The Odyssey

The Odyssey by Homer is an ancient Greek poem which tells the story of the hero Ulysses and his arduous journey home to Ithaca after the long and bloody Trojan war. After the ten-year battle and the fall of Troy, Ulysses intends to make his way back to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. The Gods are against him and he faces many obstacles in his path which delay his return for many years. With her husband gone for so long Penelope assumes that he is dead and never to return.

With Ulysses believed dead the house where his wife and son still live is besieged with suitors trying to win the hand of Penelope. These suitors spend all day eating and drinking the supplies of the house and when Telemachus decides to go in search of word on whether his father is still alive they decide to kill him. However Ulysses has finally made it home to Ithaca, aided by the Goddess Minerva, and when he finds out what the suitors have been doing in his house while he has been gone he is furious. He devises a plan, with the help of his son and two of his servants, to exact revenge and kill every last one of the suitors who have done him and his family wrong.

This poem was written around the end of the 8th century BC and is the second oldest work of western literature, the first being The Iliad also written by Homer. It has been translated into hundreds of different languages over the centuries and has a lost sequel called The Telegony.