Odyssey

The Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer, set in the late Bronze Age and dated to approximately the 8th century BCE. It is one of the oldest works of Western literature, alongside the Iliad. The poem follows the hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he tries to return home after the Trojan War. It is composed in dactylic hexameter and written in Ionic Greek.

The narrative alternates between Odysseus’s long voyage and the situation at Ithaca, where his wife Penelope and son Telemachus contend with suitors seeking to marry Penelope and to seize Odysseus’s throne. Odysseus endures a sequence of trials—the Cyclops Polyphemus, the sorceress Circe, the descent into the Underworld, the Sirens, and the dangers of Scylla and Charybdis—before being aided by the goddess Athena and ultimately returning home disguised as a beggar. With Telemachus and loyal servants, he defeats the suitors and is reunited with Penelope.

Key themes include nostos (the longing for home), kleos (glory), xenia (guest-friendship), fate, and the tension between cunning and brute strength. The work is known for its frame narrative, its use of flashbacks, and its technique of beginning in medias res. Its vivid episodes, complex characters, and literary artistry have profoundly influenced later literature and culture, securing the Odyssey’s central place in the Western literary canon.