Joseph Scott
The Odyssey Summary Ten years after the fall of Troy, Odysseus, the Greek hero, has still not returned to his kingdom in Ithaca. In his kingdom a big and raucous group of suitors have infested the palace and continue to court his wife, Penelope. Odysseus’s son, Prince Telemachus, is desperately wanting to throw them out, but doesn’t have the courage or experience to fight them. Antinous, one of the suitors, wants to assassinate the prince, which will help eliminate the only problem with taking over the palace. Except the suitors believe Odysseus was killed during the war, but he is trapped on the island, Ogygia, by Calypso. He has wanting to be home with his wife and son, but he cannot escape because he has no crew or ship to help him. The gods and goddesses atop Mount Olympus are beginning to consider his future, Athena, Odysseus’s most potent supporter among the gods, settles to help Odysseus’s son. Athena disguised as a friend of the princes grandfather, Laertes, convinces the prince to have a meeting with the suitors. She also prepared him to go to Pylos and Sparta, to visit the kings Nestor and Menelaus. They inform him that Odysseus is alive and trapped on Calypso’s island. Telemachus makes a plan to return home, but back in Ithaca, Antinous plans to ambush and kill the young prince when he reaches the port. Atop Mt. Olympus, Zeus sends Hermes to rescue Odysseus from Calypso. Hermes then convinces Calypso to let Odysseus build a ship and leave the island. Odysseus sets sail for home, but Poseidon, god of the sea, finds Odysseus and sends a storm to shipwreck Odysseus. The reason for this is that Poseidon has built a strong hatred for Odysseus because of what Odysseus did to his son the Cyclops Polyphemus. Odysseus strongest supporter, Athena, intervenes to save Odysseus from the god of the sea’s wrath and lands him on the land of the Phaeacians who promise him to help him get home safe after he revealed he is Odysseus. Except before they leave they ask Odysseus to tell them the story of his adventures. He then spends the night and tells them of the time he took a trip to the land of Lotus Eaters, the battle with Polyphemus the Cyclops, his love affair with Circe the witch-goddess, the temptation of the deadly sirens, the journey into Hades to confront the prophet Tiresias, his fight with Scylla the sea monster. After finishing his story, the Phaeacians took him home to Ithaca, where he pursues out the hut of his true swineherd, Eumaeus. Odysseus was