The Odyssey: Brief Context For First Time Readers
The Basics
The Odyssey is the second surviving epic poem by Homer and was written sometime in the 8th century BC. Much like its predecessor The Iliad, The Odyssey is split into 24 Books (read: chapters) and tells the story of the famed Odysseus — king of Ithaca and hero from the Trojan War — as he takes ten years to journey from the shores of modern-day Turkey to the western coast of Greece. Remember that the Trojan War itself lasted ten years, so Odysseus spends a total of twenty years away from his family and homeland!
Unfortunately for newbie readers, the narrative Homer follows in The Odyssey does not pick up right after the events of The Iliad. Between the final scenes of The Iliad where Hector’s body is brought back to the Trojan camp and both the armies are given time to burn their dead, and the beginning of The Odyssey, several famous episodes take place: The Amazon’s coming into the war to aid the Trojans against the Greeks (their queen, Penthesilea, being killed), Achilles being killed by Paris, the Greeks infilterating Troy through the use of the giant wooden horse, and ultimately, the entire city of Troy burning to absolute nothingness. In fact, though The Iliad and Odyssey survive from the ancient world, they were merely two parts of a larger, interconnected network of stories pertaining to the Trojan War. Classicists call this the “Epic Cycle” — a collection of eight poems from Ancient Greece that would have told the entirety of the story of Troy. In order, these texts would have been:
The Cypria, most commonly attributed to Stasinos of Cyprus (only a summary and a few lines of the poem survive. This was thought to be a prequel to the events of The Iliad).
The Iliad, attributed to Homer (which we still have access to).
The Aethiopis, attributed to Arktinos of Miletos (this is what I was talking about before when I mentioned the Amazons! This text would have told the story from the death of Hector up to the death of Achilles, including the scenes where the Amazons ride into battle alongside Memnon’s Ethiopians to aid the Trojans).
The Little Iliad, attributed to Leskhes of Mytilene (Trojan Horse episode is in here!!).
The Iliou Persis, said to be written by Arktinos of Miletos (only around ten lines survive).
The Nostoi, which was authored by Agias of Troizen, but only five and a half lines survive from this entire poem.
The Odyssey, by Homer (what we are discussing here!!!).
The Telegony, attributed to Eugamon of Kyrene (this text would have completed Odysseus’s journey, as told to us by Tiresias in Book 11 of The Odyssey, and ends with Odysseus’s death).
So as you can see, a lot of mythological ground is covered between The Iliad and The Odyssey that doesn’t survive to us today!
Where The Odyssey picks up is technically ten years AFTER the city of Troy falls. Interestingly, the poem doesn’t open with Odysseus at all. The first four books are known as the Telemachy, where Odysseus’s son (Telemachus) is inspired by the goddess Athena to go and find out what has happened to his father. Considering that in Odysseus’s absence, suitors from the surrounding islands and mainland areas of Greece have descended on the palace in a bid to win Penelope’s hand in marriage, something must be done! Either Odysseus is alive (which Telemachus and his mother believe) or Penelope must remarry. Gasp! The young man first journeys from Ithaca to Pylos to talk to Old Man Nestor (only I call him that — please don’t use that seriously on your exams), who then directs him to Sparta to talk to Menelaus and Helen. Only after Telemachus attempts to figure out where Odysseus is do we actually meet our main hero.
In Book 5, a reader of The Odyssey is not met with the image of the Ithacan King one might initially expect. He is not seen wielding a sword or fighting off a dangerous beast, he is not sitting on a regal throne or adorned with ceremonial pelts. Odysseus is first seen as a captive on Calypso’s island of Ogygia, squinting through his tears while he sits on the beach, hoping to see even a glimpse of Ithaca on the horizon. Definitely a far cry from the man we saw in The Iliad!
Interestingly, The Odyssey is not told in linear order. Although we start at the ten-years-after-the-trojan-war mark, we don’t stay in that time period. Once Odysseus leaves the island of Calypso and finds temporary shelter among the Phaeacians on Scheria, our wily hero tells us the story of how he made it from the shores of Troy to Ogygia. Therefore, everything is linear up until Book 9, when Odysseus lapses into storytelling mode until Book 13. Once we are all caught up with what’s happened prior to Calypso’s entrance to the story, Odysseus finishes his story and we then follow him in the present as he makes his way back to Ithaca. So technically, the poem goes PRESENT – FLASHBACK – PRESENT.
For our flashback books, this is where we see all of the mythical madness take place. In order from Troy to Ithaca, Odysseus’s journey is as follows:
The Cicones (Ismarus).
The Lotus Eaters.
Aeolus’s Island (bag of winds episode).
Cyclops (big no-no).
Back to Aeolus’s Island (this does NOT go over well).
The Lystrygonians (giant cannibals).
Circe (Aeaea).
The Underworld (for all you EPIC: The Musical fans, this is where we meet Elpenor!).
Back to Circe (this goes much better than the Aeolus redo).
The Sirens.
Scylla & Charybdis.
Thrinacia, where Helios keeps his cattle (I really can’t stress enough that these cows are Helios’s favorite).
Calypso’s island (Ogygia).
Scheria (also sometimes known as Phaeacia).
Ithaca.
… That’s a lot packed into such a short amount of time!
Themes
Most casual readers of Homer may not be aware that The Odyssey is not actually the story of a journey. Yes, it has the narrative structure of one and literally outlines a journey for us, but the Ancient Greeks called this tale a nostos. This Greek word translates to “homecoming”, meaning that Homer’s poem specifically tells the story of Odysseus making his way back to where he is originally from. This is important to understand because The Odyssey really deals with one underlying question: What does it mean to return home after you’ve endured experiences that fundamentally change who you are?
Odysseus’s homecoming technically doesn’t finish after making his way to Ithaca. No — once our hero steps on home soil, he takes on the disguise of a beggar to figure out who has remained loyal to the island’s king while his majesty has been absent. Slowly, over the final chapters, we see our hero uncover the turmoil that has spread over his homeland. But this pushes our initial question one step further: When are you really home? Is it when you step foot on home soil, as Odysseus does with Ithaca? Is it when you are reunited with your children, like how Odysseus is with Telemachus in Eumaeus’s hut? Is it when you restore your home to its previous glory, like how Odysseus must rid the palace of his wife’s suitors? Is it when he’s reunited with his Penelope, as he is in Book 23? Or is it once he sees his father, like he does in the final chapter of this epic poem? Or, conversely, is Odysseus ever really allowed to feel at home if we know that he must venture off again and leave behind the comfort of Ithaca, as told to us by Tiresias in Book 11? An interesting thought, to say the least, that — fortunately or unfortunately — is left for the reader to ruminate on.
For more information about the context of Homer’s Odyssey, you can read The Odyssey Effect: How Homer’s Epic Poem Shaped The World. Available for preorder now!