Book 1
The poem begins with Odysseus on the island of Calypso, the furthest point of his wanderings. Until he shall arrive home, Poseidon remains implacable towards him; but at the moment the god has gone to the land of the Ethiopians, while the other Olympians are assembled in the palace of Zeus. The latter inveighs against the criminal folly of mankind, his text being Orestes' recent revenge upon Aegisthus. This act of violence serves to contrast the character of Telemachus--a contrast which is kept in view in the early books. Athene wins the permission of Zeus, notwithstanding Poseidon's resentment, to help Odysseus in his return, and asks to have Hermes sent to Calypso on Ogygia. She herself visits Telemachus in Ithaca, taking on the form of Mentes, king of the Taphians. In a long conversation with him she discusses his present position his father missing and the suitors revelling in the house. She gives him two pieces of advice: to demand before the assembled people of Ithaca an end to this persecution, and to seek out old comrades of his father's and enquire after his fate. On Athene's departure Telemachus realizes that he has been speaking with a goddess, and his words to his mother and to the suitors show that from this moment on he is facing his problems in a new frame of mind.

Book 2
The next day he forcibly presents his views in the assembly. He quarrels, of course, with Antinous and Eurymachus, who derides the idea of a divine warning (Aegisthus, we remember, had been warned by the gods). It becomes clear that the suitors hold the upper hand. Telemachus' request for a ship is not even considered, and Leocritus dismisses thc assembly with arrogant contempt. Athene takes the form of Mentor, and leads Telemachus to a ship, on which he embarks by night.

Book 3
On the shores of Pylos the voyagers find Nestor sacrificing to Poseidon. He receives Telemachus hospitably, and is able to tell him what befell many of the heroes returning from Troy. Of Odysseus, however, he can tell nothing. In the evening Athene departs in the form of an eagle. Next morning Telemachus sets out for Sparta with Nestor's son Pisistratus. They arrive on the evening of the next day.

Book 4
They find Menelaus celebrating the weddings of his son and his daughter. He and Helen relate Odysseus' deeds before Troy and in the city itself.1 Next morning Telemachus asks after his father's fate, and hears of the adventures of Menelaus on his way home. Among these is a meeting with Proteus, the old man of the sea, who tells him of the deaths of the Locrian Ajax and of Agamemnon, and finally informs him of Odysseus' sojourn on the island of Calypso. In Sparta a banquet is prepared: in Ithaca the suitors are planning the murder of Telemachus on his return. Penelope hears of the plot, but Athene comforts her by a dream vision.

Book 5
The gods take counsel again, and again Athene complains of Odysseus' hardships. Zeus now sends Hermes as messenger (as suggested before by Athene) to tell Calypso what the gods intend. The nymph unwillingly tells Odysseus to build a raft, and lets him go his homeward way. On the eighteenth day, when he is near Scheria, he is seen by Poseidon (now returning from the Ethiopians), who sends a storm and shatters the raft. Leucothea's veil protects Odysseus, and on the third day after the shipwreck he reaches the shore of Scheria, where he sinks into a deep sleep.

Book 6
A dream sent by Athene causes the king's daughter Nausicaa to go with her maidens to the shore, where they play and wash clothes. Odysseus wakes up, and the girls flee in terror. Nausicaa, however, helps him to wash and clothe himself, and takes him to the grove of Athene before the city.

Under cover of a cloud which Athene wraps round him, Odysseus passes through the streets of the Phaeacians and enters the palace. As he clasps the knees of the queen, Arete, the cloud disperses, and Alcinous bids him welcome. When the nobles have left, Arete, who recognizes the clothes, asks Odysseus how he came by them and where he has come from. He relates his misfortunes since leaving Calypso, and obtains from Alcinous the promise to send him home the next day.

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But the next day does not bring the desired consummation. Alcinous orders preparations to be made, but in the meantime there is a banquet, at which Demodocus sings of Achilles and Odysseus. Odysseus hides his face, and the king gives the word for games, in which Odysseus humbles the braggart Euryalus. Next follows Demodocus' lay of the loves of Ares and Aphrodite, and the revenge of the injured Hephaestus. In the evening Demodocus sings of the wooden horse: Odysseus weeps, and Alcinous asks him his name and history.

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Aeolus sends a favourable west wind, which wafts Odysseus towards his home. (The scene of action is therefore the far west.) After a nine-days' journey (the same period of transition to bring him back to the real world) the comrades of Odysseus untie the bag of winds which Aeolus gave him. The unchained tempests drive them back to Aeolus, who sees that Odysseus has incurred some god's displeasure, and withdraws his favour. Six days bring them to the land of the Laestrygones, a land of short nights. (We are in fairyland again, despite the spring Artacia which reappears at Cyzicus.) In a little bay they are attacked by the gigantic Laestrygones: all the other ships are lost, and that of Odysseus alone sails on to the island belonging to the land called Aea. Here Eos has his home and his dancing-floor; here also Helius has his rising (12. 3: we are therefore in the farthest east). The island is the home of Circe, who turns an advanced reconnoitring party into swine. By the help of Hermes and the magical herb moly Odysseus rescues his comrades and lives for a year with Circe. When he asks to return home she sends him first to the land of the dead.

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One day's sailing takes them to the far shore of Ocean, the land of the Cimmerians, who live in perpetual darkness. Blood is poured into a hole in the ground, and the shades gather round it: Elpenor, who met his fate on Circe's island, Odysseus' mother, the seer Tiresias, who prophesies the difficulties of the hero's homecoming, his trials on account of the Sungod's oxen, his victory over the suitors and his death in a distant land. Next comes a catalogue of heroines, conversation with Agamemnon and Achilles, a show of dead heroes and great sinners. The return journey over the Ocean is uneventful. There is a kind of intermezzo between the catalogue of women and the interview with Agamemnon. Odysseus tries to break off his narrative, and tactfully reminds his hearers of the promise (7. 317) to convey him to Ithaca. They prevail on him to continue his story, and Alcinous gives a firm undertaking to send him home next day.

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After Circe's island, the sequence of adventures takes us past the Sirens, through Scylla and Charybdis to Thrinacia and the oxen of Helius. Odysseus' comrades, pinned down by adverse winds and tormented with hunger, lay hands on the cattle, and in the next stage of their voyage run into a storm sent by Zeus at Helius' request. Odysseus clings to the mast, barely escapes Charybdis, whither he is driven by a south wind, and is carried by the waves for nine days until he lands on Ogygia, Calypso's island. (Once again Odysseus is nine days in the immensity of the seas (cf. 5. 100), while the return from Ogygia takes eighteen days. On this voyage he has the north star on his left (5. 272), so that Ogygia must lie in the extreme west. How Odysseus came here from the Aeaean island in the east is never related. Clearly adventures in the east, drawn from the saga of the Argonauts, have been thrust in among those depicted in the west.)

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Odysseus is sent off with gifts by the Phaeacians, and brought during the next night, by a miraculous voyage, to Ithaca. Poseidon turns the returning vessel to stone. Odysseus wakes in a cloud, and does not know his native land until he is informed by Athene in the guise of a young shepherd. She reveals her identity, and man and goddess join in hiding the gifts of the Phaeacians. They plan their tactics against the suitors, and Athene gives the hero the appearance of an old beggar.

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Odysseus next seeks out the swineherd Eumaeus, to whom he introduces himself with a long and imaginary story of his sufferings. He is given food and a blanket for the night.

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Athene urges Telemachus, who is still in Sparta, to return home. On his return journey he picks up at Pylos the seer Theoclymenus, who has had to flee Argos. By Athene's guidance Telemachus avoids the plot of the suitors. Meanwhile in Eumaeus' cottage Odysseus hears of his father Laertes, and the swineherd tells of his own life. Next dawn Telemachus lands and comes to Eumaeus.

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The swineherd goes to acquaint Penelope with her son's return. Odysseus reveals himself in his true shape (restored by Athene) to Telemachus, and they plan the punishment of the suitors. The latter plot a new attack on Telemachus. Eumaeus returns to the cottage.

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In the morning Telemachus goes to the city first, then Eumaeus with Odysseus, who is again the old beggar. Telemachus greets his mother, and Theoclymenus prophesies that Odysseus is already in the country. As Odysseus approaches the city, he is met by the goatherd Melanthius, who insults and illtreats him: but before the palace Odysseus is recognized by his old dog Argus, now on the point of death. He begs from the suitors, Antinous throws a stool at him, hitting his right shoulder.1 Eumaeus obtains an interview for the beggar with Penelope that evening, and returns to his cottage.

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In a fist-fight Odysseus vanquishes the impudent beggar Irus, and warns Amphinomus, the least arrogant of the suitors. Penelope shows herself to the men in the hall, makes clear her readiness to wed again, and thus receives rich gifts. Odysseus is treated with scorn by the serving girl Melantho; Eurymachus hurls a stool at him, but hits the cupbearer.

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Odysseus and Telemachus remove all weapons from the hall while Athene holds a lamp for them. Penelope enters, and Odysseus prepares her for his return by some invented narratives. As his feet are being washed, the old nurse Euryclea recognizes him from a scar: her silence and co-operation are obtained. Penelope relates a dream portending the punishment of the suitors, and talks of her decision to hold a contest in archery next day, the winner receiving her hand.

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Full of resentment against the servant girls who have been lying with the suitors, and anxious about coming events, Odysseus is consoled by Athene, and sleeps awhile in an anteroom. On waking he is heartened by good omens. Euryclea and the serving girls prepare for the banquet on the day sacred to Apollo. Eumaeus and Melanthius arrive, together with the faithful oxherd Philoetius. A bird of omen sent by Zeus deters the suitors from their plan to kill Telemachus. At the feast Ctesippus throws a cow-heel at Odysseus, but it only strikes the wall. The foolish laughter of the suitors and the prophecies of Theoclymenus prepare us for the scene of revenge.

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Penelope brings the bow, and Telemachus sets up the axes as target. He first, then some of the suitors, try in vain to string the bow. Odysseus reveals himself to Eumaeus and Philoetius. The suitors put off the contest until next day, but Odysseus, against their opposition, tries the bow himself. Euryclea locks up the servant girls, and Philoetius shuts the door leading out of the hall. Odysseus strings the bow with ease and shoots through the loops of the twelve axe- heads.

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The second shot lays Antinous low, and the hero shows them who he is. Eurymachus tries in vain to arrange a settlement: he also is slain. Telemachus brings arms: so does Melanthius for the suitors, but he is seized and bound by the two loyal herds. Athene helps in the fight, and all the suitors are slain. Only the bard Phemius and the herald Medon are spared. Odysseus forbids the nurse Euryclea to rejoice at the punishment of the wicked, and has the hall cleansed. The faithless servant girls are hanged; Melanthius is mutilated and killed, and the loyal servants welcome their master.

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Euryclea cannot bring Penelope to believe in her husband's return. Even in his presence she has her doubts. He orders lyre-music and dancing for the Ithacans to celebrate a marriage in the palace. Bathed and made more handsome by Athene, he returns to the hall; but Penelope's doubts and delays are still not at an end. She only believes when Odysseus shows knowledge of a secret in the construction of the royal bed. The night brings man and wife together, and they tell each other of their sufferings and experiences. In the morning Odysseus goes off to find his father in the country.

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