The Wanderings of Odysseus

The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey is a children’s novel by Rosemary Sutcliff published posthumously in 1995. A retelling of Homer’s Odyssey for younger readers, the novel describes the journey of the hero Odysseus as he strives to return home after fighting in the Trojan War. Sutcliff is renowned for her retellings of myths and legends and has received many honors and awards for her contributions to children’s literature. The Wanderings of Odysseus explores many of the themes present in Sutcliff’s other works (including her novel Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad), such as Heroism and the Quest for Home, The Relationship between Gods and Mortals, and The Role of Fate.

This study guide refers to the 1995 Delacorte Press edition with illustrations by Alan Lee.

Content Warning: The source material for this study guide depicts violence, portrayals of women in roles reflective of ancient Greek societal norms, and potential cultural simplifications inherent in retellings.

Plot Summary

In the Prologue, the author recaps the story of the decade-long Trojan War, fought between the Greeks and the city of Troy over Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, famed for her beauty. After the Greeks sacked Troy using a ploy devised by the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, they sailed back home.

Setting sail from Troy with his 12 ships, Odysseus first arrives in Thrace, near the town of Ismarus. He and his men sack the town and take many spoils, including 12 jars of wine. But while Odysseus’s men are celebrating, men from the town launch a surprise attack on them at dawn. More than 70 of Odysseus’s men are killed before they escape to sea.

A storm blows Odysseus south to a pleasant island, where his scouts eat the local lotus fruit, causing them to forget their home. Odysseus drags the men back to the ship and sails away.

At another island, the scouts find a cave full of cheese and milk. But the cave’s owner is a savage Cyclops named Polyphemus who traps Odysseus and his men in the cave and begins eating them two by two. The next day, when the Cyclops takes his sheep to pasture, Odysseus devises a plan to get their captor drunk, blind him, and escape. The plan works, but as Odysseus leaves, he cannot help boasting of how he has outwitted Polyphemus, revealing his identity to the Cyclops, who asks his father, the sea god Poseidon, to punish Odysseus.

Odysseus and his men come to the island of Aeolus, the Lord of the Winds. Aeolus entertains Odysseus and gives him a bag containing all the winds except for the west wind to blow Odysseus home as quickly as possible. Odysseus sails for nine days and nights, but as his home of Ithaca is in view, he falls asleep. His men, believing that Aeolus gave Odysseus a treasure he does not want to share with them, open the bag of the winds, causing them to blow off course. Odysseus is driven back to Aeolus, who refuses to help him again, recognizing that Odysseus is being punished by one of the gods.

Odysseus sails on and reaches an island of gigantic, man-eating creatures that ambush his ships in their harbor, smashing them with boulders. All but one of Odysseus’s ships are destroyed.

Odysseus next sails to the island of the enchantress Circe. Of the scouts Odysseus sends ahead, only one of them, Eurylochus, returns, explaining that Circe turned the other men into swine. Odysseus goes to confront the enchantress and outsmarts her with the help of the god Hermes. Circe restores Odysseus’s men to their human form and entertains the crew.

After spending over a year with Circe, Odysseus wishes to continue his journey. Circe advises him to go to the Land of the Dead to ask the dead prophet Tiresias of Thebes how best to reach Ithaca. In the Land of the Dead, Tiresias instructs Odysseus on how to overcome the perils of his journey. Odysseus also speaks to the ghosts of Agamemnon and Achilles, who fought with him at Troy.

Following the advice of Tiresias and Circe, Odysseus is able to sail safely past the Sirens, who lure sailors to their death with their song, and makes it through the narrow strait flowing between the whirlpool Charybdis and the many-headed monster Scylla. But, on the island of the Sun Lord, Odysseus’s hungry men are unable to refrain from eating the Sun Lord’s cattle, though Odysseus (following Tiresias’s instructions) warns them against it. As punishment, a fierce storm destroys the ship when they leave the island, sparing only Odysseus. Odysseus floats for 10 days before coming ashore on the island of the nymph Calypso.

Calypso takes Odysseus in and treats him very kindly but does not let him return home. Odysseus spends years stranded on Calypso’s island. Meanwhile, in Ithaca, Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus, await his return. Many young nobles, wanting Odysseus’s kingdom for themselves, try to get Penelope to marry them, but the faithful Penelope resists their advances. Odysseus’s patron goddess, Athene, goes to Ithaca disguised as Odysseus’s friend Mentes and convinces Telemachus to set out in search of his father. Telemachus assembles a ship and a crew and sets sail from Ithaca, while Penelope’s suitors plot to ambush him and kill him. Telemachus visits Nestor in Pylos and Menelaus in Sparta, both of whom had fought with Odysseus at Troy. Though Nestor and Menelaus both speak fondly of Odysseus, neither has any news of his current whereabouts.

While Telemachus is in Sparta, the gods send Hermes to Calypso to order her to set Odysseus free. Though Calypso wants Odysseus to remain with her as her lover, she obeys the gods’ orders. Odysseus builds a boat and sets sail, but Poseidon, still angry at Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus, raises a storm and wrecks his boat. A sea goddess named Ino saves Odysseus from drowning by giving him a magical veil. Odysseus eventually washes ashore on the island of the Phaeacians. There he is found by Nausicaa, the daughter of the king, whom Athene sends to the beach in a dream. Nausicaa gives Odysseus clothing and tells him to present himself to her mother Arete and her father Alcinous at their palace. Arete and Alcinous welcome Odysseus as a guest.

The next day, Alcinous arranges entertainment for his guest, including athletic games. During the games, Odysseus showcases his athletic prowess. Later, a bard sings of the Trojan War, and Odysseus weeps at this memory of his past. He reveals that he is Odysseus, and tells his hosts about his wanderings. Alcinous and Arete give Odysseus many gifts and put him on a ship to Ithaca while he is sleeping.

Odysseus wakes up on the beach of Ithaca. He is overjoyed to be home at last, but Athene warns him that he must be cautious and find a way to deal with the suitors who are trying to steal his wife and kingdom. Athene disguises him as an old beggar and suggests that he stay with his loyal old swineherd, Eumaeus. Meanwhile, Telemachus returns to Ithaca, guided by Athene to take a different route so as to avoid the ambush set by the suitors, and visits the home of Eumaeus, where Odysseus reveals his identity to him. The two plot to kill the suitors.

Still disguised as a beggar, Odysseus goes into Ithaca, where he is recognized by his old dog Argus but nobody else. The suitors mistreat Odysseus but Telemachus protects him, and at night Penelope comes to see him. Odysseus does not reveal his identity to her but tells her that her husband will return soon. He is, however, recognized by his old enslaved person Eurycleia, who realizes the beggar is Odysseus when she sees an old scar on his thigh. Odysseus swears her to secrecy.

The next day, Penelope—following the advice of the “beggar”—tells the suitors that she will marry whichever of them is able to string Odysseus’s old bow and shoot an arrow through 12 ax rings. While the suitors are trying to accomplish this, Odysseus reveals his identity to Eumaeus and to the cowherd Philoetius, both of whom are still loyal to him, and enlists their help in getting rid of the suitors. He then returns to the palace and Telemachus allows him to try the test of the bow, as all of the suitors have failed; Eumaeus and Philoetius, meanwhile, lock the doors of the hall. Odysseus easily strings the bow and shoots an arrow through the 12 rings, after which Odysseus reveals his identity. With the help of Telemachus, Eumaeus, Philoetius, and the goddess Athene, he kills all the suitors trapped in the hall. Odysseus then has all the enslaved people who were loyal to the suitors killed, including the goatherd Melanthius. Eurycleia tells Penelope, who has been sleeping in her room, that Odysseus has returned and has killed the suitors. Penelope is skeptical at first, but after she tests Odysseus and he responds with a piece of information that only the real Odysseus could know, she welcomes him home joyously.

In the morning, Odysseus visits his old father Laertes on his country farm and reveals his identity to him. Their reunion is interrupted by word that the fathers of the suitors are attacking, and Odysseus and Laertes arm to meet them. But bloodshed is staved off by the arrival of Athene, who makes peace between the two sides.