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The Odyssey

by Homer

The epic journey of Odysseus as he struggles to return home after the Trojan War. Monsters, gods, and the endurance of the human spirit across twenty years of wandering.

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Chapters
  1. Chapter 1Book 1 — The gods in council—Minerva’s visit to Ithaca—the challenge from Telemachus to the suitors
  2. Chapter 2Book 2 — Assembly of the people of Ithaca—speeches of Telemachus and of the suitors—Telemachus makes his preparations and starts for Pylos with Minerva disguised as Mentor
  3. Chapter 3Book 3 — Telemachus visits Nestor at Pylos
  4. Chapter 4Book 4 — The visit to king Menelaus, who tells his story—meanwhile the suitors in Ithaca plot against Telemachus
  5. Chapter 5Book 5 — Calypso—Ulysses reaches Scheria on a raft
  6. Chapter 6Book 6 — The meeting between Nausicaa and Ulysses
  7. Chapter 7Book 7 — Reception of Ulysses at the palace of king Alcinous
  8. Chapter 8Book 8 — Banquet in the house of Alcinous—the games
  9. Chapter 9Book 9 — Ulysses declares himself and begins his story—-the Cicons, Lotophagi, and Cyclopes
  10. Chapter 10Book 10 — Aeolus, the Laestrygones, Circe
  11. Chapter 11Book 11 — The visit to the dead
  12. Chapter 12Book 12 — The Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the cattle of the sun
  13. Chapter 13Book 13 — Ulysses leaves Scheria and returns to Ithaca
  14. Chapter 14Book 14 — Ulysses in the hut with Eumaeus
  15. Chapter 15Book 15 — Minerva summons Telemachus from Lacedaemon—he meets with Theoclymenus at Pylos and brings him to Ithaca—on landing he goes to the hut of Eumaeus
  16. Chapter 16Book 16 — Ulysses reveals himself to Telemachus
  17. Chapter 17Book 17 — Telemachus and his mother meet—Ulysses and Eumaeus come down to the town, and Ulysses is insulted by Melanthius—he is recognised by the dog Argos—he is insulted and presently struck by Antinous with a stool—Penelope desires that he shall be sent to her
  18. Chapter 18Book 18 — The fight with Irus—Ulysses warns Amphinomus—Penelope gets presents from the suitors—the braziers—Ulysses rebukes Eurymachus
  19. Chapter 19Book 19 — Telemachus and Ulysses remove the armour—Ulysses interviews Penelope—Euryclea washes his feet and recognises the scar on his leg—Penelope tells her dream to Ulysses
  20. Chapter 20Book 20 — Ulysses cannot sleep—Penelope’s prayer to Diana—the two signs from heaven—Eumaeus and Philoetius arrive—the suitors dine—Ctesippus throws an ox’s foot at Ulysses—Theoclymenus foretells disaster and leaves the house
  21. Chapter 21Book 21 — The trial of the axes, during which Ulysses reveals himself to Eumaeus and Philoetius
  22. Chapter 22Book 22 — The killing of the suitors—the maids who have misconducted themselves are made to cleanse the cloisters and are then hanged
  23. Chapter 23Book 23 — Penelope eventually recognises her husband—early in the morning Ulysses, Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius leave the town
  24. Chapter 24Book 24 — The ghosts of the suitors in Hades—Ulysses and his men go to the house of Laertes—the people of Ithaca come out to attack Ulysses, but Minerva concludes a peace

Book 1 — The gods in council—Minerva’s visit to Ithaca—the challenge from Telemachus to the suitors

Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, oh daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.

So now all who escaped death in battle or by shipwreck had got safely home except Ulysses, and he, though he was longing to return to his wife and country, was detained by the goddess Calypso, who had got him into a large cave and wanted to marry him. But as years went by, there came a time when the gods settled that he should go back to Ithaca; even then, however, when he was among his own people, his troubles were not yet over; nevertheless all the gods had now begun to pity him except Neptune, who still persecuted him without ceasing and would not let him get home.

Now Neptune had gone off to the Ethiopians, who are at the world’s end, and lie in two halves, the one looking West and the other East. He had gone there to accept a hecatomb of sheep and oxen, and was enjoying himself at his festival; but the other gods met in the house of Olympian Jove, and the sire of gods and men spoke first. At that moment he was thinking of Aegisthus, who had been killed by Agamemnon’s son Orestes; so he said to the other gods:

“See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly. Look at Aegisthus; he must needs make love to Agamemnon’s wife unrighteously and then kill Agamemnon, though he knew it would be the death of him; for I sent Mercury to warn him not to do either of these things, inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home. Mercury told him this in all good will but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in full.”

Then Minerva said, “Father, son of Saturn, King of kings, it served Aegisthus right, and so it would any one else who does as he did; but Aegisthus is neither here nor there; it is for Ulysses that my heart bleeds, when I think of his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island, far away, poor man, from all his friends. It is an island covered with forest, in the very middle of the sea, and a goddess lives there, daughter of the magician Atlas, who looks after the bottom of the ocean, and carries the great columns that keep heaven and earth asunder. This daughter of Atlas has got hold of poor unhappy Ulysses, and keeps trying by every kind of blandishment to make him forget his home, so that he is tired of life, and thinks of nothing but how he may once more see the smoke of his own chimneys. You, sir, take no heed of this, and yet when Ulysses was before Troy did he not propitiate you with many a burnt sacrifice? Why then should you keep on being so angry with him?”

And Jove said, “My child, what are you talking about? How can I forget Ulysses than whom there is no more capable man on earth, nor more liberal in his offerings to the immortal gods that live in heaven? Bear in mind, however, that Neptune is still furious with Ulysses for...