Homer - poetry - ~800 BC - pp. 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 221

Beginning in medias res, the epic poem The Odyssey is set after the end of the Trojan War as Odysseus and his crew of men make their way back home to Ithaca. The story is typically divided into 24 chapters; the plot is nonlinear and told largely through flashbacks. After falling captive to the sorcerous Calypso, whose advances he resists, he escapes to the isle of the Phaeacians, where he recounts his adventures to that point.Various gods including Hermes and Athena intervene at crucial points throughout. Along the way, Odysseus and his men encounter numerous obstacles: Scylla and Charybdis, the sorceress Circe, the Lotus Eaters, a Cyclops named Polyphemus, a group of cannibals called the Laestrygonians, and various other pitfalls.

Throughout Odysseus’ journey, his wife, Penelope, has remained at home weaving and staving off a persistent band of suitors. Finally, with the help of Athena and the Phaeacians, he returns to Ithaca and, with the help of his son, Telemachus, kills all of Penelope’s suitors along with several housemaids believed to have betrayed Penelope by having affairs with some of the suitors.

Key elements: absent father, art, Europe, father figures, Greek mythology, infidelity, marriage