Odysseus

Odysseus proposed a new stratagem after the Greeks had failed to take Troy by force. He told the Greeks to build an enormous hollow horse of wood and conceal their best warriors inside it. Epeios, an architect and skilled worker in wood, built the horse from timber felled on Mount Ida. It was hollow within and had an opening at its side. Odysseus persuaded the chieftains to enter, although the men understood the danger. Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, was the only one described as free from terror.

The remaining Greeks were to burn their tents, board their ships, and appear to sail away. They would hide beyond Tenedos, or behind the nearest island, where the Trojans could not see them. A Greek whom the Trojans did not know was left near the deserted camp. The plan depended on the Trojans finding the horse after the army had withdrawn and believing that the war was over. They discovered the wooden horse and brought it through the city gates. One account says that they took it as a divine gift. The Trojans then spent the day celebrating.

When night came, the hidden warriors emerged from the horse. They reached the sentries and opened the gates for the Greek army, which had quietly returned from its hiding place. The Greeks entered Troy and sacked the city. After the fall of Troy, Odysseus and his men boarded their ships and sailed towards Ithaca. A storm sent by Poseidon at Athena's request drove them off course, beginning their long wanderings.

At Aeolus's island, Odysseus and his companions were received as guests. Zeus had appointed Aeolus to control the winds, allowing him to calm them or send them forth. When Odysseus prepared to leave, Aeolus placed the winds that could hinder or endanger the voyage inside a leather bag. He fastened it with a silver string and arranged for favourable winds to carry the ships towards their homeland.

The voyage went well. For nine days, Odysseus kept watch and held the steering rope, refusing to give it to another man. As they drew close to Ithaca, he could see smoke rising from the town. Exhausted from constant effort, he fell asleep. His companions looked at the sealed bag and decided that it must contain gold, silver, or other treasures that Aeolus had given their commander. They believed Odysseus had received a richer reward than they had, although they had shared the same journey.

Their suspicion overcame their judgement. They untied the bag, and the imprisoned winds burst out. The ships were swept away from their course and carried back across the sea towards Aeolus's island. Odysseus then returned to Aeolus and asked for help and a favourable wind. Aeolus refused him. He said that he could not aid a man whom the gods were opposing, and that he could not save someone against their will. The ships therefore left the island again without his assistance.

Eurylochos urged the starving crew to drive off the best cattle of Helios on Thrinacia. He argued that death from hunger was worse than any other death. If they reached Ithaca, they would build a temple to Helios and give him offerings. The men swore an oath and moored their ship near fresh water in a sheltered harbour. Odysseus then went across the island to seek a way forward. He washed his hands and prayed to the gods, who poured sleep over his eyes.

While Odysseus slept, Eurylochos and the others slaughtered the cattle. They cut up the meat and placed it on spits. When Odysseus woke, the smell of burning fat reached him. He hurried to the shore and rebuked his companions, but the cattle were already dead. Strange signs appeared among them. The hides crawled across the ground. The joints on the spits lowed, and the meat made the sound of cattle, whether cooked or raw.

For six days the crew drove in the finest cattle and feasted upon them. On the seventh day, Zeus brought an end to the storm, so they boarded the ship and sailed into the open sea. Lampetia, the long-robed daughter of Helios, went to her father and told him what had happened. Helios demanded vengeance from Zeus. He said that the men had killed the cattle in which he took pleasure while travelling through the heavens. Zeus agreed to punish them.

After the ship had left the island, Zeus raised a dark cloud over it. The sea grew black, and a violent west wind struck. The mast ropes snapped, the mast fell, and the rigging was scattered. Zeus then shattered the ship with a thunderbolt. All the crew were lost. Odysseus alone survived. He clung to the mast as the wreckage was carried towards Charybdis. When Charybdis drew the mast down, he seized an overhanging fig tree and waited. When the mast rose again, he threw himself upon it and was carried across the sea to Ogygia, where Calypso received him.

The dogs fawned around Telemachus as he approached the hut and did not bark. Odysseus, who was preparing breakfast with the swineherd Eumaeus, heard his footsteps and noticed the dogs’ behaviour. He began to say that one of Eumaeus’s companions must be arriving, but Telemachus appeared in the doorway. Eumaeus sprang up. The bowls in which he was mixing wine fell from his hands, and he kissed Telemachus’s head, eyes, and hands while weeping for joy. He begged the young man to sit and eat.

Telemachus had come home after visiting Helen and Menelaus. At Athena’s prompting, he had sailed back quickly and decided to visit the swineherd before going to his own house. He asked Eumaeus whether his mother remained there or had married another man while Odysseus’s bed stood unused. Eumaeus answered that Penelope was still in the house and suffered through the days and nights, weeping. In one account, Eumaeus then took Telemachus’s bronze spear and Telemachus entered the hut. Eumaeus spread green brush and a fleece for him to sit upon.

In another account, Eumaeus first went to tell Penelope that Telemachus had returned. Once he had gone, Odysseus and his son were alone. Athena appeared just beyond the door and beckoned to Odysseus. He went out to her, and she changed him from the old stranger back into his own form. She told him to reveal his identity to Telemachus. Odysseus returned and told the young man who he was. Father and son then recognised one another and secretly organised the attack on the suitors. Odysseus also directed the household slaves to butcher the best pigs for dinner while he tested whether his father, Laertes, would recognise him after so long an absence.

Odysseus stripped off his rags, leapt on to the great threshold of the feast hall, and took up his bow and quiver. He poured the arrows before his feet and declared that the mad contest had ended. He then chose Antinoös as his next target. Antinoös was raising a golden, two-eared cup to drink, unaware that death was near. Odysseus shot him through the throat, and he fell to one side.

The suitors were seized by fear. Odysseus told them that their contest was over and that they would pay for the wrongs they had committed. They had consumed his wealth and pressed Penelope during his long absence. Agelaos urged someone to escape through the rear door and call for help, but Melanthios, the goat herder, said that the passage was too near the court and could be held by one man. Odysseus had ordered the loyal pig herder to guard it.

The suitors threw their spears. Most missed their mark because Athena made their attempts fail. When the attack had passed, Odysseus ordered Telemachus, the pig herder, and the cow herder to cast their spears. Odysseus killed Demoptolemos, Telemachus killed Euryades, the pig herder killed Elatos, and the cow herder killed Peisander. The remaining suitors fled into the innermost part of the hall. Odysseus and his companions seized weapons from the fallen and continued the slaughter. His spear found its mark, while the suitors struck the doorpost, the doors, or the wall.

At last the suitors lay in heaps across the blood-stained floor. Odysseus searched the hall to make sure that none remained alive. Only the suitors’ priest and their bard were left. The priest begged for mercy while clasping Odysseus’ knees, but Odysseus killed him with his sword. He spared the bard because the man had been taught by the gods to sing. Odysseus then sent Telemachus to call the nurse Eurycleia, while the old nurse and the maids were summoned to cleanse the hall.

Odysseus came to his father’s farm after returning to Ithaca. He told Eumaeus and Philoetius to take his armour to the house and butcher the best pig for dinner. He wanted first to test Laertes, and to see whether his father would recognise him after so long an absence. Dolios, his sons, and the other bondsmen were away gathering stones or thorns for a wall around the vineyard, so Odysseus found Laertes alone in the orchard.

Laertes was working the soil around a plant. He looked old and neglected. His clothes were dirty and patched, his legs were bound with oxhide against the brambles, and he wore leather sleeves and a goatskin cap. Odysseus praised his care of the garden, then questioned him as though he were a stranger. He asked whose orchard it was and whose slave he might be. Laertes answered that the land belonged to him, though sorrow for his absent son had darkened his old age.

Odysseus then gave a false account of himself. He said that he was Eperitos, son of Apheidas, and came from Alybas. He claimed that a spirit had driven him from Sikania, and said that he had once met Odysseus before the hero left his homeland. When Laertes heard that Odysseus had been gone for five years, he poured dust over his grey hair and groaned. Odysseus was moved by his father’s grief and revealed himself.

To prove his identity, Odysseus recalled the orchard as it had been when he was a child. Laertes had shown him every tree and had promised him thirteen pear trees, ten apple trees, forty fig trees, and fifty rows of vines that ripened at different times. Laertes recognised these signs, his knees gave way, and he embraced his son. Odysseus told him that he had returned after twenty years and had killed the suitors for their crimes. He then joined Laertes in resisting the suitors’ relatives.

Odysseus and Diomedes entered Troy at night after almost ten years of siege. Troy’s walls remained uninjured, and the Greeks had made no real attack against them. Most fighting had taken place outside the city. The Trojans believed that Troy could not fall while the Palladium remained in its shrine. The sacred image of Pallas Athena was said to have fallen from the sky. Its presence protected the city. The Greeks also knew the prophecy that required its removal before the Argive army could win.

The two chieftains found the Palladium and stole it. In one account, Odysseus helped Diomedes climb the wall. Diomedes carried the image to the Greek camp. The theft removed the protection on which Troy depended.

The Greeks took this as a sign that they should act. They no longer wished to wait through the siege. They understood that they could not conquer Troy by fighting outside its walls. Their army had to enter the city and take the Trojans by surprise. They therefore began to devise a secret means of entry. The sources differ in some details of the theft, but the removal of the Palladium is presented as the required step before Troy could fall.

Odysseus entered the cave of Polyphemus with his companions after leaving the rest of his ships at a neighbouring island. The cave stood near the sea and contained pens and flocks. Odysseus brought wine given to him by Maron. While Polyphemus was away pasturing his animals, the Greeks took cheese and prepared food. Odysseus chose to remain, expecting the gifts customary between hosts and guests. The Cyclops returned, drove his flocks inside, and sealed the entrance with a huge stone. He then seized and ate some of the men. On a later return, he made another meal of two more Greeks.

Polyphemus was a giant with one round eye in the middle of his forehead. He was the son of Poseidon and the nymph Thoosa. After eating, he demanded the Greek leader’s name. Odysseus offered him strong wine, which the Cyclops drank greedily. When Polyphemus asked again for his name, Odysseus replied, ‘Nobody’. The Cyclops promised a reward, then fell into a drunken sleep.

Odysseus and his remaining men found wood in the cave and sharpened it. They heated its point in the fire, lifted it together, and drove it into the Cyclops’s eye. Odysseus leaned on the weapon and turned it as a shipwright turns a drill. The hot wood seared the eyelid and lashes, while blood ran around it. Polyphemus cried out to the neighbouring Cyclopes. They came and asked who was hurting him. When he answered, ‘Nobody’, they went away, believing that no one was attacking him.

At dawn, Polyphemus opened the cave to let his sheep out, but stood at the entrance and felt their backs as they passed. Odysseus tied three rams together and hid beneath the largest. His companions hid beneath other sheep. They escaped with the flock, released themselves, and drove the animals towards the ships. As he sailed away, Odysseus shouted that he was the man who had escaped, revealing his name as Odysseus. The blinding earned him Poseidon’s hatred, and the god delayed his return to Ithaca.

The wind died as Odysseus and his crew approached the island of the Sirens. The sea became calm, without a ripple. The crew furled the sail, stowed it, and took to the oars. Odysseus cut a great round cake of wax into pieces and softened them in his hands, warmed by the sun. He pressed the wax into the ears of his companions. They then bound his hands and feet to the mast while he stood upright, and fastened the ropes firmly around it.

Circe had warned Odysseus how to pass the island. The Sirens were sea nymphs whose song drew sailors towards destruction. Their music promised knowledge, wisdom, and knowledge of what would happen on earth. Odysseus wanted to hear the song, so he ordered his crew to keep him bound. If he begged them to release him, they were to add more ropes instead.

When the ship came within hearing distance, the Sirens began to sing. Odysseus heard their voices clearly, while the wax kept his companions from hearing them. He longed to go towards the sound and signalled for his men to release him. They obeyed his earlier command instead. Perimedes and Eurylochos stood up, bound him with more ropes, and pulled them tighter. The crew continued rowing until the ship had passed the island and the voices could no longer be heard.

The men then removed the wax from their ears and released Odysseus from the mast. The ship had escaped the Sirens' island without its crew being drawn to destruction.

Hermes bound his imperishable golden sandals to his feet and took the wand that could lull mortal eyes to sleep. He flew over the sea and earth, then skimmed the waves until he reached Ogygia, the lovely island that had become Odysseus’s hateful prison. He found Calypso alone. Odysseus sat on the sandy shore, gazing across the empty sea while salt tears ran down his face.

Zeus had ordered Hermes to tell Calypso that Odysseus must return home. He would travel without help from gods or men, crossing the sea on a raft for twenty perilous days. He would then reach fertile Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians, who were near of kin to the gods. They would honour him, carry him in a ship to his own country, and give him bronze, gold, and clothing.

Calypso received the command in anger. She said that she had saved Odysseus when Zeus struck his ship with lightning and sank it in mid-ocean. All his companions had drowned, while wind and waves carried him to her island. She had cared for him, grown fond of him, and wished to make him immortal. She accused the gods of jealousy whenever a goddess loved a mortal man. She recalled the stories of Dawn and Orion, and of Demeter and Iasion, whose mortal lovers had also brought the gods’ anger.

Hermes answered that he had come because Zeus had sent him, and that no god could oppose Zeus’s orders. Odysseus had become the most unfortunate of those who fought at Troy. After the war, his companions had perished when they offended Athena, leaving him to be carried by the winds and waves to Ogygia. Calypso had to accept the decree. Odysseus was therefore permitted to leave the island, build his raft, and begin the dangerous voyage to Scheria. The Phaeacians would then send him onwards to his country and friends.

Eurycleia prepared a cauldron to wash the feet of the beggar who had come into the house. She poured in cold water, then added hot water. Odysseus sat away from the hearth, but turned towards the shadows when he realised that the washing might reveal his scar. As Eurycleia came close and handled his leg, she recognised the mark left by a wild boar.

The scar came from a hunt at Parnassus, where Odysseus had gone with Autolycus and his sons. The boar charged him and tore the flesh above his knee with its white tusk. Odysseus struck it with his spear in the right shoulder and killed it. Autolycus and his sons bound the wound and stopped the bleeding. After they had treated him, Odysseus returned to Ithaca, where his father and mother welcomed him and asked how he had received the scar.

When Eurycleia recognised it, she dropped his foot. The leg fell into the bath, overturning it and spilling the water. Tears filled her eyes, and she caught Odysseus by the beard. She said that he must be Odysseus, whom she had not recognised until she touched him. She looked towards Penelope, intending to reveal that her husband was in the house, but Athena had turned Penelope's attention away. Odysseus seized Eurycleia by the throat and drew her close. He reminded her that she had nursed him and ordered her to keep silent. He warned that, if the gods allowed him to kill the suitors, he would not spare her when he killed the other slave women.

Eurycleia agreed to remain silent. She said that her resolve was firm. She left to fetch more water because the first had been spilt. After she had washed and anointed him, Odysseus moved nearer the fire and hid the scar beneath his rags. Penelope then began to speak to him.

After the burial of Penelope’s suitors, Odysseus sacrificed to the Nymphs and travelled to Elis, where Polyxenos gave him a bowl showing the story of Trophonius. He returned to Ithaca, then crossed on foot through Epirus to the land of the Thesprotians. There he offered Poseidon the sacrifices advised by Teiresias. Callidice, queen of the Thesprotians, asked him to remain, and Odysseus became her husband and the father of Polypoites. He ruled the Thesprotians and defeated neighbouring peoples who attacked them.

When Callidice died, Odysseus gave the throne to Polypoites and returned to Ithaca. He found that Penelope had borne him another son, Poliporthes. Meanwhile, Circe told Telegonus that he was Odysseus’s son. Telegonus sailed in search of his father and reached Ithaca. A storm had driven him there without his knowing the island’s identity. He began taking Odysseus’s cattle.

Odysseus came to defend the cattle, and a fight began between the two men. Telegonus carried a spear made by Hephaestus, tipped with the venom of a poisonous stingray. He wounded Odysseus with it, and the poison killed him. As Odysseus lay dying, father and son recognised one another. Telegonus mourned the mistake that had caused his father’s death.

Telegonus carried Odysseus’s body to Aeaea, Circe’s island, together with Penelope and Telemachus. Odysseus was buried there, and Circe made Penelope, Telegonus, and Telemachus immortal. The Telegony ended with a double marriage: Telegonus married Penelope, while Telemachus married Circe.

Odysseus came to the court of Tyndareus among the princes seeking Helen, the king’s daughter and the fairest woman in the world. He had little wealth or territory compared with the other suitors. He was short, broad-shouldered, strong, active and skilled in many crafts. He could plough, build houses and make ships. He was also the best archer in Greece except for one man. Although he had little chance of winning Helen himself, he helped Tyndareus settle the contest by giving him advice.

Tyndareus then spoke to his brother Icarius, who had a daughter named Penelope. Icarius admired Odysseus for his strength and wisdom, and gave Penelope to him as his wife. Odysseus loved her deeply. They left together for rocky Ithaca, where Odysseus became king. Another account says that Odysseus won Penelope in a foot-race. A further version says that she was given to him as a reward for the advice he had offered Tyndareus.

Odysseus and Penelope had been married for about a year when the summons to the Trojan war separated them. Odysseus joined the Greek force, and Penelope remained in Ithaca. After Troy fell, Odysseus wandered for ten years before reaching home. He then found Penelope surrounded by suitors who believed that he was dead. They had stayed in his house, consumed his sheep, oxen and wine, and pressed her to marry one of them. Penelope continued to wait for her husband. When Odysseus returned in disguise, she did not recognise him at first. She ordered his old nurse, Eurycleia, to wash the stranger’s feet. Eurycleia recognised him by a scar, but he made her keep silent. Later, Odysseus revealed himself to Penelope and told her of his sufferings. She listened until he had finished the whole story, and neither of them slept before then.

Dolon ran towards the Greek ships with a grey wolf’s hide over his shoulders. Odysseus and Diomedes had seen him and lay among the dead from the battle. They let him pass, then rose and chased him like hunting dogs pursuing a hare. Near the Greek sentinels, Diomedes threw his spear over Dolon’s shoulder and ordered him to stop.

Dolon stood trembling. He offered ransom and said that his wealthy father would pay for his release. Odysseus questioned him instead. Dolon said that Hector was holding council at the tomb of Ilus, while the Trojans watched near their fires. The distant allies kept no guard. He named the positions of the Trojan forces and said that Rhesus, king of the Thracians, had arrived that night. Rhesus and his men were sleeping at the furthest end of the line. Their horses were tall, swift and white. Their chariot and armour were decorated with gold and silver.

Dolon asked them either to take him prisoner to the ships or leave him bound while they tested his story. Diomedes refused to spare him, fearing that he would spy again, and struck off his head. Odysseus and Diomedes hid Dolon’s cap, bow and spear, marking the place so that they could find them later.

They then went towards Rhesus’s camp. Before setting out, they had borrowed shields and leather caps from the young guards. Odysseus wore a leather cap strengthened with boars’ tusks. It had once belonged to his grandfather Autolycus and had passed through several hands before reaching Meriones of Crete.

Rhesus’s camp stood apart from the Trojan force. It had no watch-fire and no guards. Diomedes moved silently among the sleeping Thracians and killed the men around Rhesus. Odysseus dragged the bodies aside so that the horses would not shy from them. Diomedes then killed Rhesus.

Odysseus led out the horses. He struck them with his bow because he had left the whip in the chariot. They could not take the chariot, so they mounted the horses and galloped towards the Greek ships. On the way, they stopped to recover Dolon’s cap, bow and spear. They then continued with the captured horses.

Achilles had been burned, and the Greeks placed his white ashes in a golden cup with the ashes of Patroclus. They raised a tomb like a hill on a headland above the sea. When the funeral rites were complete, they held foot races, chariot races, and other games in his honour. Thetis gave the prizes. At the end, she placed before the Greek chiefs the armour made by the god for Achilles after Hector killed Patroclus. She declared that it should go to the best of the Greeks, and to the man who had saved Achilles's body from the Trojans.

Ajax and Odysseus claimed the armour. Ajax had carried Achilles's body from the battlefield, while Odysseus held back the Trojans. Odysseus nevertheless sought the armour for himself. The matter was brought before the assembly. Old Nestor warned that the defeated man would feel dishonoured and might no longer stand firm in battle. He said that the Greeks could not judge fairly, since some favoured Ajax and others favoured Odysseus.

Nestor proposed that Trojan prisoners should decide the contest. They were made to sit as judges, and Ajax and Odysseus gave speeches about their deeds and the harm they had done to the Trojans. The prisoners were expected to favour neither Greek and to choose the man who had done most against Troy. In another account, the decision was made by a secret vote among the Greek heroes. Odysseus received the armour.

Ajax regarded the result as a disgrace. In furious anger, he resolved to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus. Madness overcame him, and he died by his own hand. The Greeks found him dead and lamented him. Tecmessa, his wife, and his brother mourned him, while Odysseus grieved most of all. Odysseus said that he would rather have given the armour to Ajax than suffer this loss, and denied that he had sought wealth. He said he had sought honour and a name among men. The Greeks then burned Ajax's body on a great wood fire and mourned him as they had mourned Achilles.

After the winds from Aeolus's leather sack had driven Odysseus and his men back across the sea, they reached the country of the Laestrygonians, a tribe of giant cannibals. Some of the men went ashore and followed a level road towards the town. They met a young woman who had come to draw water from the fountain Artacia. She was the daughter of Antiphates, a Laestrygonian, and directed them to her father's house when they asked who ruled the land.

At the house, the men saw Antiphates's wife, a giantess as large as a mountain, and were terrified. She called Antiphates from the place of assembly. He seized one of the visitors and began to eat him. The other two fled towards the ships. Antiphates then raised a cry throughout the city. The Laestrygonians came running from every side, described in one account as ten thousand giants.

The Laestrygonians stood on the cliffs around the harbour and hurled rocks as large as a man could lift. The stones smashed the ships and killed the crews. They speared the men like fish and carried them away as food. The harbour became filled with the noise of breaking vessels and dying men. Odysseus's ship was still outside the harbour, so he drew his sword and cut its cables.

He ordered his crew to row with all their strength. The oars drove the ship away from the cliffs, and it escaped while the other vessels were destroyed. Odysseus and his surviving men continued their voyage with grief for those who had been killed. They later reached Aeaea, the island where Circe lived.

Odysseus travelled to Messenia while still young, seeking repayment of a debt owed by the whole people of Ithaca. The Messenians had taken three hundred sheep from Ithaca, together with their shepherds, and had sailed away with them. Odysseus stayed at the house of Ortilochus, where he met Iphitus, son of Eurytus. The two men came together during Odysseus’s journey, while Iphitus was seeking certain mares.

Iphitus gave Odysseus the bow that his father Eurytus had carried. Eurytus had left it to his son when he died, and the bow had been kept in the high roofed halls of his house. In return, Odysseus gave Iphitus a sharp sword and a strong spear. This exchange began a close friendship between them. They did not visit each other’s houses, however, because Heracles killed Iphitus before that could happen. Heracles killed him in his own house, although Iphitus was his guest friend, and kept the single hoofed horses in his halls.

Odysseus did not take the bow with him when he sailed for Troy. He had used it while he was at home, but left it behind as a keepsake from a valued friend. It remained among his treasures, with a quiver full of arrows, until Athene put the contest into Penelope’s mind.

Penelope took the bronze key with its ivory handle and went with her maidens to the storeroom at the far end of the house. There she found the bow and arrows. She brought them to the feast hall, together with the grey iron axes, and set up a contest among the suitors. The contest was to begin their destruction. Later, the bow helped Odysseus win back his household. Telemachus tried to string it before him, but Odysseus stopped him when he was about to succeed.