Epic · 8th century BCE
The Odyssey
Homer
Aya Saleh · Ink & Ivy
Epic · 8th century BCE · Greek · Ancient
The Odyssey
Ten years of sea and disguise between Troy and Ithaca.
Read the book
English reading edition · Samuel Butler, translator
Full Project Gutenberg text, newly typeset—not a publisher scan. Public-domain status varies by country; check local laws. The source license is included.
Edition and sourceHow to read it
An epic about lying well: Odysseus survives by narrative, and the poem quietly asks whether the man who returns is the man who left.
Complete section guide
Samuel Butler English prose translation; 24 books. Summaries contain spoilers; descriptive headings are editorial.
Book 1Athena and Telemachus
Athena visits Ithaca while Odysseus remains with Calypso, urging Telemachus to confront the suitors and seek his father.
Book 2The assembly
The suitors reject Telemachus’s complaint. With Athena’s help he secretly sails from Ithaca.
Book 3Nestor’s welcome
Nestor describes the Greeks’ troubled homecomings and sends Telemachus to Menelaus in Sparta.
Book 4News in Sparta
Menelaus reports that Odysseus is alive on Calypso’s island. The suitors plan to ambush Telemachus.
Book 5Calypso releases Odysseus
Hermes brings Zeus’s order of release. Poseidon destroys Odysseus’s raft, but he survives and reaches Phaeacia.
Book 6Nausicaa
Nausicaa discovers Odysseus by the river, gives him clothing and food, and directs him to her parents’ palace.
Book 7The palace
Odysseus appeals to Arete and receives Alcinous’s promise of passage home without yet revealing his identity.
Book 8Games and songs
Odysseus competes in the games and weeps at Demodocus’s song of Troy. Alcinous asks who he is.
Book 9The Cyclops
Odysseus recalls the Cicones, Lotus-Eaters and Polyphemus. Revealing his name after blinding the Cyclops brings Poseidon’s curse.
Book 10Circe
The crew squander Aeolus’s winds and encounter the deadly Laestrygonians. Hermes helps Odysseus free the companions transformed by Circe.
Book 11The dead
Tiresias warns Odysseus about the voyage. Meetings with his mother and fallen heroes expose war’s losses and death’s limits.
Book 12The last ship
The ship passes the Sirens and Scylla. Killing Helios’s cattle brings destruction, leaving Odysseus alone to drift to Calypso.
Book 13Ithaca
The Phaeacians bring Odysseus home asleep. Athena conceals his treasure and disguises him as a beggar.
Book 14Eumaeus
The loyal swineherd shelters the disguised king. Odysseus tests his generosity with an invented Cretan history.
Book 15Telemachus returns
Telemachus leaves Sparta and avoids the ambush. Eumaeus recounts how he was kidnapped and sold into Laertes’s household.
Book 16Father and son
Odysseus reveals himself to Telemachus in Eumaeus’s hut. They prepare to confront the suitors.
Book 17The palace beggar
Argos recognizes his master and dies. Antinous strikes Odysseus when he begs among the suitors.
Book 18Irus
Odysseus defeats Irus and warns Amphinomus in vain. Penelope draws gifts from the suitors as further insults test his restraint.
Book 19The scar
Penelope questions Odysseus without recognizing him. Eurycleia recognizes his scar, and Penelope announces the bow contest.
Book 20Omens
Divine signs encourage Odysseus. Theoclymenus foresees the suitors’ deaths, but they laugh at his warning.
Book 21The bow
The suitors fail to string the bow. Odysseus identifies himself to two loyal servants and shoots through the twelve axes.
Book 22The reckoning
Odysseus kills Antinous and reveals himself. With his allies he destroys the suitors and punishes disloyal servants.
Book 23The marriage bed
Penelope tests Odysseus with their immovable bed. His knowledge of its construction proves his identity and restores their marriage.
Book 24Peace
Odysseus reunites with Laertes. The suitors’ relatives seek revenge, but Athena ends the clash and imposes peace.
