Synopsis of Homer’s Odyssey, adapted from Charlotte Higgins, It’s All Greek to Me, Reinhold
Meyer, Essentials of Greek and Roman Classics, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey.
Book 1
The Odyssey begins ten years after the end of the ten-year Trojan War, and Odysseus has still not
returned home from the war. Odysseus' son Telemachus is approaching manhood and shares his
absent father’s house on the island of Ithaca (off the west coast of Greece) with his mother
Penelope and a crowd of about 100 boisterous young men, "the Suitors", whose aim is to
persuade Penelope to marry one of them, while take advantage of the hospitality of Odysseus'
household and devour his wealth/cattle. Odysseus’ protectress, the goddess Athena, discusses
his fate with Zeus, king of the gods, at a moment when Odysseus' enemy, the god of the sea
Poseidon, is absent from Mount Olympus (and dining with the Ethiopians). Then, disguised as a
man named Mentes, she visits Telemachus and urges him to search for news of his father. He
offers her hospitality; they observe the Suitors dining rowdily while the bard Phemius performs a
narrative poem for them. Penelope objects to Phemius' theme, the "Return from Troy" because it
reminds her of her missing husband, but Telemachus overrides her objections. That night
Athena, disguised as Telemachus, finds a ship and crew for the true Telemachus.
Book 2
The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be
done with the suitors. The worst of the Suitors, Antinous, points out that, while Penelope has
delayed remarriage through trickery, she has also kept the Suitors around by sending some of
them promising letters. After revealing his frustration with the Suitors and inability to handle
them, Telemachus departs for the Greek mainland and the household of Nestor, now at home in
Pylos, where he hopes to discover news of his father. His journey will also functions as a rite of
passage, a kind-of road trip during which Telemachus will become a man.
Book 3
Telemachus is hospitably received at Pylos by Nestor who compares him with Orestes. Nestor
knows almost nothing about the travels of Odysseus.
Book 4
Looking for more information about his father, Telemachus sets out overland to Sparta, where he
visits Menelaus and Helen. They are celebrating the marriages of two of their children, but this
celebration becomes more like a funeral banquet, as they talk about the friends they have lost.
To relieve everyone’s grief, Helen distributes a drug in a passage that has sinister overtones. In
this way and in others, Helen reveals qualities of a female type known as the femme fatale.
Telemachus hears stories from Menelaus and Helen that underscore the ingenuity of his father,
but in very different ways, some of which remind the audience of female treachery. Incidentally,
Telemachus learns the fate of Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon, and is again compared with
Orestes.
Book 5
For the first time, we now see Odysseus on the island of the nymph Calypso, where he has spent
the last seven years as her Boy Toy, but is now dissatisfied and weeping on the beach out of
desire to return home. Calypso is ordered to release Odysseus by the messenger god Hermes,
who has been sent by Zeus in response to Athena's plea. Odysseus builds a raft and is given
clothing, food and drink by Calypso. The raft is wrecked by Poseidon, Odysseus avoids
drowning by removing the heavy clothes of Calpyso, and with the help of a sea nymph. He
eventually swims ashore on the island of Scherie, the home of the Phaeacians, where, naked and
exhausted, he hides in a pile of leaves and falls asleep under an olive tree.
Book 6
The next morning, awakened by the laughter of girls, Odysseus sees the young Nausicaa,
princess of the Phaeacians, who has gone to the seashore with her maids to wash her wedding
clothes, after being inspired to do so by Athena who appeared to her in a dream. Odysseus
appeals to her for help, after deftly rejecting her hints at marriage. Nausicaa encourages him to
seek the hospitality of her parents, Arete and Alcinous.
Book 7
Odysseus is hospitably received in the court of the Phaeacians, and (again) turns down the offer
of Nausicaa’s hand in marriage.
Book 8
The court singer, Demodocus, tells a story concerning the Trojan War that causes Odysseus to
weep. To distract Odysseus from his sorrow, King Alcinous suggests athletic games. At first
Odysseus refuses, but then, after being goaded by a young Phaeacian, and being called a mere
“businessman,” Odysseus defeats the Phaeacians in several events of a martial nature. Having
returned to the palace, they all listen to another tale sung by Demodocus, this time about the
adultery of Aphrodite with Ares, and their exposure by a trap of her husband, Hephaestus.
Finally, Odysseus asks Demodocus to return to the theme of the Trojan War and the Trojan
Horse, the trick invented by Odysseus that enabled the Greeks finally to sack Troy.
Books 9-12: The Adventures of Odysseus
Book 9
Unable to hide his emotions as he relives this episode, Odysseus at last reveals his identity. He
then proceeds to tell the story of his return from Troy. After a piratical raid and the loss of
numerous crew members on the land of the Cicones, Odysseus and his twelve ships were driven
off course by storms. They visited the lethargic Lotus-Eaters who gave two of his men their
fruit which caused them to forget their homecoming. After compelling these men-- now jonsing
for Lotus --to leave the island with them, Odysseus and his crew arrive at the island of the
Cyclops Polyphemus. After Polyphemus devours several of them, they get him drunk, blind his
one eye, and escape the next morning, by clinging to the bellies of Polyphemus’ sheep, as he lets
them out of the cave to graze. As Odysseus and his men were sailing away, however, Odysseus
foolishly told Polyphemus his identity, and Polyphemus told his father, Poseidon.
Book 10
Odysseus and his men stayed with Aeolus, the master of the winds. He gave Odysseus a leather
bag containing all the winds, except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return
home. However, the crew of Odysseus foolishly opened the bag while Odysseus slept, thinking
that it contained gold. All of the winds flew out and the resulting storm drove the ships back the
way they had come, just as Ithaca had come into sight. After pleading in vain with Aeolus to
help them again, they re-embarked and encountered the cannibalistic Laestrygonians.
Approximately 500 hundred of Odysseus’ men were devoured, and Odysseus’s ship was the only
one to escape. He sailed on and visited the witch-goddess Circe. She turned half of his men into
swine after feeding them cheese and wine. Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave
Odysseus a drug called molê, an antidote to Circe’s magic. Circe, attracted by Odysseus'
cunning, fell in love with him and released his men. Odysseus and his crew remained with her on
the island for one year, while they feasted and drank and Odyssey had constant sex. Finally,
Odysseus' men convinced Odysseus that it was time to leave for Ithaca, after a drunken fool
named Antenor fell from Circe’s roof and broke his neck.
Book 11: Nekuia (Book of the Dead)
Guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew crossed the ocean and reached a harbor at
the western edge of the world, at the entrance to the Underworld, where Odysseus sacrificed to
the dead and summoned the spirit of the old prophet Tiresias to advise him on his journey home.
Among other things, Tiresias warned Odysseus and his crew not to eat the cattle of the Helios.
Next, Odysseus met the spirit of his own mother, who had died of grief during his long absence.
From her, he learned for the first time news of his own household, and about the suitors’
devouring of his estate and attempt to seduce Penelope. Others whom Odysseus met included
Agamemnon and Achilles. The former tells Odysseus about his murder at the hands of his own
wife Clytemnestra, and warns Odysseus about the treachery of women. Achilles expresses his
regret at having chosen a short, heroic life.
Book 12
Returning to Circe’s island, Odysseus received additional advice, including that he allow Scylla
to devour six of his men. Odysseus gets to hear the normally lethal voices of the Sirens, as his
men’s ears are sealed with candle wax and Odysseus with his ears unplugged is tied to the mast.
Six of Odysseus men are devoured by Scylla, as they sail close by her cliff in order to avoid
being devoured by the whirlpool Charybdis. They get stuck on the island of Helios where,
Odysseus’ crew ignored the warnings of Tiresias and Circe, and in order to avoid starvation ate
Helios’ sacred and immortal cattle. This sacrilege was subsequently punished by a shipwreck in
which all but Odysseus drowned. He was washed ashore on the island of Calypso, where she
compelled him to remain as her lover for seven years before he escaped (and sailed to the island
of the Phaeacians).
Book 13
Having listened with rapt attention to the adventures of Odysseus, the Phaeacians give Odysseus
considerable treasure, and then deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbor on
Ithaca. After at first not recognizing his home, he encounters Athena who expresses affection for
him and as a pathological liar, and disguises him as a beggar.
Book 14
Odysseus finds his way to the hut of one of his own former servants, the swineherd Eumaeus,
who receives him hospitably.
Book 15
Meanwhile, after being encouraged by Athena to get going, Telemachus sails home from Sparta,
evading an ambush by the suitors. As Telemachus disembarks, he witnesses an omen in which a
hawk flies by with a dove in its talons. A seer named Theoklymenus interprets this omen to
mean that Telemachus will kill the suitors.
Book 16
Telemachus goes to the hut of Eumaeus, where Odysseus disguised as a beggar is staying.
Telemachus insists (unnecessarily) that Eumaeus show Odysseus proper hospitality. Odysseus
reveals his true identity to Telemachus (but still not to Eumaeus), and they agree that the suitors
must be killed.
Book 17
The next morning, Telemachus goes home and tells Penelope about his travels. Theoclymenus
reinterprets the omen of Book 15 to Penelope: Odysseus will return imminently and kill the
suitors. Slightly later in the morning, Odysseus still disguised as a beggar also returns home (for
the first time in twenty years). On the way, he encounters an especially treacherous and meanspirited servant of his named Melanthius, who kicks and insults him. When Odysseus enters the
forecourt of his palace, his faithful hunting dog, Argus, who lies neglected on a pile of dung,
recognizes his master and dies. Upon entering his palace, Odysseus immediately receives illtreatment especially from Antinous.
Book 18
In a boxing match, Odysseus quickly and brutally defeats a beggar named Irus, who had
challenged him at the encouragement of the suitors. Penelope charms the suitors, announces
plans for remarriage, and demands gifts. Odysseus delighted by her cunning. Antinous lays
down an ultimatum: if the suitors bring gifts Penelope must now choose one of them for
(re)marriage. Melantho (the female counterpart of Melanthius) disrespects Odysseus/beggar.
Book 19
Penelope graciously receives Odysseus/beggar. He claims once to have hosted Odysseus, when
he was still a wealthy aristocrat. Penelope confides to Odysseus/beggar the pressures on her to
marry one of the suitors. Penelope also tells him of a dream she had had, in which 20 geese in
her backyard were killed by an eagle, and (oddly) confides that she had wept for the geese.
Odysseus interprets the dream to mean that Odysseus will kill the suitors. He also informs
Penelope that he has heard that Odysseus will return within the month. Yet, Penelope declares
her intention to proceed with the contest and marry one of the suitors. The housekeeper and
nurse of Odysseus as a child, Eurycleia, recognizes Odysseus as she bathes his feet and
unintentionally almost reveals his identity. Odysseus swears her to secrecy, upon threat of death.
Book 20
A series of omens and a bizarre mass hallucination bode ill for the suitors who are in effect given
a last chance to leave.
Book 21
The next day, at Athena’s prompting, Penelope maneuvers the suitors into competing for her
hand with an archery competition using Odysseus' bow. The man who can string the bow and
shoot it through a dozen axe heads will win. After an intentionally aborted effort to string the
bow by Telemachus, and failures by several of the suitors, Odysseus takes part in the
competition himself, and succeeds.
Book 22
Odysseus now turns his arrows on the suitors, starting with Antinous, and with the help of
Athena, Telemachus, Eumaeus and Philoteus the cowherd, he kills all the suitors except two, one
of whom is the court bard Phemius (and thus parallels Demodocus and Homer). After the gore of
the suitors has been cleared up, Odysseus has Telemachus hang twelve of their household maids,
who had betrayed Penelope or had sex with the suitors, or both. They also mutilate and kill the
goatherd Melanthius, who had mocked and abused Odysseus.
Book 23
Penelope tests/tricks Odysseus into revealing beyond any doubt his true identity, and the two are
reunited after 20 years.
Book 24
The ghosts of the suitors arrive in the Underworld. Odysseus visits his father. The suitors’
families come seeking revenge, but Athena intervenes to prevent further bloodshed.