With the city of Troy lying in ruin, the Greeks took to their ships, heading home. Odysseus, the craftiest of the Greeks, who had the favor of Athena and had planned the Trojan Horse, sailed for his home in Ithaca. However, he was destined to journey long and suffer many hardships before finally achieving his homecoming. Set right after the Iliad, Homer’s second epic, The Odyssey, tells of the ten years Odysseus spent in the attempt to reach Ithaca. This is the story in 16 artworks.
1. Homer’s Odyssey Begins: Fighting the Cicones
Odysseus and his men, sailing in six ships, first put ashore nearby at Ismarus, the land of the Cicones. There they sacked the city and plundered it. Odysseus wished to turn and put to sea at once, but his men delayed and would not listen. They partied and caroused on the shores until other, more powerful Cirons came to the aid of their coastal kindred. They fought throughout the day, but by the time the sun was setting, the Greeks began to falter. Eventually, they fled to their ships, leaving behind thirty-six of their men, killed in action.
2. Into The Land Of The Lotus-Eaters
After battling a wild storm, the Greeks finally managed to row to shore in the land of the Lotus-eaters. This land is given no name, but the inhabitants of it subsist on a Lotus flower. Odysseus sent a few of his men to investigate. The Lotus-eaters received them peacefully and gave them some of the flowers to eat. The men were instantly overwhelmed, forgot about their homes, and resolved to stay. Odysseus eventually forced them back to the ships and bound them to the benches below, where they lay weeping. He called back all of his men, and they departed at once.
3. Polyphemus and the Island of the Cyclopes
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Upon coming to the land of the Cyclopes, Odysseus was eager to meet with a Cyclops and see whether or not they were truly savages. Taking twelve of his men, they went up to the cave of Polyphemus to greet him. Yet when the giant returned from tending his flocks, the men panicked and hid within his cave. He settled a rock against the cave opening as a door, unknowingly blocking them within. Upon learning of their presence, the Cyclops laughed at Odysseus’s attempts to offer friendship. He immediately ate two of the Greek men.
Polyphemus slept well that night, but Odysseus and his men cowered in fear throughout the night. They could not simply attack him as he slept, as they could not move the stone that blocked the entrance. The giant fed on two more men for breakfast and after a day of tending his flocks in the fields, enjoyed another two for dinner. However, Odysseus managed to get him drunk, and he and four of his men drove a hot wooden spike into his eyes and blinded him.
4. Odysseus Escapes Polyphemus’ Wrath
Polyphemus staggered to the entrance and drew back the stone, but waited by the mouth of the cave to catch Odysseus and his men. Odysseus, therefore, lashed together the thick-fleeced rams in groups of three. Each one of the surviving men clung underneath the middle sheep as they ran out of the cave. Safely out, Odysseus taunted Polyphemus. In his rage, the giant hurled bits of the mountain at the Greek ships, but they sped away and escaped back to where they had left the other ships. Odysseus and his men were yet to learn of the damage they had done, however.
5. The Bag of Aeolus
Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. In vengeance for his son’s blinding, Poseidon swore that he would keep Odysseus from reaching his homeland. Even so, they enjoyed some initial success upon leaving the island of the Cyclopes. They were hospitably welcomed on the island of Aeolus, the keeper of the winds. Aeolus bound the roaring winds in a sack and gave them to Odysseus. He left only the west wind to speed the Greeks on their journey home. Unfortunately, some members of Odysseus’s crew convinced themselves that the sack contained gold and jewels, and opened it, releasing the winds and raising a great storm.
6. Circe’s Island
After barely surviving the storm, they eventually came to the Aenean island of Circe. She was a minor goddess, granddaughter of the great Titan Oceanus, and a skilled enchantress. A group of Odysseus’s men came to her house and found it patrolled by enchanted wolves and lions. Though the men were frightened, the animals welcomed them, rubbing along their legs and fawning upon them. Circe invited the men into the house and plied them with food and drink. Then, when they had relaxed, she turned them into pigs and shut them up in her pigsties. She would have done the same to Odysseus, but Hermes came to him and gave him an herb to make him invulnerable to her enchantments.
Armed with the herb, Odysseus first intimated and then befriended Circe. She not only released the pigs and returned them to their proper forms, but also hosted all of the Greeks, feasting and merrymaking, for a whole year.
7. Odysseus Finds Tiresias in the Underworld
Finally, Odysseus and his men resolved to go on, and he begged Circe for leave to go. She gave it willingly but told him that he must journey on to Hades and consult the blind prophet Tiresias. Following Circe’s instructions, they sailed to the entrance to Hades and Odysseus performed the proper ceremonies to open the doors to the underworld.
When Tiresias came forth, he warned Odysseus of Poseidon’s continuing vengeance. He also cautioned them not to disturb the sheep and cattle of the sun god on the island of Thrinacia, or else face destruction. When Tiresias had finished, Odysseus stayed awhile, speaking with the ghosts of family and friends. First, he saw his mother, whom he had left living when he departed for Troy and numerous famous women throughout the ages. When the women had gone, the heroes that he had left dead at Troy came forth, Agamemnon, Achilles, Patroclus, and Ajax, and then all the great heroes of mythology. Yet finally, Odysseus tore himself away, and they sailed on toward Ithaca.
8. The Sirens
Their next peril came at the island of the Sirens, two winged females, in the shape of hideous harpies. Yet their voices and their songs were irresistible to the men who passed. They sat surrounded by the bones of those who were foolish enough to come to them. Odysseus’s men plugged their ears with softened wax, and Odysseus ordered his men to bind him to the mast so that he might listen but not be able to go to them.
9. Between Scylla and Charybdis
Past the Sirens, they faced Scylla and Charybdis, two mighty immortal monsters. Charybdis lay under the sea and sucked in ships as a whirlpool, while Scylla lay in wait among the rocks. As they desperately navigated around Charybdis, Scylla pounced from above. She carried off six men, who screamed and cried out to Odysseus as she hauled them away: “Even so did Scylla land these panting creatures on her rock and munch them up at the mouth of her den, while they screamed and stretched out their hands to me in their mortal agony. This was the most sickening sight that I saw throughout all my voyages.”
10. Hyperion’s Cattle
Finally escaping the straits, they came to the island of Hyperion, the sun god, of which Tiresias had warned Odysseus. Odysseus wished to sail past without stopping, but his men, exhausted and hungry, begged him to stop. Reluctantly, Odysseus agreed, reminding them all not to touch any sheep or cattle they may find. They all swore to obey, and at first, they did. However, the winds blew against them, and they remained trapped on the island for a month. As the food supplies dwindled, the men became more desperate. Eventually, they weakened and slaughtered the best of the cattle while Odysseus was away in the island hills.
When he returned and smelled the roast meat, he knew at once that his men and ships were now condemned. When the winds shifted seven days later they sailed away, but the gods came after them with a vengeance, and a great storm came up. Poseidon roused the sea, and the winds howled against them. Zeus hurled thunderbolts that broke the ships to pieces and threw the men into the raging sea. Only Odysseus survived, and washed ashore on the island of Calypso.
11. Imprisoned On The Island Of Calypso
Calypso was a nymph goddess, daughter of the Titans. Finding Odysseus washed ashore, she took him in and cared for him, soon falling in love. Determined to have him as her husband, she kept Odysseus imprisoned on her island for seven years, promising him immortality if he would marry her. Yet Odysseus longed only for home and his wife Penelope, and finally, the gods took pity on him. Zeus sent Hermes to command Calypso to release Odysseus, and she begrudgingly obliged. She helped Odysseus build a raft, but warned him that his hardships were not yet over.
12. Nausicaa and the Phaeacians
So it proved, for when he embarked on the raft, Poseidon spotted him, and sent a storm that tossed the raft about and broke it to pieces. Odysseus was left clinging to one plank of the raft. Poseidon retired to his palace, considering his work done, but Athena brought Odysseus safely to shore. He collapsed from exhaustion in the country of the Phaeacians. The next morning the princess of that land, Nausicaa, sporting with her handmaidens, found him and brought him to the palace.
The Phaeacian king Alcinous welcomed Odysseus and invited him to a great feast. During the course of the night, Odysseus told the long tales of his hardships to his hosts. When he had recovered, the Phaeacians took him upon their own ships back to his homeland in Ithaca.
13. Back To Ithaca
Finally having reached Ithaca, Odysseus disguises himself as an old beggar and receives the hospitality of a young swineherd, Eumaeus. Athena, meanwhile, went to fetch Odysseus’s son Telemachus, who had been seeking news of his father in Sparta. Telemachus made his way to the house of Eumaeus, who was a dear friend of his, and so met Odysseus while he was still in disguise. Athena pulled the disguise from Odysseus, and Telemachus realized that it was his long-lost father. They embraced and wept.
14. Odysseus Meets His Dog
Together they made a plan to eject the wild suitors from Odysseus’s house who had, for ten years, taken over the palace and vied for Penelope’s hand. Odysseus came down to the city still disguised but was recognized by his old dog, Argos: “When he marked Odysseus standing near, he wagged his tail and dropped both his ears, but nearer to his master he had no longer strength to move. Then Odysseus looked aside and wiped away a tear.” Having finally seen his master, the faithful hound finally took his last breath. However, Odysseus’s true identity was not discovered by any other in his house.
15. Odysseus Faces the Suitors
At the urging of Athena, Penelope decided to hold an archery contest to determine which suitor she would choose. Whichever man could shoot an arrow through twelve axe-heads would be the winner, and gain her hand in marriage. Odysseus was the only one who could complete the challenge and having shot the arrow, he threw off his disguise, and together with Telemachus killed the suitors.
16. Homer’s Odyssey Ends: Odysseus and Penelope Reunited
The Odyssey finally reached its end as Odysseus had succeeded in reaching Ithaca had gotten rid of the suitors, and stood in front of his loving wife. Now, convinced of his identity, Penelope “flew weeping to his side, flung her arms about his neck, and kissed him. Then Odysseus in his turn melted, and wept as he clasped his dear and faithful wife to his bosom.”
