Critical Introduction

Written sometime in the eighth century BCE, The Odyssey, along with The Iliad, was first passed down orally from generation to generation for hundreds of years, resulting in formulaic elements such as consistent epithets (e.g. “rosy-fingered Dawn”) and repetitions of entire lines. These two epic poems, the earliest works of Western literature, reflect an earlier period in Greek history: a late Bronze Age society (ca. thirteenth and twelfth centuries BCE) of cities ruled by kings. The Iliad focuses on a period of mere weeks during the Trojan War, which was a ten-year-long assault on the citadel of Troy in Asia Minor by combined Greek forces under the command of King Agamemnon. The Odyssey, on the other hand, covers the ten-year journey of the Greek warrior Odysseus as he tries to return from Troy to his home on Ithaca, an island off the Greek mainland.

The Odyssey opens a full ten years after the Trojan War; Odysseus has been absent for twenty years and is presumed dead by the majority of people on Ithaca. Only his wife Penelope and son Telemachus hold out hope that he may still return. Odysseus, we find out, has been held against his will for seven years by Calypso, a sea nymph. When she finally releases him, his raft is wrecked at sea and he washes up on the shore of the island of the Phaeacians, who welcome him and ask to hear his story. This begins a long “flashback” portion of poem, a narrative of all Odysseus's experiences since leaving Troy. His adventures up to this point, as he tells the Phaeacians, include the following:

• a piratical raid on the Cicones, a tribe in Thrace;

• an encounter with the Lotus-Eaters, a people addicted to the lethargy-inducing lotus-fruit;

• exploration of the Cyclops's island;

• a short stay with Aeolus, king of the Winds;

• being attacked by the Laestrygonians, a tribe of giant cannibals;

• meeting Circe, an enchantress who turns Odysseus's men into swine;

• a voyage to Hades, land of the dead;

• avoiding the Sirens, whose sweet song aims to lure sailors to their deaths on the rocky shore;

• running afoul of Scylla and Charybdis, two monstrous creatures who devour men and ships, respectively;

• trespassing on the island of Thrinacia, home to the sacred cattle of Helios, god of the Sun; and

• ending up on Calypso's island.