The Odyssey

The Odyssey tends to be blander in expression and sometimes more diffuse in the progress of its action,but it presents an even more complex and harmonious structure than the Iliad. The main elements are thesituation in Ithaca, where Penelope, Odysseus wife, and their young son, Telemachus, are powerlessbefore her arrogant suitors as they despair of Odysseus return from the siege of Troy; Telemachus secretjourney to the Peloponnese for news of his father, and his encounters there with Nestor, Menelaus, andHelen; Odysseus dangerous passage, opposed by the sea-god Poseidon himself, from Calypsos islandto that of the Phaeacians.His arrival back in Ithaca, solitary and by night, at the poems halfway point, followed by his meeting withhis protector-goddess Athena, his elaborate disguises, his self-revelation to the faithful swineherdEumaeus and then to Telemachus, their complicated plan for disposing of the suitors, and its goryfulfillment. Finally comes the recognition by his faithful Penelope, his recounting to her of his adventures,his meeting with his aged father, Laertes, and the restitution, with Athenas help, of stability in his islandkingdom of Ithaca