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The Odyssey of Homer

by Homer (-750–-650)

  • Free to read
  • 9 hours to read
  • 26 chapters
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"The Odyssey of Homer" by Homer is an epic poem composed around the 8th or 7th century BC. It follows Odysseus, king of Ithaca, on his perilous ten-year journey home after the Trojan War. While he battles supernatural dangers and loses all his crew, his wife Penelope and son Telemachus face aggressive suitors at home who presume Odysseus dead. This ancient Greek masterpiece explores themes of homecoming, hospitality, and perseverance, and remains one of the most enduring narratives in Western literature.

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  • Homer · Translations into English
  • Epic poetry, Greek · Translations into English
  • Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character)

Read the opening

Book I

In a Council of the Gods, Poseidon absent, Pallas procureth an order for the restitution of Odysseus; and appearing to his son Telemachus, in human shape, adviseth him to complain of the Wooers before the Council of the people, and then go to Pylos and Sparta to inquire about his father.

Tell me, Muse, of that man, so ready at need, who wandered far and wide, after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy, and many were the men whose towns he saw and whose mind he learnt, yea, and many the woes he suffered in his heart upon the deep, striving to win his own life and the return of his company. Nay, but even so he saved not his company, though he desired it sore. For through the blindness of their own hearts they perished, fools, who devoured the oxen of Helios Hyperion: but the god took from them their day of returning. Of these things, goddess, daughter of Zeus, whencesoever thou hast heard thereof, declare thou even unto us.

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Contents

Show all 26 chapters
  1. Preface
  2. Introduction
  3. Book I
  4. Book II
  5. Book III
  6. Book IV
  7. Book V
  8. Book VI
  9. Book VII
  10. Book VIII
  11. Book IX
  12. Book X
  13. Book XI
  14. Book XII
  15. Book XIII
  16. Book XIV
  17. Book XV
  18. Book XVI
  19. Book XVII
  20. Book XVIII
  21. Book XIX
  22. Book XX
  23. Book XXI
  24. Book XXII
  25. Book XXIII
  26. Book XXIV

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About this edition

This free edition of The Odyssey of Homer by Homer comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #1728, released 1999-04-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Adventure, Mythology, Legends & Folklore, Classics of Literature, History - Ancient.

Other editions: eBook #24269.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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