About the Odyssey: The Odyssey is one of the earliest known works of literature. It is imputed to have been written by someone named Homer, who may or may not have existed. The Odyssey seems to be the sequel of the Iliad, for which I have also written a synopsis.

This story is synopsized from The Great Books of the Western World 1st Edition.

Summary: In the house of Ulysses (on the island of Ithaca), his wife, Penelope, was being courted by a large number of suitors. His son, Telemachus, was now a man, but his inheritance was being eaten up by the suitors. Minerva went to him and told him that he should go find Ulysses.

Telemachus called an assembly of the people of the island and warned the suitors to leave him alone. Even so, the suitors pledged to continue to eat up his father's estate.

Minerva provided Telemachus with a ship and a crew of other young men, and they departed for the city of Pylos. There, Telemachus asked Nestor where Ulysses was. Nestor sent one of his sons, Pisistratus, to guide Ulysses to the city of Lacedaemon to ask Menelaus.

Menelaus recounted the story of how his ship was lost in Egypt and how he captured the shapechanging god, Proteus, to find out what he had to do to return home. Proteus revealed to Menelaus that Ulysses was being held on an island by the nymph, Calypso.

Helen, Menelaus' wife, was also there.

At the same time, the suitors discovered that Telemachus had left Ithaca to search for his father. A group of them took a boat to the straits between Ithaca and Samos to lie in wait to ambush Telemachus. One of Penelope's servants warned her about the ambush, but Minerva sent a vision to Penelope, telling her that Telemachus would return safely.

At dawn, Minerva went to Jove and asked him to release Ulysses, and he consented. Jove sent Mercury to Calypso to tell her to send him on his way. So Calypso gave Ulysses tools, and he built a raft. He left on the raft, but Neptune caused a storm, wrecking his raft. He held on to the wreckage despite the advice of a goddess named Ino. After a total of 20 days at sea, he floated to the land of the Phaeacians.

A young woman named Nausicaa found him and brought him to the town in a roundabout fashion. The Phaeacians entertained Ulysses and provided him with food. Ulysses told them the story of how he came there.

After leaving Troy, Ulysses went to Ismarus, the city of the Cicons. He sacked the town, killed the men, kidnapped the women, and stole their treasure. Ulysses' men stayed there drinking wine and killing oxen until a larger group of Cicons came and attacked. Ulysses and his men escaped with many losses.

The North Wind blew Ulysses off course, and he came to the island of the Lotus eaters, who do nothing except eat lotuses. Next they came to the land of the Cyclopes. There they were trapped by a Cyclopes but managed to escape with few losses. The Cyclopes, Polyphemus, was left blinded.

Then, Ulysses came to the Aeolian island, where Aeolus lives. Aeolus is the son of Hippotas and has 6 sons and 6 daughters, who are married to eachother. The island itself floats upon the sea, bound by an iron wall.

Aeolus was the captain of the four winds, so he bound three of them up in a sack to help Ulysses on his way. When Ulysses came within sight of Ithaca, his men unbound the sack and released the winds, blowing them all the way back to the Aeolian island. Aeolus refused to help Ulysses this time because Ulysses has problems with Neptune.

Eventually, Ulysses cam to the island of Lamus and visited the city Telepylus, which has herds of sheep, goats, and cows. A young woman sent them to her father, Antiphates. It turned out that Antiphates and his wife were giants who ate many of Ulysses' men. Antiphates also summoned a large number of ogres who threw rocks at Ulysses' boat. Ulysses only escaped with his own ship.

Then Ulysses came to the AEaean island where the goddess Circe lives. Circe turned half of Ulysses' men into animals, but Mercury gave Ulysses a charm that protected him from her magic. With his immunity, Circe's magic didn't affect him. He drew his sword and scared Circe into promising not to try to cause any more mischief against him. Then he made her turn his men back into humans.

Ulysses stayed there for a year before leaving. Before he left, one of his men, Elpenor, fell off the roof of Circe's house and died. Upon leaving, Circe told him that he had to gold to Hades and talk to the ghost of the Theban prophet Teiresias, to find out what he has to do to get home to Ithaca.

Ulysses and his ship went into the river Oceanus and traveled to the land of the Cimmerians who live in eternal darkness. They sacrificed the sheep, and the ghosts started coming. The first ghost to come was Elpenor, the guy who fell of Circe's roof. He asked Ulysses to go back and bury him.

Next came Teiresias the prophet. He told Ulysses that he had to go to the Thrincian island and not eat any of the sheep and cattle there because they belong to the sun. If he harms them, he will lose his ship and his men. After the island, Ulysses will find his way home and must take revenge upon the suitors in his house. Then he has to do some religious mumbo jumbo for the gods.

After this, he talked to a great number of ghosts. The ghosts in Hades are noncorporeal and can only speak to people when they're given blood.

When he was done talking, he returned to Circe's island and had Elpenor burned and placed in a cairn. Circe came and warned Ulysses about all the dangers he would encounter.

When he departed the island, it wasn't long before he came to the island of the 2 sirens. He had all his men plug up their ears with wax so that they wouldn't be able to hear, but he had them tie him to the mast so that he could listen. Once they were out of range of the Sirens, they came to the next danger. They had to go around the whirlpool caused by the Charybdis who sucks up the saltwater, but this put them within range of Scylla, a six-headed creature that snatched six of Ulysses' best men.

Finally, they came to the island of the sun god. At the behest of his men, Ulysses landed on the island but made his men swear not to eat any of the sheep or cattle. His men disobeyed, so Jove destroyed their boat when they left. Only Ulysses survived. His makeshift raft was dragged back through the Charybdis whirlpool, but he survived by clinging to the nearby fig tree until Charybdis spit his raft back out. Then he got onto the raft and floated away to the island of Calypso.

That was the end of his story, so Alcinous and the Phaeacians sent him on his way. They dropped him off on Ithaca, but he was asleep at the time. Since Neptune was angry with the Phaeacians for rescuing Ulysses, he turned their boat to stone and sank it.

When Ulysses woke up, he didn't recognize Ithaca. Minerva showed up, told him where he was, and helped him hide his treasure. She also disguised him so that no one would recognize him.

Ulysses went to one of his loyal servants, a swineherd. He stayed there for a while, telling stories. Minerva went to Lacedaemon to send Telemachus back home. He heeded her and left. He returned to Ithaca while Ulysses was still talking to the swineherd.

Minerva had told Telemachus to go to the same swineherd, so Ulysses and Telemachus found eachother and joined forces. Minerva removed Ulysses' disguise so that Telemachus would see him as he truly was.

Minerva disguised Ulysses as a beggar again, and they went to Ulysses' home. On the way there, one of Ulysses' goatherds said something to him about how beggars are pathetic.

Ulysses acted like a beggar for a while, and Minerva goaded the suitors into subjecting him to various forms of abuse. No one except Ulysses' old nurse recognized him, and he convinced her not to say anything to Penelope.

Penelope announced that she would marry whomever could string Ulysses' bow and shoot an arrow through the holes in a bunch of axes. No one except Ulysses could do it. Ulysses then shot the lead suitor with an arrow, which angered the rest of the suitors.

But then Ulysses took off his disguise, and the suitors all said that it was ok that he killed that one guy. They would pay him back for the food and drink of his they had consumed. Ulysses said that wasn't good enough Ulysses, Telemachus, and a couple others attacked the suitors. The goatherd brought the suitors armor and weapons so that they could fight back, so Telemachus's friends tied up the goatherd.

Ulysses and co. proceeded to slaughter the suitors. When the suitors looked like they were going to get the upper hand, Minerva waved her aegis and filled them with terror. Then Ulysses slaughtered the rest. He only spared the bard and someone named Medon, who was a friend of Telemachus.

Ulysses sent his nurse to fetch all the maids who had misbehaved while he was gone. He had them draw away the suitors' corpses and clean up the blood. Then he had Telemachus kill them all.

Penelope didn't believe he was really Ulysses until he told her about their bed. Then, he explained everything to his wife and spent some quality time with her.

The suitors' ghosts all came to Hades and talked to the ghosts of those who died in Troy.

Ulysses visited his father, Laertes. Then the other people on Ithaca came to kill Ulysses, but Minerva stopped them from fighting. Then she made herself look like Mentor and made a covenant of peace between the two parties.

Adventure Hooks:

AEaean island - Circe could be a powerful ally or enemy. She could also be a potential love interest.

Aeolian island - Aeolus can control the winds, and his grandchildren will be inbred. It may be interesting to look at the island after Aeolus has died.

Arrest a serial killer who's protected by the gods.

Find your way back to your home. That's always a potential adventure hook and is, in fact, the main plot of the Odyssey.

Hades - First of all, it's on the island of Cimmeria, which is in eternal darkness. That's an adventure in itself. Second, when you enter Hades, there's all the ghosts. One possibility would be to have the ghosts attack the living with magic in an attempt to kill them and steal their bodies. Since the ghosts are noncorporeal, they would be immune to physical attacks.

Lamus - The island of the ogres, ruled by the giant, Antiphates.

Meet Helen of Troy after her beauty has faded.

Proteus the shapechanging god is interesting, even though some of the other gods shapechange as well.

Copyright (C) 2006 Steven Fletcher. All rights reserved.