Return of Odysseus
The hero's perilous ten-year journey home from Troy and his reclamation of his kingdom in Ithaca
The Meaning of Return of Odysseus
The Return of Odysseus, forming the subject of Homer's Odyssey, is the most celebrated homecoming narrative in Western literature. After the fall of Troy, Odysseus set sail for his island kingdom of Ithaca, but a combination of divine wrath, monstrous encounters, and his own insatiable curiosity stretched the journey to ten years. After blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus, he incurred the lasting enmity of Poseidon, who drove his ships across the Mediterranean. He lost men to the Laestrygonians, to Circe's sorcery, and to the Sirens' song. He navigated between Scylla and Charybdis, survived the wrath of Helios after his crew slaughtered the sun god's sacred cattle, and spent seven years as the unwilling consort of the nymph Calypso. When he finally reached Ithaca, he found his palace overrun by 108 suitors vying for his wife Penelope's hand and consuming his wealth. Disguised as a beggar by Athena, Odysseus revealed himself only to his son Telemachus and two faithful servants. The climactic contest of the bow — stringing Odysseus's great weapon and shooting through twelve axe-heads — exposed the suitors' inadequacy. Odysseus strung the bow, proved his identity, and slaughtered every suitor in the great hall. His reunion with Penelope, achieved only after she tested him with the secret of their bed built around an olive tree, brought the epic to its emotional resolution.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
The Odyssey
💭 conceptJourney, homecoming, cunning
The ten-year journey of Odysseus from Troy to Ithaca — a voyage through monsters, magic, and the wrath of Poseidon.
Wanderings of Odysseus
💭 conceptNarrative
The fantastic adventures Odysseus experienced across the Mediterranean during his decade-long voyage home
The Trojan War
💭 conceptWar, fate, heroism
A ten-year siege of Troy by a coalition of Greek kings, sparked by the abduction of Helen and shaped by the rivalries of the gods.
Nostos
💭 conceptThe hero's homecoming
Nostos was the perilous return home after war — the concept from which "nostalgia" derives.
Nostos
💭 conceptThe heroic theme of the journey home
The literary and spiritual concept of the hero's return home after war — the Odyssey is the greatest nostos of all.
Voyage of the Argo
💭 conceptNarrative
The legendary sea journey of the Argonauts through uncharted waters to reach the kingdom of Colchis
Argonautica
💭 conceptLiterature
Apollonius of Rhodes' epic poem narrating Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece
Aeneid
💭 conceptLiterature
Virgil's epic poem following the Trojan hero Aeneas from the fall of Troy to the founding of Rome
Quest for the Golden Fleece
💭 conceptNarrative
Jason's expedition aboard the Argo to retrieve the golden fleece from the distant land of Colchis
Fall of Troy
💭 conceptNarrative
The final destruction of the city of Troy through the stratagem of the wooden horse after ten years of siege
Bow of Odysseus
💭 conceptArtefact
The great composite bow that only Odysseus could string, the instrument of his revenge upon the suitors
Seven Against Thebes
💭 conceptNarrative
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the city of Thebes in the generation before the Trojan War