son Hipparchus instituted a civic and religious festival, the Panathenaia, which probably featured performances of Homeric poetry; a "correct" version had to be performed, indicating that a particular version of the text had become canonised. It is not likely that they were performed without a break.
Their influence in non-Greek territories fluctuated. The Roman Empire readily absorbed Homer into its culture, transmitting the epic east and west. The subjects of both the Odyssey and Iliad—the Trojan War and its participants—were already important historical and mythological references for Romans. Alexander the Great's conquests spread Hellenistic cultural influence throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and it became read by every school child in the Greek world.
As part of the quarrel, questions arose over the traditional view of Homer as a singular poet. François Hédelin, Abbé d’ Aubignac criticised Homer's sustenance of theme; his language; and observed that nothing was known about his life. Perrault posited that the epics were written by different poets, possibly from each city that claimed to be Homer's birthplace, and then assembled; he credited the theory to the late Hédelin. Richard Bentley argued that the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus assembled different songs five-hundred years after initial composition. His research also showed that Homeric Greek did not resemble the Greek of the classical period.
Printed translations for modern European languages surged in popularity in the 16th century, although many were only partial translations. The most popular edition of the century was a word-for-word Latin translation by Andreas Divus. The first completed Italian language Odyssey, written by Girolamo Baccelli in free verse, was published in 1582. The first completed French language translation was composed in Alexandrine couplets by Salomon Certon and printed in 1604. It lost public favour following the Académie Française language reforms in the 1630s and 1640s. Arthur Hall was the first to translate Homer into English: his translation of the Iliad first 10 books, which was published in 1581, relied upon a French version. George Chapman became the first writer to complete a translation of both epics into English after finishing his translation of the Odyssey. These translations were published together in 1616, but were serialised earlier, and became the first modern translations to enjoy widespread success. He worked on Homeric translation for most of his life, and his work later inspired John Keats' sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1816). Emily Wilson writes that almost all prominent translators of Greco-Roman literature had been men, arguing this impacted the popular understanding of the Odyssey.
Johann Heinrich Voss' 18th-century translations of the epics are among his most celebrated works, and profoundly influenced the German language. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called Voss' translations transformational masterpieces that initiated interest German Hellenism. Anne Dacier translated the Iliad and Odyssey into French prose, appearing in 1711 and 1716, respectively; it was the standard French Homeric translation until the late 18th century. Antoine Houdar de La Motte, who could not read Greek, used Dacier's Iliad to produce his own contracted version of the Iliad and criticised Homer in the preface. Dacier's translation of the Odyssey profoundly influenced the 1720s translation by Alexander Pope, which he produced for financial reasons years after his Iliad. He translated twelve books himself and divided the other twelve between Elijah Fenton and William Broome; the latter also provided annotations. This information eventually leaked, harming his reputation and profits. The first Odyssey in the Russian language may have been Vasily Zhukovsky's 1849 translation in hexameter. Luo Niansheng began translating the first Chinese language Iliad in the late 1980s, but he died in 1990 before completing it; his student Wang Huansheng finished the project, which was published in 1994. Huansheng's Odyssey followed three years later.
In Canto XXVI of the Inferno, Dante Alighieri meets Odysseus in the Malebolge: Odysseus appends a new ending to the epic in which he continues adventuring and does not return to Ithaca. Edith Hall suggests that Dante's depiction of Odysseus became understood as a manifestation of Renaissance colonialism and othering, with the cyclops standing in for "accounts of monstrous races on the edge of the world", and his defeat as symbolising "the Roman domination of the western Mediterranean". Some of Odysseus's adventures reappear in the Arabic tales of Sinbad the Sailor.
The Irish writer James Joyce's modernist novel Ulysses (1922) was significantly influenced by the Odyssey. Joyce had encountered the figure of Odysseus in Charles Lamb's Adventures of Ulysses, an adaptation of the epic poem for children, which seems to have established the Latin name in Joyce's mind. Ulysses, a re-telling of the Odyssey set in Dublin, is divided into eighteen sections ("episodes") which can be mapped roughly onto the twenty-four books of the Odyssey. Joyce claimed familiarity with the original Homeric Greek, but this has been disputed by some scholars, who cite his poor grasp of the language as evidence to the contrary. The book, and especially its stream of consciousness prose, is widely considered foundational to the modernist genre.
Modern writers have revisited the Odyssey to highlight the poem's female characters. Canadian writer Margaret Atwood adapted parts of the Odyssey for her novella The Penelopiad (2005). The novella focuses on Penelope and the twelve female slaves hanged by Odysseus at the poem's ending, an image which haunted Atwood. Atwood's novella comments on the original text, wherein Odysseus' successful return to Ithaca symbolises the restoration of a Patriarchy system. Similarly, Madeline Miller's Circe (2018) revisits the relationship between Odysseus and Circe on Aeaea. As a reader, Miller was frustrated by Circe's lack of motivation in the original poem and sought to explain her capriciousness. The novel recontextualises the sorceress' transformations of sailors into pigs from an act of malice into one of self-defence, given that she has no superhuman strength with which to repel attackers.
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