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The Odyssey (/ ˈ ɒ d ɪ s i /; [1] Ancient Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, romanized: Odýsseia) [2] [3] is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. Like the Iliad, the Odyssey is divided into 24 books.
In Book 6, she makes sure that Nausicaa meets Odysseus elsewhere on the island by coming to her in a dream and inciting her to go to the river to wash clothes. Odysseus is in a horrid state of nudity and grime when he initially meets Nausicaa, but Athena gives Nausicaa the courage to stand her ground so that she can get around to helping him.
Idyll XI is written in the Doric dialect of ancient Greek. In that dialect, the Cyclops' name is "Polyphamos." The more familiar "Polyphemos" is the form in which he is known in the Odyssey, which is written in the Ionic dialect.
The Odyssey is divided into 24 books, which are divided into 3 parts of 4, 8, and 12 books. Although Ulysses has fewer episodes, their division into 3 parts of 3, 12, and 3 episodes is determined by the tripartite division of The Odyssey. [27] Joyce referred to the episodes by their Homeric titles in his letters.
In the Odyssey, Homer describes Odysseus' journey home from Troy. Prior to the Trojan War , Odysseus was King of Ithaca , a Greek island known for its isolation and rugged terrain. [ 1 ] When he departs from Ithaca to fight for the Greeks in the war, he leaves behind a newborn child, Telemachus , and his wife, Penelope .
Probably each of the two books of the Telegony related one of these episodes. The poem opens after the events depicted in the Odyssey. According to Proclus' summary, the Telegony opens with the burial of Penelope's suitors. [5] Odysseus makes sacrifices to the Nymphs. [6]
The Odyssey is a nostos that recalls the story of Odysseus' journey home to Ithaca, finally completed twenty years after the Trojan War began. Odysseus, however, does not directly appear in the narrative until Book 5. Instead, the Telemachy ' s subject is the effect of Odysseus' absence on his family, Telemachus in particular.
Scholars sometimes include the two Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, among the poems of the Epic Cycle, but the term is more often used to specify the non-Homeric poems as distinct from the Homeric ones. Unlike the Iliad and the Odyssey, the cyclic epics survive only in fragments and summaries from Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period.