The Odyssey
The events in the order the book tells them.
Books I to IV
- Book I1
The council of the gods
In the palace of Zeus, the gods debate the case of Odysseus, held on the island of the nymph Calypso. Athena asks that he return, Zeus recalls that Poseidon pursues him because of Polyphemus, and the return is decided.
- Book I2
Athena visits Telemachus
Athena descends to Ithaca disguised as Mentes and finds Telemachus sad among Penelope's suitors. She advises him to call an assembly and to travel to Pylos and Sparta in search of news of his father.
- Book II3
The assembly in Ithaca
Telemachus asks the people for help against the suitors and gets nothing. He asks for a ship and, hidden from his mother, sets out at night for Pylos, with Athena in the form of Mentor.
- Book III4
Nestor's feast
In Pylos, old Nestor welcomes Telemachus with a feast. He knows nothing of Odysseus, but tells how the Achaeans came home from Troy and how Agamemnon was killed by Aegisthus and avenged by his son Orestes.
- Book IV5
Menelaus, Helen and Proteus
In Sparta, Menelaus and Helen recognize Telemachus by his face. Menelaus tells what the old man of the sea, Proteus, told him in Egypt: Odysseus is alive, held by the nymph Calypso.
- Book IV6
The suitors' ambush
Antinous and the other suitors realize that Telemachus has left, and arrange an ambush at sea to kill him on his return, between Ithaca and Samos. Penelope learns the plan from the herald Medon and prays to Athena.
Books V to VIII
- Book V7
Hermes and Calypso
Zeus sends Hermes to order Calypso to release Odysseus. She offers him immortality, he prefers to return home, and the nymph helps him build a raft.
- Book V8
The raft and the storm
Poseidon sees the raft and unleashes a storm that breaks it apart. With the veil of the goddess Ino, Odysseus swims for two days and two nights and arrives naked in the land of the Phaeacians.
- Book VI9
Nausicaa at the river
Athena sends Princess Nausicaa to wash clothes in the river. She finds Odysseus, gives him clothes and food, and directs him to ask help of Queen Arete, in her father's palace.
- Book VII10
The palace of Alcinous
Odysseus embraces the knees of Queen Arete and sits in the ashes of the hearth. King Alcinous raises him, honors him as a guest and promises a ship to carry him home.
- Book VIII11
The games and Demodocus's song
Insulted by Euryalus at the games, Odysseus hurls a discus beyond every mark. Then he weeps on hearing the singer Demodocus speak of Troy, and Alcinous demands that he give his name.
Books IX to XII
- Book IX12
The Lotus-eaters
After sacking the city of the Cicones, the fleet reaches the land of the Lotus-eaters, where the fruit of the lotus makes whoever tastes it want to stay, forgetting the return home.
- Book IX13
Polyphemus and Nobody
Trapped in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus, Odysseus makes him drunk, says his name is Nobody and drives a stake into his eye. They escape beneath the rams, and Polyphemus prays to his father, Poseidon, that Odysseus return late and in misery.
- Book X14
The bag of winds
Aeolus gives Odysseus a bag with the winds bound, and the fleet comes within sight of Ithaca. The companions open the bag, the storm drives them away, and then the Laestrygonians destroy almost all the ships.
- Book X15
Circe
Circe turns into pigs the companions whom Odysseus sends to explore the island. With the herb Hermes gives him, he resists the spell, frees the men and stays a year with her.
- Book XI16
The descent to Hades
On Circe's advice, Odysseus consults the soul of the seer Tiresias in the world of the dead. He hears the prophecy about the return, meets his mother, Anticleia, and speaks with Agamemnon and Achilles.
- Book XII17
The Sirens
Following Circe's advice, Odysseus stops his companions' ears with wax and has himself tied to the mast. He hears the song of the Sirens without being able to throw himself into the sea.
- Book XII18
Scylla and the cattle of the Sun
Scylla snatches six companions from the ship. On the island of the Sun, the famished men kill the sacred cattle while Odysseus sleeps, and Zeus destroys the ship with a thunderbolt. Only Odysseus survives.
Books XIII to XVI
- Book XIII19
The arrival in Ithaca
The Phaeacians leave Odysseus sleeping on the beach of Ithaca. On waking, he does not recognize the land, until Athena, disguised as a shepherd, reveals where he is and turns him into an old beggar.
- Book XIV20
Eumaeus's hut
Disguised, Odysseus goes to the hut of the swineherd Eumaeus, who welcomes him out of fear of Zeus, even without believing the stories the beggar tells about the absent master.
- Book XV21
Telemachus's return
Warned by Athena, Telemachus leaves Sparta and Pylos, with the seer Theoclymenus on board, avoids the suitors' ambush and lands in Ithaca, going straight to Eumaeus's hut.
- Book XVI22
Father and son
In the hut, Odysseus reveals himself to Telemachus, who at first takes him for a god. The two agree on the death of the suitors, while in the city the suitors decide to kill the boy.
Books XVII to XX
- Book XVII23
The dog Argos
Odysseus arrives at the palace with Eumaeus, and at the door the dog Argos recognizes him after twenty years. The dog wags its tail and dies. Inside, the beggar asks alms of the suitors.
- Book XIX24
The scar
At night, Penelope questions the beggar and tells of the ruse of the loom. As the nurse Eurycleia washes his feet, she recognizes the scar on his leg and is forced by Odysseus to keep silent.
- Book XX25
The omens
On the eve of the contest, Odysseus asks Zeus for a sign and hears thunder. The suitors laugh without reason, and the seer Theoclymenus sees blood on the walls and shades heading for Erebus.
Books XXI to XXIV
- Book XXI26
The contest of the bow
Penelope proposes as the prize marriage to whoever can string Odysseus's bow and shoot through twelve axes. The suitors fail, and the beggar strings the bow with ease and shoots.
- Book XXII27
The slaughter of the suitors
Odysseus shoots Antinous, refuses Eurymachus's compensation and, with Telemachus, Eumaeus, Philoetius and Athena, kills all the suitors. He spares the singer Phemius and the herald Medon.
- Book XXIII28
The olive-wood bed
Penelope does not believe in her husband's return and tests him by ordering the bed moved. Odysseus describes the bed built around the olive tree, and she recognizes him.
- Book XXIV29
Laertes in the orchard
In the orchard, Odysseus makes his father, Laertes, weep with a lie and then reveals himself by the scar and by the trees the old man gave him in childhood.
- Book XXIV30
Peace in Ithaca
The kin of the suitors march in arms, and Laertes kills Antinous's father. Zeus hurls a thunderbolt before Athena, and she, with the voice of Mentor, establishes peace between the two sides.