Timed Reading — The Iliad and the Odyssey

The Odyssey begins in medias res — in the middle of the story, ten years after the fall of Troy. Odysseus himself does not appear until much later in the poem. The story opens in Ithaca, where his wife Penelope struggles to fend off the suitors who have crowded into her home. The suitors spend their days indulging themselves, eating Odysseus’s food, drinking his wine, and treating the palace as their own.

The goddess Athena decides to help Odysseus’s family. She disguises herself as a family friend and visits Telemachus, encouraging him to take bold action. She tells him to call a public assembly of Ithaca’s citizens and formally demand that the suitors leave. At the assembly, Telemachus speaks courageously, but the suitors protest loudly and refuse to go. Nobody accomplishes anything. The citizens of Ithaca are unwilling to take a stand against the powerful noblemen who have occupied the palace.

Athena then advises Telemachus to begin a quest — a voyage to the kingdoms of Pylos and Sparta to search for news of his father. In Pylos, the aged King Nestor can offer him little information. In Sparta, King Menelaus tells Telemachus something important: Odysseus is alive but captive on a distant island. A sea nymph named Calypso is holding him there against his will.

Back in Ithaca, the suitors discover that Telemachus has left and immediately begin to plot against him. They decide to assassinate him before he returns to Ithaca. If Telemachus is dead, they reason, there will be no one left to oppose them when they force Penelope to make her choice. They arrange for a ship and position it at sea to ambush him on his way home.

On the island of Ogygia, Zeus finally hears Athena’s plea on behalf of Odysseus. He sends the messenger god Hermes to order Calypso to release him. Calypso is deeply unhappy with the command, but she cannot refuse the will of the king of the gods. Reluctantly, she agrees. After seven long years on her island, Odysseus builds a raft and sets sail for home.