Book I: The council of the gods and Telemachus
tell me, Muse, of the man of many turns, who wandered far after sacking the sacred citadel of Troy.
Explanation and analysis
The poem begins before any scene: the narrator addresses the Muse, the deity who inspires the song, and asks her to speak of a man. This man does not yet have a name, which appears only in line 21. What is said of him in these two lines is that he wandered far after sacking the sacred citadel of Troy, the city where the war that the Iliad recounts was fought.
The adjective that defines him, polytropos, "of many turns," means at once that he turned many ways across the world and that he has many resources. Both meanings hold for Odysseus, and the word already announces the hero the poem will show: someone who survives by inventing ways out, not by force alone. A few lines later, the narrator says his companions died through their own folly, because they ate the cattle of the Sun, and with this he absolves Odysseus of blame before telling any adventure. The Iliad opens with rage; the Odyssey opens with a man and with what he suffered.
The opening can be read as praise: that of a hero whose chief quality is resourcefulness. It can also be read as a question: whoever changes course and method at every obstacle, does he keep a fixed identity? The poem will test this doubt several times, and the adjective of the first line is its starting point.
Oh, how mortals blame the gods! They say that evils come from us, when they themselves, through their own folly, suffer pains beyond their share.
Explanation and analysis
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but Odysseus, longing to see at least the smoke rising from his land, yearns to die.
Explanation and analysis
Book II: The assembly in Ithaca
Young men, my suitors, since divine Odysseus is dead, wait, though you hurry me toward my wedding, until I finish a piece of cloth, so that the threads are not wasted in vain: a shroud for the hero Laertes.
Explanation and analysis
many birds move beneath the rays of the sun, and not all bring a sign; as for Odysseus, he died far away.
Explanation and analysis
Book III: Telemachus in Pylos
no one there ever wished to match him in cunning, for divine Odysseus surpassed everyone from afar with every kind of stratagem, your father.
Explanation and analysis
Telemachus, what a word has escaped the fence of your teeth! A god, if he wishes, saves a man easily, even from afar.
Explanation and analysis
Book IV: Telemachus in Sparta
but Odysseus gripped his mouth with his hands, firmly, without slack, and saved all the Achaeans.
Explanation and analysis
led him, without his knowing of the ruin, and killed him after feasting him, as one kills an ox beside the manger.
Explanation and analysis
Book V: Calypso and the raft
Sovereign goddess, do not be angry with me for this: I myself know very well that prudent Penelope is inferior to you in looks and stature, to anyone who looks at her face to face; for she is mortal, and you are immortal and without old age. Yet still, every day I want and long to return home and see the day of my homecoming.
Explanation and analysis
as when someone hides an ember in the dark ashes, at the edge of the field, where there are no other neighbors, keeping the seed of fire so as not to have to kindle it elsewhere, so Odysseus covered himself with leaves.
Explanation and analysis
Book VI: Nausicaa
Alas, among what mortals have I come again to land? Are they arrogant, savage, and unjust, or hospitable, with minds that fear the gods?
Explanation and analysis
for nothing is stronger or better than this: when, of one mind in their thoughts, husband and wife keep the household.
Explanation and analysis
Book VII: The palace of Alcinous
and may life leave me only after I have seen my goods, my maidservants, and the great high-roofed house.
Explanation and analysis
Ah, father Zeus, Athena, and Apollo! Would that you, being as you are, thinking as I think, had my daughter and were called my son-in-law, staying here; I would give you house and goods, if you stayed of your own will; against your will no one of the Phaeacians will keep you; may this not be dear to Father Zeus.
Explanation and analysis
Book VIII: The games of the Phaeacians
as a woman weeps for her dear husband, throwing herself upon him, who fell before his city and his people, defending city and children from the pitiless day.
Explanation and analysis
for no one among men is entirely without a name, neither bad nor good, from the time he is born, but parents give one to everyone, once they have begotten him.
Explanation and analysis
Book IX: The Cyclops
rugged, but a good nurturer of young men; for my part, I truly cannot see any other land sweeter than hers.
Explanation and analysis
but whoever tasted the fruit of the lotus, sweet as honey, no longer wanted to return with news or to come back home, and wished to stay right there among the Lotus-eaters, eating lotus and forgetting the return.
Explanation and analysis
Nobody is my name: my mother, my father, and all my other companions call me Nobody.
Explanation and analysis
but if it is fated for him to see his own again and reach his well-built house and his native land, let him arrive late and in misery, having lost all his companions, in a stranger's ship, and let him find disasters at home.
Explanation and analysis
Book X: Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, and Circe
and this was not to be fulfilled: we were lost through our own folly.
Explanation and analysis
you have in your breast a mind that no spell can bind. You are certainly Odysseus, the man of many turns,
Explanation and analysis
Book XI: The descent to the dead
three times I lunged, and my heart urged me to hold her; three times she flew from my hands, like a shadow or a dream.
Explanation and analysis
therefore, never be gentle with your wife, nor tell her the whole story you well know: tell one part, and let the other remain hidden.
Explanation and analysis
Do not speak to me of death as a consolation, illustrious Odysseus. I would rather, being a farmhand, serve another, a landless man of little means, than reign over all the perished dead.
Explanation and analysis
Book XII: The Sirens, Scylla, and the Cattle of the Sun
Come here, much-praised Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans, halt your ship to hear the voices of us two. For no one has yet passed by here in a black ship without first hearing the honeyed voice that comes from our mouths; but he departs delighted and knowing more.
Explanation and analysis
If you leave them unharmed and think of the return, you will still reach Ithaca, though suffering hardships; but if you harm them, then I announce ruin to you, to the ship and to the companions; and you yourself, if you escape, will return late and in misery, having lost all your companions.
Explanation and analysis
Book XIII: The arrival in Ithaca
Alas, among what mortals have I come this time? Are they violent, savage, and unjust, or hospitable, with minds that fear the gods?
Explanation and analysis
Only a sly and furtive man could outdo you in every stratagem, even if a god should meet you. Stubborn, of varied cunning, insatiable for deceit, not even in your own land would you give up your trickery and furtive words, which have been dear to you from the root.
Explanation and analysis
Book XIV: In Eumaeus's hut
for I hate, as much as the gates of Hades, the man who, yielding to poverty, tells lies.
Explanation and analysis
and the gods have given me still other sorrows and groans: for weeping and suffering for the master, who is like a god, I sit here and raise fat pigs for others to eat, while he, longing for food, perhaps wanders among peoples and cities of foreign tongue.
Explanation and analysis
Book XV: Telemachus's return
just as this eagle snatched the goose raised at home, coming from the mountain where it has its nest and its young, so Odysseus, after suffering many evils and much wandering, will return home and take vengeance.
Explanation and analysis
and the two of us, in the hut, eating and drinking, may take delight in each other's sorrows, remembering; for the man who has suffered much and wandered much also takes delight in sorrows.
Explanation and analysis
Book XVI: Father and son
you are not Odysseus, my father, but some god enchants me, so that I weep and groan all the more.
Explanation and analysis
and they cried out in shrill voices, more copiously than birds, sea eagles, or curved-clawed vultures, whose young the farmers took before they could fly;
Explanation and analysis
Book XVII: The beggar in the palace
wagging its tail and lowering both ears, but it could no longer come near its master; and Odysseus, looking to the side, wiped away a tear,
Explanation and analysis
the gods too, resembling strangers from other lands, taking every kind of form, roam the cities, observing the excess and the good order of men.
Explanation and analysis
Book XVIII: Irus and the suitors
so she spoke, and the much-suffering, godlike Odysseus rejoiced, because she was drawing gifts from them and charming their hearts with gentle words, but her mind was thinking something else.
Explanation and analysis
if Odysseus were to come and reach his native land, the doors, however wide, would soon be too narrow for you, as you fled through the vestibule outside.
Explanation and analysis
Book XIX: Penelope and the scar
sat down by the hearth and soon turned toward the shadow; for he sensed in his heart that she, touching him, might perceive the scar, and the deeds would come to light. Coming closer, she was washing her lord, and at once she recognized the scar that a boar had once made on him with its white tusk.
Explanation and analysis
he told many lies, resembling truths; and while she listened, tears flowed and her skin melted away.
Explanation and analysis
daughter of Icarius, famed from afar; this is not a dream but a good vision, which will come true for you. The geese are the suitors; and I, who was before the eagle, have now come back, your husband, who will impose on all the suitors an unworthy fate.
Explanation and analysis
Book XX: The omens
endure, heart! You have endured something even more vile, on the day when the Cyclops, of irresistible strength, devoured my brave companions; you held on, until the plan brought you out of the cave, when you thought you would die.
Explanation and analysis
the lament blazes, faces are wet with tears; the walls and the fine rafters are spattered with blood; the portico is full of shades, the courtyard full too, shades rushing toward Erebus under the darkness; the sun has vanished from the sky, and an evil mist has spread.
Explanation and analysis
Book XXI: The bow
as when a man who knows the lyre and song easily stretches a string around a new peg, fastening at both ends the well-twisted sheep-gut cord, so without effort Odysseus stretched the great bow.
Explanation and analysis
here within am I myself, after suffering many evils; I have come, in the twentieth year, to my native land.
Explanation and analysis
go to your room and see to your work, the loom and the distaff, and tell the maids to busy themselves with their labor; the bow will be the concern of men, of all, and above all mine, for the power in this house is mine.
Explanation and analysis
Book XXII: The slaughter of the suitors
to drink wine; death was not in his mind. Who would have imagined that one man alone, among so many guests, however strong he was, would bring him an evil death and a black fate?
Explanation and analysis
Eurymachus, not even if you gave me back all my father's goods, everything you now have, and added still more from elsewhere, would I stop my hands from the slaughter until the suitors had paid for all their excess. Now it is set before you to fight face to face or to flee, whoever may escape death and fates.
Explanation and analysis
it is not lawful to glory over dead men. These were overpowered by the fate of the gods and by their cruel deeds: they honored none of the men of the earth who came to them, neither bad nor good; therefore, through their insolence, they met an unworthy fate.
Explanation and analysis
Book XXIII: The olive-wood bed
Eurycleia, spread for him the firm bed outside the solid room that he himself built; there, after you have carried the firm bed outside, throw on it the bedding, with skins, cloaks, and bright coverlets. So she spoke, putting the husband to the test.
Explanation and analysis
within the enclosure grew an olive tree with long leaves, vigorous, in full strength; its trunk was thick as a pillar. Around it I built the room, until I finished it, with close-set stones, roofed it well over the top, and set in doors, closely fitted together.
Explanation and analysis
as when land appears welcoming to swimmers whose well-built ship Poseidon breaks apart at sea, driven by the wind and the heavy wave; few escape the gray sea to firm land by swimming, and much salt covers their skin, and they step onto the land joyfully, having fled the evil; so welcoming was the husband to her, whom she gazed at, and from his neck she did not fully release her white arms.
Explanation and analysis
Book XXIV: Peace in Ithaca
you gave me thirteen pear trees, and ten apple trees, and forty fig trees.
Explanation and analysis
cease the painful war, Ithacans, so that you may separate as quickly as possible without shedding blood.