Themes

Home, Exile, and Return the smoke of Ithaca that Odysseus wants to see in Book I, the mist that hides him from his own land in Book XIII and the bed that awaits him in Book XXIII. Identity the name he gives the Cyclops and then shouts in Book IX, and the signs, the scar in Book XIX and the bed in Book XXIII, by which each one recognizes him. Truth and Lies the stories he makes up for Athena in Book XIII, for Eumaeus in Book XIV and for Penelope in Book XIX, and the bed with which she tests him in Book XXIII. Family the son who grows up on the journey from Book I to Book IV, the reunion of father and son in Book XVI and the three generations in arms in Book XXIV. Loyalty and Betrayal the case of Agamemnon told in Book XI, the loyalty of Eumaeus in Book XIV and of Philoetius in Book XX, and the treachery of the goatherd Melanthius in Book XXII. Revenge the example of Orestes in Book I, the prayer of Polyphemus in Book IX and the slaughter in Book XXII, which only ends with the peace of Athena in Book XXIV.