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Odyssey

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The Odyssey is the second of the two great Greek epic poems ascribed to Homer, the first being the Iliad. It describes the adventures of Odysseus as he and his crew travel back to his native Ithaca from Troy after the Trojan War. They suffer various misfortunes brought about by Poseidon, encountering, among others: Aeolus, Calypso, Circe, Hades, Ino, the Lotus-Eaters, Polyphemus, the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis. None of his crew survive the voyage.

Coming home after his 20 year absence, Odysseus finds his palace occupied by men trying to marry his supposedly widowed wife Penelope. Penelope does not believe he is dead, and doesn't want to remarry: she has put the suitors off by insisting that she must first weave her husband a burial shroud, and every night she undoes that day's weaving. After gaining entrance by posing as as a beggar and gradually revealing himself to his faithful swineherd, his son Telemachus, his old nurse and finally Penelope, Odysseus kills all the suitors and is reunited with his faithful wife.

In the English language, the word odyssey has come to refer to such epic voyages.

Derivative works

A modern book inspired by the Odyssey is James Joyce's Ulysses (1922).

The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? has the basic plot of The Odyssey; Joel and Ethan Coen admit basing the movie loosely on The Odyssey but insist that they haven't read it.

R. A. Lafferty retold the story in a science fiction setting in his novel Space Chantey.

Progressive metal group Symphony X based a 24-minute epic track The Odyssey on the story in their 2002 album, The Odyssey.

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