Timed Reading — The Iliad and the Odyssey

After leaving Aeolus, Odysseus arrives at the island of Aeaea, home of the enchantress Circe, who has transformed some of his men into pigs. With the help of the god Hermes, Odysseus forces Circe to restore them. She then delivers a prophecy — he must travel to the underworld to speak with the dead seer Tiresias, who will reveal what he must do to reach home.

Following Tiresias’s instructions, Odysseus faces a series of temptations and dangers. He passes the island of the Sirens — creatures whose singing lures sailors to their deaths — by ordering his men to block their ears with wax while he himself is tied to the mast. He then navigates the treacherous strait between the monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Despite warnings, his hungry men kill the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios. As punishment, Zeus destroys the ship, and Odysseus alone survives.

After years at sea, Odysseus finally reaches Ithaca. He arrives disguised as a ragged beggar so that none of the suitors will recognize him. Athena helps him conceal his true appearance. He resists the urge to act immediately, choosing instead to observe the situation carefully and test the loyalty of his household. The old nurse Eurycleia, while washing his feet, recognizes him by a scar on his leg left by a childhood hunting wound. Odysseus swears her to silence.

Penelope, still unaware of her husband’s return, has arranged a contest: whoever can string Odysseus’s great bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe handles lined up in a row will become her husband. The suitors all try and fail. The disguised Odysseus then steps forward and completes the feat with ease, to the shock of everyone in the hall. He immediately turns the bow on the suitors.

What follows is a slaughter. Odysseus, aided by Telemachus and two loyal servants, kills every suitor in the great hall. He then reveals his true identity to Penelope, but she is not yet ready to believe him. She tests him with a question about their marriage bed before she is fully convinced. After twenty years apart, husband and wife are finally reunited.