The Odyssey
Homer, c. 700 BCE
Held by Project Gutenberg, PG 1727read here
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Odysseus, king of Ithaca, spends ten years trying to get home after the fall of Troy. His crew die one by one through their own folly, and he is held by monsters, sorceresses and the sea. Meanwhile his wife Penelope and son Telemachus put up with a crowd of suitors who treat the house as their own and assume he is dead. The poem follows his wandering and his return in disguise, and tests loyalty, patience and the duties between host and guest. It ends when he reclaims his home and proves who he is.
Where it happens
Through time
Who is in it, and behind it
Homer Traditional author
Gutenberg dates him to roughly 751 to 651 BCE; the poem was first composed around the 8th or 7th century BC.12
Odysseus Protagonist
King of Ithaca (also called Ulysses), on a homecoming journey that lasts ten years after the Trojan War.1
Penelope Wife of Odysseus
Stays in Ithaca while a group of suitors competes for her hand in marriage.1
Telemachus Son of Odysseus
Contends with the suitors alongside his mother in his father's long absence.1
Samuel Butler Translator
Rendered the poem into English prose for those who cannot read the original; lived 1835 to 1902.2
Milman Parry and Albert Lord Scholars
Showed in the early twentieth century that the poems have the traits of oral poetry.1
Aristarchus of Samothrace Scholar
Pseudo-Plutarch credits him with dividing the poem into books, though some evidence tells against it.1
What it is about
Nostos, the homecoming
Return and homecoming are a key theme of the epic, set alongside wandering.1
Xenia, guest-friendship
The duties between host and guest are a central test of character throughout the poem.1
Testing and omens
Characters are tested and signs from the gods are read, which shapes the plot.1
Oral composition
Formulaic repetition lets an illiterate poet improvise a very long poem, which accounts for the poem's style.1
In its own words
Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
my name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends have always called me.
First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song.
I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man’s house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead.
would not be right for me to insult him, for all strangers and beggars are from Jove.
There was a young olive growing within the precincts of the house, in full vigour, and about as thick as a bearing-post.
The shape of the book
28 chapters, 129,249 words. Point at a bar.
How it came to be here
The Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic in 24 books, composed around the 8th or 7th century BC. Milman Parry and Albert Lord showed that its formulas and repeated phrases are the marks of oral poetry, which a singer could improvise at length. By the mid-6th century BC it was part of the Greek literary canon. This site offers Samuel Butler's plain English prose rendering, with Pope's verse translation alongside, both from Project Gutenberg. The first complete English translation of the poem was made in 1616.
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Sources
Text: PG 1727, 3160 | translator: Samuel Butler (1727); Alexander Pope (3160). US public domain (Project Gutenberg licence).