The Odyssey recap

Ten years after the Trojan War, Odysseus still has not returned to Ithaca, where suitors besiege his faithful wife, Penelope, and squander his household. With Athena's help his son, Telemachus, sets out to seek news of him. Odysseus himself, held by the nymph Calypso, is at last freed by the gods, shipwrecked by Poseidon, and taken in by the Phaeacians, to whom he recounts his wanderings: the Cyclops he blinded, the enchantress Circe, the land of the dead, the Sirens, and the loss of all his men after they ate the sun god's forbidden cattle. The Phaeacians carry him home, where Athena disguises him as a beggar. Aided by his loyal swineherd and reunited with Telemachus, he enters his own hall unrecognized, wins Penelope's contest of the bow, and kills the suitors. He proves himself to Penelope, reunites with his aged father, and, with Athena imposing peace, is restored as king.

Ten years after the fall of Troy, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, has still not come home, held far away while the gods debate his fate. In Ithaca a crowd of suitors feasts in his hall and presses his wife, Penelope, to remarry, wasting the household, and she holds them off with delays. The goddess Athena, taking a mortal's shape, rouses Odysseus's son, Telemachus, to stand up like a man and seek word of his father. He sails to Pylos and Sparta, where the old warriors Nestor and Menelaus receive him warmly and tell him that Odysseus is alive but stranded far off. Meanwhile the suitors plot to ambush Telemachus on his way home.

The gods send Hermes to command the nymph Calypso to release Odysseus, who has spent years on her island longing for home. He builds a raft and sets out, only for Poseidon to shatter it in a storm. Half-drowned, he washes ashore in the land of the Phaeacians, where the young princess Nausicaa finds him and guides him to the palace of her father, King Alcinous. Welcomed as an honored guest, Odysseus is moved to tears when a court singer performs a song about the Trojan War, and his hosts ask the weeping stranger to name himself and tell his story.

Odysseus recounts his wanderings since Troy. His fleet raided the Cicones, drifted to the land of the Lotus-Eaters, and was trapped by the Cyclops Polyphemus, whom he blinded to escape, earning Poseidon's lasting anger. He was given a bag of winds by Aeolus, only for his crew to open it and blow them off course; he lost most of his ships to the giant Laestrygonians; and he stayed a year with the enchantress Circe. On her counsel he journeyed to the land of the dead, where the prophet Tiresias foretold his path home. He then passed the Sirens and the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, but his starving men killed the forbidden cattle of the sun god, and for that all of them were drowned, leaving Odysseus alone to reach Calypso.

His tale finished, the Phaeacians load Odysseus with gifts and carry him home to Ithaca by ship while he sleeps. Athena meets him, warns him about the suitors, and disguises him as an old beggar so he can enter unrecognized. He goes first to the hut of his loyal swineherd, Eumaeus, who shelters the stranger kindly without knowing him. Telemachus, returning safely from Sparta and evading the suitors' ambush, comes to the same hut, and Athena lets father and son recognize each other at last. Together they begin to plan how to overcome the suitors crowding the hall.

Still in disguise, Odysseus goes to his own hall and endures insults and blows from the suitors and from disloyal servants, quietly testing who has stayed faithful. His aged dog recognizes him and dies; his old nurse knows him by a scar while washing his feet, and he swears her to silence. Penelope, not knowing the beggar is her husband, is drawn to him and confides her grief, then resolves on a test: she will bring out Odysseus's great bow and offer herself to whichever suitor can string it and shoot an arrow through a row of axes. Odysseus and Telemachus prepare in secret.

The contest begins, and none of the suitors can even bend Odysseus's bow. The disguised king takes it, strings it, and shoots cleanly through the axes; then he and Telemachus, with two loyal servants and Athena's help, bar the doors and kill the suitors and punish the treacherous servants. He reveals himself to Penelope, who confirms his identity by testing him with the secret of their marriage bed. Reunited at last, Odysseus goes to the countryside to make himself known to his aged father, Laertes. When the dead suitors' kin rise to take revenge, Athena intervenes and imposes peace, restoring Odysseus to his home and his rule.

Home at last but still disguised as a beggar, Odysseus watches Penelope announce a contest: she will marry whichever suitor can string Odysseus's great bow and shoot an arrow through a line of axe-heads. None of them can even bend it. Odysseus takes the bow, strings it easily, and makes the shot, then reveals himself. With his son Telemachus, two faithful herdsmen, and Athena's aid, he bars the hall and kills every suitor, and the disloyal servants are punished. He and Penelope are reunited after she tests him with the secret that their marriage bed was built around a living tree rooted in the ground, a thing only the true Odysseus could know. He goes to the countryside to reveal himself to his grieving old father, Laertes. When the families of the slain suitors gather for revenge and fighting breaks out, Athena and Zeus intervene to stop it and bind both sides to peace, leaving Odysseus secure once more as king of Ithaca.