Long tried Odysseus was far from home for more than two decades, 10 years fighting the Trojans and 10 more lost at sea. In Poseidon’s domain on his way homeward he faced many trials. Slaying a monstrous Cyclops, going to and escaping from the dreadful Hades and staying on the island of the nymph, graceful Calypso for 6 years. Homer’s work mainly describes the sorrows of royal Odysseus and his finding a surprise upon his homecoming.
The book begins with god-like Odysseus’s son powerful Telmacha getting information from Athena that his father is about to return home and that he should go and search for him. Wise Telmacha decides to go to Sparta from Ithaca. When he arrives he is showered by gifts from the king of Sparta. Going farther inland he receives no tiding of his father. Disappointed mighty Telmacha returns homeward but alas, the lowly suitors set up a wicked trap to slay heroic Telmacha. Only by the help of crafty Athena did great Telmacha get to Ithaca from harm.
Meanwhile sorrowful Odysseus was stuck on an island with the fair nymph Calypso without ship and without crew. Wise Athena decides it’s time to take matters into her own hands so she tells goodly Calypso to let Odysseus go free so Calypso tells god-like Odysseus to build a raft and leave the island, so Odysseus does as he is told and builds a goodly raft which will ride to waves well. But Poseidon was not through with Odysseus and crashed his vessel on the Phoenician shore. The king from this land graciously received him and had him tell his story.
Odysseus tells his story well and starts with his first trial, the Cyclops. Odysseus and his companions were traveling through the Mediterranean Sea when they saw an island. They decided to stop and gather supplies. While Odysseus and some of his men were scouting they came to the cave of the Cyclops. Odysseus and his companions tricked the monster and escape however Poseidon was not pleased.
Our hero’s next stop on his journey was the underworld where no man had ever come back alive from. Receiving information from a goddess Odysseus learned that he had to find someone in the underworld who could give him instruction on how he could return home. The spirit in question told Odysseus to go around Sicily and above all else not to eat the sun god Helios’s cattle which were found on an island on the way. Royal Odysseus thanked the spirit and left the realm unharmed.
As the ship of god-like Odysseus got close to the island of the sun god Odysseus’s men began to complain of fatigue so they docked on the island of Helios but not before Odysseus made them swear not to eat the cattle, the all made the proper oath and landed on the island. This is where things got ugly. The winds turned against the crew and their destination so the ship was forced to stay on the island. As supplies became low the crew became hungry, they decide to kill the cattle and eat them without Odysseus’s knowledge. Odysseus’s comrades had sealed their fate.
The sun god was furious and called on Zeus to deliver punishment to the ship that was already nearly home. The father of the gods sent a lightning bolt to strike the vessel but spared Odysseus because he had not eaten the cattle. The hero winded up on the shores of Calypso’s island and was held there for six years.
As Odysseus finished his story the Phoenician king took pity on him and showered him with gifts and goodly garments also giving him a ship and a crew to carry him to his homeland. Odysseus thanked the king with winged words and came from the king very rich.
Once the Phoenicians brought royal Odysseus back to his homeland the wise goddess Athena disguised him as an old man so that he might not be recognized. He introduced himself to the swineherd who was very loyal to him and showed his son Telmacha that he was his father. Father and son began to plot the demise of the suitors who courted Odysseus’s wife.
Meanwhile Penelope decided that enough was enough and made a contest that would determine her fate. She said that she would give her hand to whoever could bend Odysseus’s bow and shoot it through twelve axe heads. All 108 suitors tried and failed. Finally Odysseus disguised as an old beggar completed the task and then father and son proceeded to slay all of the 108 of the wicked suitors. Odysseus was once again king of Ithaca and had earned his wife’s hand through the trials that made Homer’s epic one of the most renowned books ever written.
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