Odyssey

The narrator calls upon the Muse to help him tell the story of Odysseus. We pick up ten years after the fall of Troy in the Trojan War (the subject of The Iliad). In trying to return home, Odysseus and his shipmates had numerous adventures, but now Odysseus has been left alone on the island of Ogygia for the last eight years, captive of the beautiful goddess Kalypso. We are told that Poseidon, god of the sea, will make Odysseus' journey home to Ithaka even more difficult (he is angry that Odysseus has blinded his son, the Kyklops Polyphemos), and trouble awaits the conquering hero back in Ithaka, too.