The Odyssey

The Odyssey” (Gr: “Odysseia”) is the second of the two epic poems attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer (the first being “The Iliad”) and usually considered the second extant work of Western literature. It was probably composed near the end of the 8th Century BCE and is in part a sequel to “The Iliad”. It is widely recognized as one of the great stories of all time and has been a strong influence on later European especially Renaissance literature. The poem focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses as he was known in Roman myths) and his long journey home to Ithaca following the fall of Troy. His adventure-filled ten year journey took him through the Ionian Islands and the Peloponnese and as far away as Egypt and North Africa and the western Mediteranean as the displeased sea-god Poseidon prevented him from reaching his home. If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of an everyman's journey through life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.