The Odyssey
Questions
The most common questions about The Odyssey, answered from the poem.
- Who is Odysseus?Odysseus is the hero of the Odyssey: king of the island of Ithaca, son of Laertes, husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus, one of the Greek...
- What is the summary of the Odyssey?The Odyssey tells how Odysseus, king of Ithaca, returns home in the twentieth year after leaving for the Trojan War, crosses the sea among islands,...
- How does the Odyssey end?The Odyssey ends in Ithaca, with Odysseus's vengeance already accomplished and a peace imposed by the gods. After he kills the suitors, three scenes...
- Why does Poseidon pursue Odysseus?Poseidon, the god of the sea, pursues Odysseus because he blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus, who is the god's son. In the council of the gods in the...
- Why does Penelope weave and unravel the shroud?Penelope weaves and unravels the shroud to buy time. With Odysseus absent for twenty years and no news of him, nobles from Ithaca and the neighboring...
- Why does the Odyssey begin with Odysseus's son?The Odyssey begins with the son because the poem wants to show Odysseus's house before showing Odysseus himself. The first four books, called the...
- Who are Penelope's suitors?The suitors are the nobles of Ithaca and the neighboring islands who court Penelope while Odysseus is away. They are sons of the most important men...
- Why does Odysseus refuse the immortality that Calypso offers him?Odysseus refuses immortality because he wants to return home. Calypso, the nymph who keeps him on her island, offers him a life without old age or...
- What is hospitality (xenia) in the Odyssey?Hospitality, which the Greeks call xenia, is the rule of welcoming the stranger and the suppliant who arrives at the door, and in the Odyssey it...
- Who is Polyphemus, and why does Odysseus say his name is Nobody?Polyphemus is a Cyclops, a giant shepherd with a single eye, son of Poseidon, who lives in a cave with his flocks. The Cyclopes, Odysseus says, have...
- What happens to the Sirens in the Odyssey?In the Odyssey, the Sirens are two creatures whose song enchants those who pass nearby and makes them forget the way home. Odysseus is the only one...
- How does Penelope recognize Odysseus? What is the olive-wood bed?Penelope recognizes Odysseus by the marriage bed: he describes how he built it around an olive tree that grew in the courtyard, and only someone who...
- Who recognizes Odysseus when he returns to Ithaca, and how?Odysseus returns to Ithaca unrecognizable: Athena pours mist over him and then disguises him as an old beggar, so that neither his wife, nor the...
- Who are the Phaeacians and why do they help Odysseus?The Phaeacians are the people of the island of Scheria, ruled by King Alcinous and Queen Arete, who welcome Odysseus when he arrives naked and...
- What is the main theme of the Odyssey?The main theme of the Odyssey is the return home, which the Greeks call nostos. The poem asks what it means to return: not merely to cross the sea,...
- How many books does the Odyssey have, and how is it divided?The Odyssey has 24 books, written in Greek hexameter verse, a poem of oral tradition committed to writing around the eighth century BCE. The story it...