What is The Odyssey about?

It is about the Greek hero Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War, full of monsters, magic and danger. Meanwhile his wife Penelope and son Telemachus struggle to hold off the suitors who have taken over their palace.

How does The Odyssey end?

Odysseus comes home in disguise, wins the contest of the bow and defeats the suitors with the help of his son and loyal servants. Penelope recognizes him through the secret of their olive-tree bed, he is reunited with his father, and Athena makes peace in Ithaca.

What is the moral of The Odyssey?

The poem shows that patience, cleverness and loyalty win in the end, and that home and family are worth any struggle. It also teaches that guests should be treated kindly and that greed and pride bring trouble.

What age is The Odyssey appropriate for?

The full poem, with its violence and old-fashioned language, suits confident readers of about 12 and up. A gentle retelling like ours is a good fit for ages 6 to 9.

Who is the main character in The Odyssey?

The main character is Odysseus, the clever King of Ithaca, who is called Ulysses in some translations. His wife Penelope and son Telemachus are also central to the story.

How many books are in The Odyssey?

The Odyssey is divided into 24 books. Each book is a long section of the poem, a little like a chapter.

The Odyssey summary for kids

The Odyssey is an ancient Greek poem about Odysseus, the clever King of Ithaca, and his long, adventurous journey home after the Trojan War. While he battles storms, giants, enchantresses and sea monsters, his faithful wife Penelope and his son Telemachus wait for him in a palace overrun by greedy suitors. Told by Homer nearly three thousand years ago, it is one of the oldest stories in the world, and children still love its monsters, its magic and its wily, never-give-up hero.

Written by: Homer
Setting: Ancient Greece: the island kingdom of Ithaca and the seas and magical islands of the Mediterranean, in the years after the Trojan War
The original ancient Greek poem: 24 books (long sections of the poem), here in Samuel Butler’s 1900 prose translation
Our retelling: Ages 6–9, an illustration on every page

The story, from beginning to end

Spoiler alert: this summary tells the whole story, including the ending.

Trouble at Home in Ithaca

Twenty years ago, Odysseus left the island of Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War. The war has long been over, and all the other heroes have come home or died, but Odysseus is missing. In his palace, more than a hundred young noblemen, called suitors, have moved in uninvited. They feast on his cattle and wine every day and insist that his wife, Penelope, must marry one of them. The rudest of them is Antinous.

Penelope has held them off with a trick. She said she would choose a husband once she finished weaving a burial cloth for Odysseus’s old father, Laertes, and for three years she secretly unpicked her weaving every night, until a maid gave her away. Her son, Telemachus, now a young man, feels helpless. Then the goddess Athena, who loves Odysseus, persuades Zeus to let him come home and visits Telemachus in disguise. She tells him to stand up to the suitors and sail off for news of his father.

Telemachus Goes in Search of His Father

Telemachus calls a meeting of the island’s elders, but the suitors only mock him. With Athena’s help he slips away on a ship to Pylos, where wise old King Nestor welcomes him with a feast but has no news. Nestor sends him on by chariot to Sparta, to King Menelaus and his wife Helen.

Menelaus tells Telemachus stories of his father’s cleverness at Troy. He also tells how, on his own way home, he wrestled the shape-changing Old Man of the Sea, who told him that Odysseus is alive, held on an island by a nymph named Calypso. Back in Ithaca, the suitors are furious that Telemachus has gone, and Antinous plans to ambush his ship on the way home.

Calypso’s Island and the Phaeacians

Odysseus has spent seven years on Calypso’s beautiful island, longing for home. The gods send Hermes, their messenger, to order her to let him go. Odysseus builds a raft and sails for seventeen days, but Poseidon, the god of the sea, who is angry with him, smashes the raft in a storm. Odysseus swims for two days and nights before reaching the land of the Phaeacians.

There the princess Nausicaa finds him by the river and shows him the way to the palace of her parents, King Alcinous and Queen Arete. The king treats the ragged stranger as an honored guest. At a feast, a blind singer sings about the Trojan War, and Odysseus weeps. At last he tells the court who he is and begins the story of his wanderings.

The Lotus-Eaters and the Cyclops

After leaving Troy with twelve ships, Odysseus and his men are blown off course. In the land of the Lotus-Eaters, some sailors eat a sweet flower that makes them forget home, and Odysseus has to drag them back to the ships. Next they reach the island of the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants who live as shepherds.

Odysseus and twelve men enter the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus, a son of Poseidon. The giant traps them inside with a huge boulder and eats several of the men. Odysseus gives him strong wine and says his name is “Noman,” or Nobody. When the giant falls asleep, Odysseus and his men blind him with a sharpened olive stake. Polyphemus howls that Nobody is hurting him, so the other Cyclopes go away. The next morning the men escape clinging to the bellies of his sheep. As they sail off, Odysseus proudly shouts his real name, and Polyphemus prays to Poseidon to punish him.

The Bag of Winds, Circe and the Land of the Dead

Aeolus, keeper of the winds, gives Odysseus a leather bag holding all the stormy winds, leaving only a gentle breeze to blow him home. Within sight of Ithaca, while Odysseus sleeps, his curious crew open the bag, thinking it is full of treasure, and the storm blows them all the way back. Then the giant Laestrygonians destroy all but one of the ships with boulders.

On the island of Aeaea, the enchantress Circe turns some of the men into pigs. The god Hermes gives Odysseus a magic herb called moly, so her spells cannot touch him, and she turns the men back into humans. They stay with her for a year. Circe then sends Odysseus to the land of the dead, where the ghost of the prophet Teiresias tells him how to get home, and where he meets the spirit of his own mother, who died of grief while he was away.

Sirens, Monsters and the Cattle of the Sun

Following Circe’s advice, Odysseus plugs his crew’s ears with beeswax and has himself tied to the mast so he can hear the beautiful song of the Sirens without steering onto their rocks. Next the ship must pass between Charybdis, a giant whirlpool, and Scylla, a six-headed monster living in a cliff. Scylla snatches six sailors from the deck.

On the island of the Sun god, the starving crew disobey Odysseus and kill the god’s sacred cattle. As punishment, Zeus destroys the ship with a thunderbolt. Every man drowns except Odysseus, who drifts for nine days to Calypso’s island, where his story began. Moved by his tale, the Phaeacians load him with gifts and carry him home to Ithaca while he sleeps.

Home in Disguise

Odysseus wakes on Ithaca not recognizing his own land. Athena appears, explains where he is and disguises him as a wrinkled old beggar. He goes first to the hut of Eumaeus, his loyal swineherd, who welcomes the stranger kindly without knowing who he is. Telemachus, guided by Athena past the suitors’ ambush, arrives at the hut too. When Eumaeus leaves, Odysseus reveals himself to his son, and the two weep for joy and plan how to deal with the suitors.

At the palace, Odysseus’s old dog Argos, who has waited twenty years, recognizes his master, wags his tail and dies. The suitors mock the beggar, and Antinous throws a footstool at him. Penelope invites the beggar to talk and asks for news of her husband. Odysseus tells her that Odysseus will be home very soon. When his old nurse, Eurycleia, washes his feet, she recognizes a scar on his leg, but he makes her keep the secret.

The Contest of the Bow and a Family Reunited

Penelope announces a contest: she will marry whoever can string Odysseus’s great bow and shoot an arrow through the handle holes of twelve axe-heads in a row. One by one the suitors fail. Odysseus, still in disguise, asks for a turn. He strings the bow easily and shoots the arrow straight through all twelve axes. Then he throws off his rags, and with Telemachus, Eumaeus and another loyal herdsman, he fights the suitors in the great hall. Every suitor is killed, Antinous first, and the servants who betrayed the household are put to death.

Penelope cannot believe the stranger is really her husband, so she tests him. She tells the nurse to move their bed out of the bedroom. Odysseus is upset, because he built the bed himself around the trunk of a living olive tree, and it cannot be moved. Only he and Penelope know this secret, and she runs into his arms. The next day Odysseus finds his old father, Laertes, working in his orchard and proves who he is. When the suitors’ families come seeking revenge, Athena stops the fighting and makes peace in Ithaca at last.

Themes and big ideas

Home and family: Odysseus turns down an easy life with Calypso, who even offers to make him immortal, because he wants to go home to his wife and son. Penelope and Telemachus never give up on him either. The whole poem is about how much people will go through to be together again.
Brains over brawn: Odysseus is strong, but he wins by thinking. He beats the giant Polyphemus with a made-up name and a plan, not with a sword, and he returns to his palace in disguise so he can learn who is loyal. Penelope’s weaving trick shows she is just as clever.
Kindness to strangers: In the world of the poem, guests and travelers must be welcomed and fed. Nestor, Menelaus, King Alcinous and the swineherd Eumaeus are generous to strangers, while the Cyclops and the suitors break this rule, and the poem shows that breaking it brings trouble.
Patience and self-control: Odysseus has to wait quietly in his own house while the suitors insult him, and he even blinks back his tears when his old dog Argos knows him. His sailors, on the other hand, keep getting into trouble because they cannot wait, opening the bag of winds and eating the cattle of the Sun.
Loyalty: Penelope, Telemachus, Eumaeus, the nurse Eurycleia and even the old dog Argos stay true to Odysseus through twenty years. The poem rewards their faithfulness and shows how much a few loyal friends can matter.

Is The Odyssey right for my child?

The Odyssey is exciting, but parents should know that the original poem has a lot of violence. The Cyclops eats several of Odysseus’s men and is blinded with a burning stake, giants sink a fleet with boulders, a six-headed monster snatches sailors from the deck, and in the end every one of Odysseus’s crew is lost. Odysseus visits the land of the dead and meets his mother’s ghost. The ending is the darkest part: Odysseus, Telemachus and their helpers kill all the suitors in the great hall, and the disloyal servants are put to death. There are also gods who punish people harshly, and some grown-up relationships, since Odysseus stays with both Calypso and Circe.

Our retelling for ages 6 to 9 keeps the whole journey, the monsters and the clever tricks, the loyal swineherd, the contest of the bow and the joyful reunion. It softens the violence: the Cyclops is tricked and blinded but no men are eaten, the visit to the land of the dead is left out, and the suitors are driven out of the palace instead of killed. Scylla’s attack and the loss of the crew are told simply and briefly. The retelling suits ages 6 to 9. The full poem is best for confident readers of about 12 and up, though a parent can read favorite episodes, like the Cyclops or the Sirens, aloud to younger children.

Questions to talk about

Why do you think Odysseus wanted to go home so badly, even when he was living on a beautiful island?
Which of Odysseus’s clever tricks did you like best? Why?
Why did Odysseus tell the Cyclops his name was Nobody?
What would you have done if you were one of the sailors with the bag of winds?
Why did Odysseus come home in disguise instead of telling everyone who he was right away?
How did Penelope show that she was clever, too?
Eumaeus was kind to a stranger who had nothing. Why does that matter in the story?
If you could sail with Odysseus to one island, which would you choose, and why?

Questions about The Odyssey

What is The Odyssey about?: It is about the Greek hero Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War, full of monsters, magic and danger. Meanwhile his wife Penelope and son Telemachus struggle to hold off the suitors who have taken over their palace.
How does The Odyssey end?: Odysseus comes home in disguise, wins the contest of the bow and defeats the suitors with the help of his son and loyal servants. Penelope recognizes him through the secret of their olive-tree bed, he is reunited with his father, and Athena makes peace in Ithaca.
What is the moral of The Odyssey?: The poem shows that patience, cleverness and loyalty win in the end, and that home and family are worth any struggle. It also teaches that guests should be treated kindly and that greed and pride bring trouble.
What age is The Odyssey appropriate for?: The full poem, with its violence and old-fashioned language, suits confident readers of about 12 and up. A gentle retelling like ours is a good fit for ages 6 to 9.
Who is the main character in The Odyssey?: The main character is Odysseus, the clever King of Ithaca, who is called Ulysses in some translations. His wife Penelope and son Telemachus are also central to the story.
How many books are in The Odyssey?: The Odyssey is divided into 24 books. Each book is a long section of the poem, a little like a chapter.