Odysseus is the King of Ithaca who is forced to leave his family to fight in the Trojan War. His son and the hero of Homer's The Odyssey, Telemachus, is devastated to see his mother, Penelope, heartbroken for the absence of her husband. Many men desire to marry Penelope to become King of Ithaca, but she is determined to wait for Odysseus' return. The goddess Athene disguises herself as a mortal and tells Telemachus to venture across the sea to find his father. Without his mother's permission, he gathers a crew, travels across the sea, and visits other kingdoms to gather information.
Meanwhile, Odysseus is deserted on the island Calypso with a nymph who wants him to stay. By the power of Zeus, the nymph lets him go. He floats home on a raft until Poseidon creates a large wave that destroys it. Odysseus then swims to a nearby kingdom where he explains to the King of Phaeacia how he got stranded on Calypso in the first place. During the Trojan War, Odysseus advices the Greeks to go back home after they attacked the Trojans, who then send a retaliatory force. Odysseus and some of the other warriors escape and come across some odd lands with lotus flower drugs, cyclopses, magic bags of wind, cannibals, a sorceress who turns men into pigs, ghosts, sirens, and monsters like Scylla and Charybdis. Ultimately, Odysseus is left alone on the island of Calypso. The King of Phaeacia offers him a ship, and Odysseus finally reaches Ithaca. To test the loyalty of his wife, Odysseus disguises himself as a beggar and tells her that the King of Ithaca shall return within a month. Penelope then holds a contest among the suitors to see who can use a crossbow properly. Odysseus wins and reveals himself to his wife, and they live happily ever after. |