Homer 
The Odyssey 

The Odyssey by Homer  is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the 
Iliad, the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War.



After the war itself, which lasted ten years, his journey lasted for ten additional years, during which time he encountered many perils and all his crew mates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope’s hand in marriage.



The 
Odyssey was originally composed in Homeric Greek in around the 8th or 7th century BCE and, by the mid-6th century BCE, had become part of the Greek literary canon. In antiquity, Homer’s authorship of the poem was not questioned, but contemporary scholarship predominantly assumes that the 
Iliad and the 
Odyssey were composed independently, and the stories themselves formed as part of a long oral tradition.



Given widespread illiteracy, the poem was performed by an 
aoidos or rhapsode, and more likely to be heard than read.

Crucial themes in the poem include the ideas of 
nostos (νόστος; ‘return’), wandering,  
xenia (ξενία; ‘guest-friendship’), testing, and omens. Scholars still reflect on the narrative significance of certain groups in the poem, such as women and slaves, who have a more prominent role in the epic than in many other works of ancient literature. This focus is especially remarkable when considered beside the 
Iliad, which centres the exploits of soldiers and kings during the Trojan War.