The Odyssey (Literature)

Due to the epic poem being Older Than Feudalism, all spoilers on this page are unmarked.

A journey home so long and eventful,
they could have only described it as an odyssey.

"The man, Muse—tell me about that resourceful man, who wandered
far and wide, when he'd sacked Troy's sacred citadel:
many men's townships he saw, and learned their ways of thinking,
many the griefs he suffered at heart on the open sea,
battling for his own life and his comrades' homecoming. Yet
no way could he save his comrades, much though he longed to—
it was through their own blind recklessness that they perished,
the fools, for they slaughtered the cattle of Helios the sun god
and ate them: for that he took from them their day of returning.
Tell us this tale, goddess, child of Zeus; start anywhere in it!"

— Homer, The Odyssey 1.1-10 (translation by Peter Green)

The Odyssey (Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia) is one of the epics of The Trojan Cycle and one of the oldest recorded stories. The original was reputedly composed by the blind poet Homer and transmitted orally until it was (according to tradition) written down and standardized at the behest of the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus in about 550 BC.

The Odyssey focuses on Odysseus (the Latinized name Ulysses is sometimes used in English), king of Ithaca, a small island off the west coast of Greece. After the successful sacking of Troy, which took ten years (depicted partially in The Iliad), Odysseus earns the ire of Poseidon on his way home by blinding Polyphemus, the cyclops son of Poseidon, and boasting about it. In response, Poseidon intercedes for Polyphemus and makes Odysseus' journey back to Ithaca as miserable as possible as revenge, leaving him the sole survivor. Meanwhile, Ithaca is taken over by a large amount of suitors, all of whom are trying to win Penelope's hand in marriage. Penelope is having none of it and tries to keep them away, and Telemachus, son of Odysseus and Penelope, sets out to look for his father with Athena's help.

Because of its age, the poem will be the Ur-Example or Trope Maker of quite a few of the following tropes...and we can't forget to mention that "odyssey" became a word in the English lexicon^noteand in the many other languages too for a particularly long and complex journey.

The Odyssey provides examples of:

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Tropes A-M

Accidental Pornomancer: On his way home, Odysseus spends years as the bedmate of two beautiful women: the Hot Witch Circe and the sea nymph Calypso. Neither option is entirely by choice, Calypso significantly less so than Circe. The narrative justifies any choice Odysseus might've had in the matter by saying that he never stopped loving or wishing to return to his wife.
Advanced Ancient Acropolis: The Phaecians have elements of this, being an insular people such that Odysseus' appearance cause many of them to flee in surprise. They are opulent and wealthy enough to be able to just replace the treasure Odysseus lost from his sack of Troy (which was a very wealthy city too!) and can make a ship that automatically transports its crew safely to their desired course.
Alluring Flowers: The flowers of the lotus bring people who eat them into a state of vegetative happiness.
And Now You Must Marry Me: Calypso holds Odysseus prisoner on her island, hoping to make him her husband. She’s rejected for seven years straight and is eventually forced to release Odysseus once the gods intervene in his behalf.
Arc Words: Dozens and scores of them. One of the defining features of the Homeric style, both in the Iliad and the Odyssey, is the stereotypic combination of certain nouns with always the same adjectives or longer attrbitutes (this was done partially to help the rhapsodes memorise the very, very long epics). Some of them are pretty straightforward - the gods are "mighty", the men "mortal", the ships "long" or "wooden", some distinctly poetic - sea is "wine-dark", the morning star (and/or its godess) is "rosy-fingered". Some are generic - besides some of those just mentioned, a noteworthy example are Achaeans (that is Greeks for you and me), who are either "long-haired" or, for some reason, "beautifully shinned", some are person-specific - Pallas Athena is "owl-eyed" (or "bright-eyed", according to a different school of interpretation), Calypso has "bautiful locks", Agamemnon is "the ruler of men", and, last but not least, Odysseus is "cunning" and "much tried". The use of this literary technique is in fact so emblematic for both epics that this type of arc words has been known among scholars as a Homeric epitet.
Automated Automobiles: The Phaecians' ship is said to not need a steerman or oarsmen and travels to its destination just from the thoughts of its crew completely safely regardless of obstacles and impediments on the way.
Badass Boast: Odysseus does this to Polyphemus the Cyclops. This bites him in the ass when Polyphemus, having learned Odysseus' name through his boasting, invokes a favor from his father Poseidon to either stop Odysseus from returning home or, if he is indeed fated to return, to make his journey home a living nightmare. Daddy delivers.
Badass Normal: Compared with some of the more well-known Greek heroes, Odysseus is a relatively normal guy. He doesn't have supernatural strength like Heracles, isn't invincible like Achilles, doesn't rely on magic items like Perseus, and isn't directly related to any of the Greek gods.^note He's just a smart dude in good shape who just happens to have Athena's favor.
Battle-Interrupting Shout: Athena does this when the townsfolk gather to get revenge for the slain suitors against Odysseus. She forces them to stop fighting and make peace.
Beware the Nice Ones: While Penelope certainly loves her son, even Telemachus is scared of provoking her. At one point he’s questioned on why he doesn’t force his mother into remarrying via kicking her out of Ithaca and thus send her back to her father so that he’ll choose a new husband for her, but Telemachus admits that he greatly fears that his own mother won’t hesitate to call upon the furies to avenge herself.
Big Bad: Poseidon is ultimately the one responsible for the several challenges Odysseus has to endure through the story, cursing him to have difficulty in his travel back and to find trouble in his home. Noteworthy that he only becomes the main antagonist after Odysseus had blinded one of his sons who until that point was the main threat to the sailors.
Birds of a Feather: Odysseus and Penelope. They even unknowingly echo each other to drive this home. Homer uses the word "homophrosyne", meaning essentially like-mindedness, to describe their marriage.
Bittersweet Ending: Odysseus endures many woes during his 20 year voyage, where he is forced into missing out on his son’s entire childhood, finds out his mother dies while he was away from home, ends up the Sole Survivor of his crew, becomes a Sex Slave twice, and his beloved dog passes away while he’s forcing himself not to blow his beggar persona. In spite of all this suffering, Odysseus finally makes it home, wins back his throne, and stays with his family for good.
Blind Seer: Tiresias is a blind prophet whose visions are sought by Odysseus in the Underworld.
Bluff the Impostor: When a stranger walks up to Penelope and claims to be her lost husband Odysseus, Penelope casually asks for Odysseus' bed to be prepared but outside the bedroom. The stranger, who really is Odysseus, is dismayed by this, since he had built the bed himself on the stump of an olive tree, making it impossible to move the bed without sawing off the stump (something only he and Penelope knew about, supposedly). As he recounts all the work he put into making it, he realizes that she has just been testing him. The funny thing is that he expected her to test him and told his son that she would, and he still fell for it.
Bolt of Divine Retribution:
- While Penelope is praying for Artemis to kill her so that she won’t be forced into remarriage and hoped to join her husband in death, Odysseus sees this and prays for Zeus to give him a sign that he will succeed in winning back his home and will come out victorious against the suitors. Zeus immediately responds with firing a lightning bolt.
- After the killing of the suitors, the suitors' family members form a mob to seek revenge on Odysseus, led by Antinous' father. They turn to flight quickly after Laertes has killed Antinous' father, and Odysseus at once pursues them with the intent to kill them. But Zeus hurls a lightning bolt at the feet of Athena (who is present in her guise as Mentor); Athena understands that Zeus is warning them that he does not want more bloodshed, and tells Odysseus to let them escape, which he does.
Briefer Than They Think: Homer devotes Books 9-12 of a twenty-four-book epic to the part of Odysseus' journey between him leaving Troy and him washing up on the shores of Ogygia. This entire narrative is a single flashback and contains nearly all of the iconic events of the story that people less familar with the epic will know: the Lotus Eaters, Polyphemus the Cyclops, the Land of the Dead, Scylla and Charybdis, Circe, Aeolus, and so on. Most retellings of the story stretch this part from one-sixth of the story to about 80% of it. The Laestrygonians in particular, despite having by far the highest kill count of any of Odysseus' encounters, last about four paragraphs. And in-universe, all the perils that Odysseus and his crew suffer together only cover about two years, since they spend a year recovering on Circe's island and Odysseus is kept trapped by Calypso for seven years.
Brother–Sister Incest: Aeolus' sons are married to their sisters. Given that incest could only be accepted among immortals in Greek mythology, this could be a way to show that, even though Aeolus was originally a mortal, he has become godlike enough to not be part of civilization and its rules.
Call to Agriculture: Odysseus' goal after going home. His father did go on to become a farmer out of grief over his wife’s death and separation of his son.
Canine Loyalty: Argos, Odysseus' faithful hunting hound, waits for the full twenty years that his master is away from home — a period already well in excess of a canine lifespan, and before counting however old he would have been when Odysseus left — even when the suitors take over the house and leave him to wait in neglect outside the palace gates. When Odysseus returns in the guise of a beggar, he cannot break his disguise to greet his old dog, but Argos recognizes him and, relieved that his master is returned at last, lies down and dies of age.
Central Theme:
- Surviving requires cunning, daring, and ruthlessness. Even when you have nothing left, you still have your wits and can find a way to escape any trap, even those set by the Gods.
- Homecoming, known in Greek as nóstos^notethe root word for nostalgia. In his journey back home, Odysseus faces countless challenges that threat his nóstos, going from monsters and gods to unwelcomed suitors, his own crew's disobedience, and even his own hubris. This threat might be best demonstrated by the Lotus, a fruit that makes anyone who eats it lose all desire to go back to their homeland and wish only to eat more lotus. Odysseus has to drag the crewmen who ate it by force. By the time he finally reunited with Laertes, Odysseus cries upon seeing how old and worn out his father has become, but still wants to pull a Secret Test of Character because he had some doubts on said father’s loyalty, but seeing the latter overcome with grief is what makes Odysseus finally drop the mask without hesitation and admit who he really is by proving his true identity through recalling how he scarred his leg and name-checking every orchard around due to being taught by his old man on such things. Odysseus revealing how his father taught him tree knowledge is him acknowledging the journey is over and is truly back home.
- Sacred Hospitality, an honor code of great importance for Ancient Greeks, called xenia. Heroic characters, such as Telemachus, Nestor, Menelaus and Helen, the Phaeacians and Eumaeus treat their guests with respect and honor, giving them food, providing entertainment, sharing stories and offering help. Dishonorable characters, however, treat the laws of xenia with disdain: on the side of the host, Polyphemus directly mocks the concept and devours the men who enter his home; on the side of the guest, Penelope's suitors abuse the palace's hospitality by eating up all of the food, overstaying their welcome, harassing her into considering remarriage, and ultimately planning to murder the queen's son. At the same time, the suitors themselves also make bad hosts, insulting and mocking beggar-Odysseus when he enters the royal palace. Therefore, their slaughter at the hands of Odysseus is seen as a god-given punishment^note.
- Glory versus honor. Odysseus starts his journey seeking kudos for himself: he sacks the Cicones and announces his true identity to Polyphemus so that the cyclops will spread the king's feats. However, both of these events result in losses for the crew. When Odysseus goes to the Underworld and sees his mother has died in his long absence, his longing for home starts to overcome his desire for glory. When he gets held captive for seven years in the island of the nymph Calypso, Odysseus is devastated by her advances and rejects her offers of immortality to return home. By the latter half of the story, Odysseus tolerates insults from the suitors while disguised as a miserable beggar so that he can plot his revenge; a far cry from who he was 10 years prior.
- Recognition. A common ocurrence of the poem is a character disguising their identity and getting recognized through different means: most famously, Odysseus hides his true name from the cyclops by calling himself "Nobody" until he proudly reveals himself later on. During Odysseus' beggar disguise, there are three events that slowly reveal his true self: firstly, his old dog Argos recognizes his master by himself, even despite Athena's disguise; secondly, his old wet nurse Eurycleia realizes Odysseus' identity after seeing a notable scar on his leg, which the king had gotten in a boar hunt in his youth; and finally, Odysseus reveals who he is by accomplishing Penelope's challenge. Penelope herself ultimately makes the final recognition of the story, by tricking Odysseus into trying to move a bed only he would know that it was rooted to the ground.
- Loyalty and perseverance. The story constantly emphasizes how powerful it is to uphold strong loyalty on those who are held dear, while maintaining patience in waiting how long it may take for someone to return. Penelope is naturally the biggest highlight in this topic, considering she waited 20 years for her husband to return while rejecting her suitor’s advances. Meanwhile, Odysseus never gives up on returning home and desires to make it back solely because his family lives there. Odysseus comes to leave Circe of his own free will due to his desire to return home and the latter in turn respects his decision. And for seven years straight, Odysseus rejects Calypso offering her hand in marriage and immortality, because he’d rather live a mortal life with Penelope. Both Odysseus and Penelope are best described by Homer as "homophrosyne", in other words likeminded or same mind, same heart, and same soul. Telemachus himself immediately accepts his father after reuniting since infancy. The most loyal servants that stand out are Eurycleia (Odysseus’ former wet nurse), Eumaeus (the swineherd), and Philoetius (the cowherd); all three of them refused to submit to the suitors and are extremely happy to see their long-lost king again.
Classical Cyclops: Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and a sea nymph, a shepherd, and a man-eater; his single eye proves his downfall when Odysseus puts it out to save himself and his crew, but he's able to call on his father to curse Odysseus for this.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Odysseus finds that having a nymph wanting to sex you up 24/7 gets old after seven years. Calypso, however, has no intention of letting go until she's ordered to by Zeus himself.
Coming of Age Story: The first few chapters are this for Telemachus. In the first two chapters, he has trouble asserting himself to the suitors who overstay their welcome; by the fourth chapter, he is already more assertive, asking better gifts from Menelaus.
Consummate Liar: Odysseus demonstrates this many, many times throughout the story, often lying about his identity to trick enemies and conceal his identity. This is at its most explicit when, upon waking up in Ithaca's shores and meeting Athena — disguised as a young shepherd — Odysseus lies about his story, saying he was a fugitive from Crete. Athena reveals herself and recognizes his guile:
"And she spoke, and addressed him with winged words: 'Cunning must he be and knavish, who would go beyond thee in all manner of guile, aye, though it were a god that met thee. Bold man, crafty in counsel, insatiate in deceit, not even in thine own land, it seems, wast thou to cease from guile and deceitful tales, which thou lovest from the bottom of thine heart'." (Translation by A. T. Murray)
Crazy Jealous Guy: After putting up with his wife’s suitors abusing him for too long while dealing with them desecrate his own palace, the first thing Odysseus does after winning the archery contest for Penelope’s hand is to slaughter all of the suitors. The last one standing, a priest named Leodes, tries to plead for mercy since he was disgusted by the other suitors’ antics and tried to convince them to stop, but Odysseus is having none of that and beheads him on the spot. Right before this, Odysseus furiously accused Leodes of praying for him to never return to Ithaca just so the latter will be the one to marry and have kids with Penelope.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Odysseus, Telemachus, and two of his loyal servants (all armed to the teeth) are able to take out the many suitors.
Curb-Stomp Cushion: The battle briefly turns in the other direction after the goatherd acquires some proper armaments for the suitors.
Dad's Off Fighting in the War: This is a major chip in Telemachus’ shoulder. He was only a baby when his father had to enlist for the Trojan War due to being a former suitor of Helen and was forced to uphold his oath to defend whoever she married. But once that’s done and over with, the general public assumes Odysseus has died out at sea. Except Odysseus is alive, he’s just struggling through hell and high water to make it back home, no thanks to Poseidon’s meddling.
Death by Falling Over: Of all the tragic or ignominious deaths suffered by Odysseus' crew, the most embarrassing has to go to Elpenor, who got drunk, climbed up on Circe's roof, and then forgot where he was in the morning and fell to his death. Odysseus doesn't even find out what happened to him until he meets his ghost in the underworld.
Determinator: Odysseus is deadfast on returning to his homestead no matter what anyone throws at him. He only thinks of giving up once, jumping off his boat during a storm made by his own men. He, of course, doesn't go through with it because how could he tell the story?
Deus ex Machina: This being Greek mythology, the gods often intervene in a literal sense either to help or hinder our hero. As for the situations closest to the meaning of the trope definition:
- While going to meet Circe, Odysseus runs into Hermes who casually explains how to beat her.
- When Odysseus is shipwrecked in a storm sent by Poseidon after leaving Calypso's island, he is rescued by the sea-goddess Ino, or Leucothea.
- Athena intervening to prevent a feud after Odysseus kills the suitors. This had upset the villagers, who had now lost two generations of men (the sailors and the suitors) and want revenge. Athena thinks otherwise.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Downplayed. Menelaus tells Telemachus about the time he was trapped trying to get home from Troy because he had annoyed the gods by neglecting to make sacrifices to them before leaving. To find out how to escape, he had to trap the minor sea god Proteus, which he managed with some advice from a helpful nymph.
Discard and Draw: Odysseus loses all the treasure he looted from Troy when his ship sinks. But the Phaeacians give him even more treasure when they send him home on one of their ships.
Disproportionate Retribution: After Odysseus blinds Poseidon's son, the cyclops Polyphemus, Poseidon responds by cursing Odysseus' voyage home, resulting in a ten years long journey and the death of Odysseus' entire crew.
- After slaughtering the suitors, Odysseus and his allies round up any slave girl who slept with any of the suitors while he was away. They then force the slave girls to clear away the bodies of the suitors before Telemachus hangs them all from one rope.
Double Standard:
- For the era, the fact that Odysseus does not have children by any of his female slaves is highly unusual, although here he seems to follow in the footsteps of his father — Homer considers it worth mentioning that Laertes never touched Eurycleia (Odysseus’ former wet nurse and Telemachus' caretaker) out of fear of offending his wife.
- Calypso herself sees a different kind of double standard at work. When Hermes tells her Zeus has ordered her to release Odysseus, she complains that the gods never allow goddesses to enjoy relationships with mortals, citing the examples of Orion and Iasion, the lovers of Eos and Demeter respectively, who were killed by gods, yet gods screw around with mortal women all the time. The Olympians having a Double Standard is unsurprising. Greek gods had a surprisingly undivine habit of being more erratic, tyrannical, dishonorable, or just plain childish than even most mortals. Socrates noticed that and he wasn't the only one.
Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal:
- Very much averted when Calypso takes a fancy to the handsome sailor stranded on her island. Yes, Odysseus lets her drag him to her bed because it's a bad idea to say no to a goddess when you cannot run anywhere, but it's mentioned he spends his days weeping on the beach and is aching for his wife.
- It's played straight in the account of Poseidon's seduction of Tyro in book 11 in what's possibly the first recorded example of this trope in classical mythology. Poseidon takes the appearance of Tyro's crush Enipeus before sleeping with her. Afterward, Poseidon gleefully reveals his identity and announces that she will bear his children. Odysseus' narration completely glosses over Tyro's reaction to this assault.
Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male: Averted in the actual text, but played straight in most modern interpretations, with most people believing Odysseus willingly cheated on his wife with Circe and Calypso, despite the fact that Hermes told him he’d have to sleep with Circe to save his men and the fact that he was trapped on Calypso’s island for seven years, with the text explicitly saying that he spent every day weeping on the beach.
Dramatic Irony: In order to distract the general public from the mass slaughter of the suitors, Odysseus orders Telemachus and the rest of the household staff to act like Penelope has chosen a suitor and everyone is celebrating a wedding, which leads to outsiders remarking how they think Penelope is horrible for not remaining faithful to Odysseus. Meanwhile, Odysseus and Penelope are busy engaging in Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex.
Dramatic Thunder: Zeus sends a bolt from the blue twice: first as an omen to Odysseus that he will be victorious; second, as emphasis when Odysseus strings his bow as an omen to the suitors that they're screwed.
The Dreaded:
- In the Underworld, Odysseus expresses genuine terror at the thought of meeting Persephone. Oddly enough, he doesn't extend as much fearful respect to her husband. That's because Ancient Greek, including Homer, feared Persephone more then Hades. Often times, many myth would call Hades just by his name while referring to Persephone as "Dreaded Persephone". It should be noted that Persephone is the co-ruler of the Underworld, rather then simply being the queen. There were even instances in mythology were the Underworld was referred to as "house of Persephone".
- No one on Odysseus' crew wants to pass between Scylla and Charybdis, and Charybdis in particular terrifies everyone on the ship. And this fear is very much justified.
Due to the Dead: Funeral rites were a big deal to the Greeks, which is why Agamemnon claiming that his wife did not close his eyes when he died is a shock.
Earn Your Happy Ending: Possibly the Ur-Example. After 20 years of suffering, Odysseus makes it home, reclaims his throne, and reunites with his family.
Eldritch Abomination: Charybdis. While Scylla has a strange but at least somewhat discernible form, Charybdis' description is always bizarre and terrifying, waffling between a massive bladder or stomach with flippers that's constantly swallowing and vomiting seawater or a giant, moving, sentient and hungry whirlpool.
Engagement Challenge: Penelope announces to the suitors that whoever can string her husband's bow and shoot an arrow through a straight row of 12 axes will be the one to marry her... And providing a bow she knows they can't string. As expected, the suitors fail completely. Odysseus, in disguise as a beggar, is able to win the contest. He then reveals himself to the suitors and a Roaring Rampage of Revenge ensues.
Entitled Bastard: Sums up the entire characterization of Penelope’s suitors. They eat out her home, sleep with her maids, almost kill her own son, and refuse to take a hint and leave, just because they’re guests vying to forcibly marry her. Needless to say, Odysseus has enough of their mooching and kills them all.
Even Evil Has Standards: Penelope's suitors in general are all terrible guests. But even they are disgusted by Antinous when he throws a chair at Beggar!Odysseus.
Eye Scream:
- Eat Odysseus' sailors and reap the consequences, Polyphemus. Odysseus, who narrates it, gives a long description of how the eye boils under the hot wooden spike before it gets twisted and ripped out.
- Melanthious the traitorous goatherd gets his eyes gouged out as part of his torturous death at the hands of Odysseus and Telemachus.
Exploring the Evil Lair: The Cyclops' cave. Odysseus and his crew suffer dearly for not only stealing Polyphemus’ food and expecting a gift due to being “guests”, but several of them get eaten. For Odysseus’ trouble, he just had to taunt Polyphemus with his real name right after sailing away. Poseidon makes him pay for this.
Father's Quest: After being ten years away from his family, Odysseus wants to return to his wife and son. And an angry and vengeful Poseidon won't stop him!
Fiery Redhead:
- Odysseus and King Menelaus (called the "Red-Haired King").
- Menelaus only in some translations. In the original Greek text, he is called xanthos "blond".
Flashback: As is standard for classical epic, much of the story is told in flashbacks.
Food Porn: The descriptions of grilling meat are mouth-watering.
Forbidden Fruit:
- Aeolus' bag of winds.
- The Cattle of the Sun.
Forced Transformation: Circe turns her victims into various beasts, including wolves and lions, while Odysseus' crewmen were turned into pigs.
Framing Device: The Books 9 to 12 focus on Odysseus telling his journey between leaving Troy and being trapped in Calypso's island to the Phaeacians, which is then narrated in first-person.
Freudian Trio: Yes, even long before Freud was born. Among the suitors, the main three fit the mold:
- Antinous is clearly the id, being the biggest jerk and the least sympathetic.
- Eurymachus fits the role of ego, being a more moderate character than Antinous but still just as evil at his core.
- Amphinomous seems to be the superego, as he is one of the main three who thinks most of what the gods might do to them.
Gate Guardian: Scylla and Charybdis guard the passage through the Strait of Messina.
Genius Bruiser: Odysseus. The Greeks wouldn't take no for an answer from him because of his famed intelligence. As for his physical abilities, well, among other things, in Phaecia, he hurled a heavy discus much farther than the lighter discuses hurled by the younger men there, and he strung his old bow with ease where the suitors failed, and even Telemachus struggled^note.
Ghostly Death Reveal:
- Odysseus is surprised to find his mother Anticlea in the Underworld, and we learn that she died of grief or suicide during the many years of his absence.
- Also in the underworld, Odysseus, to his distress, also finds the ghost of Agamemnon, whom he last saw when the Greeks departed from Troy, and asks him how he met his death. Agamemnon reveals that his wife had remarried while he was gone, and her new husband killed him upon returning home.
Glad I Thought of It: When Nausicaä realizes that walking through town with a strange man might have unfortunate consequences for her reputation, she tells Odysseus to wait up a while out of sight of the city before following her to the city gate. When Odysseus explains this to the king, he claims that it was his idea. In Odysessus' defense, it's implied that he was covering for Nausicaä, as the king was upset that she didn't bring Odysseus with her to the palace, reputation be damned.
Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: After suffering from a hellish 20-year long journey and having just finished killing off all of his wife’s suitors, Odysseus insists to Penelope that they first enjoy "the blessed boon of sleep" before he goes into details of what he’s been up to in the past decades. His wife is more than happy to accept. Athena helps out by making the night last even longer so that the couple will enjoy as much alone time as they so desperately needed.
Guile Hero:
- Odysseus, as proven again and again throughout the story.
- Upon some in-depth consideration, Penelope qualifies for this. She's clearly in command of her conversation with a certain stranger in figuring out his purpose there, she's been manipulating a throng of men straight for three years, and on top of that, she sets up an archery tournament she knew the suitors would fail, which basically spearheads Odysseus' reclamation of his home. To top it off, when Odysseus finally reveals his identity, she uses a masterful Bluff the Impostor to make sure he truly is who he claims to be (which, of course, he is). And people wonder why Odysseus would ditch a goddess for this woman.
Guilt by Association Gag: Played with in the slaughter of the suitors. Several otherwise good people (Amphinomous especially) were slaughtered with the rest, but a closer examination shows they were just as guilty of breaking xenia as the rest of them and were there of their own free will. The two that were spared had valid excuses: the bard Phemius had been forced (more or less at swordpoint) to perform for the suitors and was not there of his own free will, and the herald Medon was Penelope's spy.
Hanky-Panky with the Help: In addition to the suitors treating Odysseus’ palace like a pigsty, they seduce twelve of his maids into being their lovers.
Hanging Around: The Odyssey has the oldest recorded example of hanging as a form of execution in the part of the poem in which Odysseus returns home and is met with all of the suitors who have tried to woo his wife in his absence. He slaughters all of them and then punishes the 12 maids who slept with them, first by forcing them to clear away the suitors' dead bodies, then allowing Telemachus to order them hanged from one rope.
Happily Married:
- Odysseus and Penelope. How much time they actually spent together is debatable, but there's no denying they're happy together. Considering Odysseus ultimately rejects not one but two beautiful immortal women and even turns down immortality for Penelope, while Penelope herself turns away over a hundred suitors chasing after her as she professes she will wait for her husband to come back home, they definitely have a strong sense of loyalty and love towards one another. The couple are more than happy to engage in Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex as soon as the suitors are finally killed off. The text emphasizes their homophrosyne, or "like-mindedness", showing that they understand and are connected to each other.
- By all appearances, Odysseus' parents (until Anticleia's death) and Alcinous and Arete, king and queen of the Phaeacians.
Happiness in Slavery: As described in the epic, slaves and masters were not far apart. For instance, the swineherd Eumaeus was raised by Odysseus' mother Anticleia almost like he was her own son, who brought him up alongside her daughter Ctimene, and became wealthy enough to buy a slave of his own. And Menelaus makes Megapenthes, his son by a slave, his heir.
- Part of the reason was that you could very well become a slave if your city was conquered or if you were kidnapped. Eumaeus claims he was of royal blood, kidnapped to be sold to Phoenician traders by a Phoenician slave-woman of his parents who made a bid for freedom.
Hate Sink:
- Whereas the other suitors of Penelope receive varying degrees of sympathy, especially Amphinomus, Antinous is completely unsympathetic throughout the story. He is characterized as impious and violent, abusing Penelope's hospitality despite the fact that Odysseus saved his father's life, harassing beggar-Odysseus by insulting and throwing a stool at him, setting him and another beggar into a fight over food, and being the one who plans Telemachus' murder twice.
- Melanthious the goatherd and Melantho the maidservant might get some amount of sympathy from modern audiences on account of being slaves, but Homer clearly intended for both of them to be viewed as completely unsympathetic.
Hazy-Feel Turn: Circe eventually restores Odysseus' crew back to human form, grows to genuinely cares about him and gives him instructions for his return to Ithaca. Whether or not she'll resume turning innocents into pigs after Odysseus' departure is anyone's guess.
Historical Domain Crossover: Odysseus goes to the Underworld and sees mythological villains being punished for their crimes, like the trickster Sisyphus, the husband-murdering daughters of Danaos, and the cannibalistic Tantalus.
Historical Fantasy: Set during the Greek Bronze Age and although the actual date of composition was debated, it was at least a few hundred years later.
The Homeward Journey: Trope Codifier - Odysseus ensures ten years of unwanted adventures to reach home. And this is after spending ten years fighting Troy.
Hope Spot: Very early in his journey home, Odysseus is blessed with a bag of winds that will get him to Ithaca as long as no one opens it. His crew manages to open the bag when he's so close to shore he can wave to his mother, blowing them straight back to where they came from, and it takes many more years before he finally makes it home.
Horny Sailors: One way of reading the Sirens scene is that the whole crew can't resist the sexy sight and song of the Sirens, even though it means shipwreck. A less sexualized reading, of course, is that the song itself is magically enchanted to be irresistible. When they try to lure Odysseus, they offer him knowledge that would let him understand why his life has been so hard and miserable.
How They Treat the Help: When Odysseus is in his beggar disguise, this is a very consistent rule: his loyal servants and family treat him kindly while the suitors and traitors try to kick him out, physically abuse him, insult him, and pit him against another beggar to fight for their amusement.
How We Got Here: Everything before Odysseus' arrival in the land of the Phaeacians is told in flashback.
Hypocrite: The suitors are shown as unwilling to extend Sacred Hospitality to a simple beggar, even though they've been abusing it themselves for a decade. The fact that this "simple beggar" is the man who owns the house is just the icing on the cake and further justifies Odysseus' Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
I Am a Humanitarian:
- Not only Polyphemus but also the Laestrygonian people, who ate the crew members of several of the ships in Odysseus' small fleet. His ship is the only one to escape. There's also Scylla.
- In a roundabout way, so is Circe. Pork was one of the most commonly eaten meats in ancient Greece. So when she turns Odysseus' crew into pigs and starts feeding them acorns, it's implied that she is fattening them up to butcher later and eat.
Idiot Ball: Odysseus, you have all these clever schemes and are universally acclaimed the smartest man in the Greek expedition. Why, then, do you insist on telling Polyphemus your name when it comes back to bite you in the ass once it turns out that his father Poseidon is the one god of all the Olympians (all of whom, by the way, are still kind of smarting from that time you Greeks destroyed all their temples in Troy) most capable of making the sea voyage home to your island kingdom a living hell?
Impossibly Delicious Food: We know, never refuse free food, but it's probably not a good idea to accept handouts from the Lotus-Eaters.
In Medias Res: Everything before Odysseus' arrival in the land of the Phaeacians is told in flashback.
In the Past, Everyone Will Be Famous: While visiting the Underworld, Odysseus only runs into and instantly recognizes major mythological figures.
Isle of Giant Horrors: The Ur-Example, where Odysseus and his crew dock on an island inhabited by a Cyclops named Polyphemus, who imprisons them in his cave and eats them two by two. They defeat the monster by stabbing his eye out with a stick. The Lestrygonians are also an example.
It's Personal: When Odysseus returns home and cleans house, everyone who wronged him is punished by the ones who had the biggest grievances against them.
- The suitors are slain by Odysseus himself (they had tried to kill his son, forcibly remarry his wife, and abused hospitality to wreck his house), Telemachus (the son they had planned to kill, who they also abused physically, verbally, and through abuse of hospitality) and Odysseus' servants Eumaeus and Philoetius (who they abused repeatedly while forcing to serve them).
- Melanthius, Odysseus goatherd, betrayed Odysseus for the suitors and treated his fellow servants Eumaeus and Philoetius like shit, including deliberately setting up Eumaeus to be humiliated before the suitors. Tradition holds that Eumaeus and Philoetius are the ones to carry out Odysseus' orders to have Melanthius' hands, feet, nose, ears, and testicles removed.
- Melantho, Melanthius' sister, was one of the twelve maids to betray Penelope by sleeping with the suitors, which was made especially egregious since Melantho was practically raised by Penelope. Said maids also abused Telemachus while he was growing up, apparently because they could. While Melantho's fate isn't explicitly stated, it's presumed that she, like the other maids, is forced to clean up the suitors' corpses, then hung by Telemachus with a single rope. Especially notable in that Odysseus just wanted them stabbed with a knife - Telemachus was the one who changed it to hanging as revenge for all the abuse he suffered.
I Will Wait for You: Odysseus’ wife Penelope and his dog hold onto their hope on seeing him again, although unusual for the trope, he does come back, making the trope Older Than Feudalism.
Jacob Marley Warning: Agamemnon’s spirit warns Odysseus that should he ever make it back home, he needs to go under a hidden alias and not to wholeheartedly trust everyone, especially women, because when the former showed up at his own doorstep, his wife and her lover assassinated him. Agamemnon specifically instructs Odysseus to discretely land his ship instead of announcing his arrival. Odysseus makes sure to remind all of this by the time he arrives to Ithaca and with special help from Athena, goes undercover as a beggar.
Jerkass: The suitors in general, though at least a couple warrant special mention:
- Antinous, who is the one suitor who doesn't give to Odysseus the first time he tries begging from them all. Antinous then strikes Odysseus with a stool. You know it’s bad when the other suitors react with disgust.
- Ctessipus, who throws an ox hoof at Odysseus during the feast of Apollo on the fateful day.
- Melanthius, the goatherd, who has thrown in with the suitors and is the one male servant who insults Beggar!Odysseus.
- His sister, Melantho, is just as bad. She comes over to bitch at Beggar!Odysseus for no reason, other than being homeless and dirty, so she thinks that he doesn’t deserve to stay over. Melantho is also the one who betrays Penelope by revealing her burial shroud trick to the suitors, just because she’s already sleeping with Eurymachus, even though Penelope raised her like a daughter.
- Irus, an actual beggar who challenges Odysseus for impinging on his turf. Even Antinous is pleased with the result.
Just Between You and Me: It's an inversion in that the hero is the one gloating, but Odysseus gives a speech like this to Polyphemus after he and his men have escaped from the Cyclops' cave. Predictably, it backfires.
Keep the Home Fires Burning: What Penelope does back in Ithaca while waiting for Odysseus to return.
Kids Play Match Breaker:
- From Telemachus’ viewpoint, fairly justified. He’s been forced to deal with over a hundred jerks moving into his family’s palace and act like they own the place as they go between trying to pressure his unwilling mother to remarry one of them while bullying him and eventually plot to kill him. He tries in several occasions to force the suitors to leave before he goes off to travel around the country to find any whereabouts on his father.
  - Telemachus is the first challenger for his mother’s Engagement Challenge, to which he wagers that the suitors will have to leave if he wins, but still fails nonetheless, yet came much closer to winning than anyone else. Several chapters earlier, Odysseus finally returns home and reunites with his son, and after the former wins the archery contest for his wife’s hand, both Telemachus and his father, along with a couple of loyal servants, kill off all of the suitors.
Kind Restraints: Odysseus had himself tied to a mast to keep from being drawn to the sirens.
King Incognito: Odysseus does this quite a few times, even when visiting his own father after killing the suitors. It's as if he can't stop doing it.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: When the parents of the suitors learn that Odysseus has slaughtered their sons, they become enraged while refusing to acknowledge their horrible deeds. So they arm themselves and march on Ithaca so they might avenge their deaths. However, Athena decides that Odysseus has endured enough carnage and so she takes from the parents' minds the knowledge that Odysseus was responsible for the death of their sons. With no reason to fight, they turn around and return home and peace prevails.
Liminal Being: Tiresias manages to hit this trope three ways because he was both a man and a woman alive; he is a Blind Seer and so can both see more and less than ordinary people; and as a ghost, he's both alive and dead.
Lotus-Eater Machine: The Trope Namer (though not the 'machine' part). The Lotus is a mysterious food that makes any person who eats it forget home and only desire to stay on the island in which it is found to eat more Lotus. After his scout party eats it, Odysseus has to drag them back to the ship.
Luke, I Am Your Father: It does not work as The Reveal for the readers since they know from the outset who the beggar staying with the swineherd is; still the scene in which Odysseus reveals who he is to his son is a crucial one and both Odysseus and Telemachus are moved to tears, crying more than eagles or vultures robbed of their young.
Made a Slave:
- Two of Odysseus' slaves had been free-born, to high status, before they were kidnapped.
- When Odysseus is disguised as a beggar, he claims that this happened to him while he was in Egypt.
Magic Music: The song of the Sirens are tempting melodies that make all of those who hear it want to join them, which causes their deaths when their ships are wrecked in the rocks. There are two ways to avoid it: by blocking one's hearing, or by being physically restrained until the music cannot be heard anymore. Odysseus becomes the first man to hear the Sirens' song and live by doing the latter.
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Telemachus says that well, his mother tells him he's Odysseus' son. It's more likely, though, that he doesn't doubt whose son he actually is but whether he's worthy of being the son of such a great man.
Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: The Suitors’ relatives take up arms and march over to get their vengance on Odysseus after he and his allies slaughter their kinsmen, but refuse to comprehend that said kinsmen were utter assholes who violated Sacred Hospitality and ruthlessly abused the royal family. Athena has to come between both sides to force everyone to call it off for the sake of peace, but even she couldn’t stand Antinous’ father, Eupeithes, for encouraging and leading the mob to take action and helps Laertes kill him before she ends the fighting.
Mass Transformation: On landing at Circe's island several of Odysseus' crew are invited to a feast hosted by the sorceress, who transforms them into pigs afterwards. Odysseus himself only escapes this fate thanks to Hermes giving him a flower that counteracts the curse.
Meaningful Name:
- The flashback when Euryclea recognizes Odysseus (known as "Odysseus' Scar" after Erich Auerbach's essay) features an origin for Odysseus' name which means "Child of Pain". Given everything Odysseus had to suffer through during the entire story, he certainly lived up to his name.
- Penelope means "Weaver". Considering she held off her suitors for three years by tricking them with a promise of completing a burial shroud before remarrying, only to start over from scratch, the name definitely suited her.
- The name Telemachus means "far away battle," and he was born a little while before his father left for a far away battle.
The Mentor: The original Mentor, who (in "his" actual appearances in the narrative) is actually Athena in disguise. The human Mentor had acted as a, well, mentor to Telemachus in his father's absence.
Mirror Character: Much emphasis is placed on Agammemnon's, Menelaus', and Odysseus' different journeys and homecomings, which sheds light on their characters and the characters of their families.
- Agammemnon gets home the earliest of the three, after only a voyage of a year, and is promptly murdered by his wife and her lover. Several years later, his son Orestes avenges him by murdering his mother and stepfather. Agammemnon serves as the primary warning for Odysseus of how terrible his homecoming might be, while Orestes is an example for Telemachus of what dutiful sonship looks like.
- Menelaus, like Odysseus, is blown off-course and wanders on the sea for many years, during which he accumulates a vast fortune, is stranded in a foreign land, and receives a prophecy from a god detailing how he must get home and what manner of death he will have. The primary differences are that he has Helen with him and that she already maritally betrayed him, so he has nothing to fear on his homecoming and has plenty of time to reconnect with his wife. Menelaus' successful return and the reconciliation between himself and Helen serves to give Telemachus hope for Odysseus' return and the marriage between his parents. But even with all his wealth and good fortune, Menelaus is sad after his homecoming because of all the friends he lost in the war and voyages home.
- Odysseus, of course, is lost at sea for ten years, experiences many dangers, has dealings with the gods, and accumulates wealth. Forewarned by Agammemnon's disastrous homecoming, he returns to Ithaca in disguise and observes the dealings within his household to discern whether the wind blows favorably towards him or not. Once he knows it does, he drives the suitors from his home and has a joyful reunion with his wife, who was never unfaithful to him during his twenty-years' absence.
- Additionally, a comparison is made between two of Odysseus' slaves, Eumaeus and Melantho. Both were raised in the household from childhood and treated as family members — Eumaeus alongside Odysseus' younger sister Ctimene, and Melantho by Penelope. However, they face different consequences based on how they respond to this upbringing: Eumaeus remains unquestionably loyal to Odysseus and is promised wealth, a wife, and a house near the palace when Odysseus reveals his identity, while Melantho insults Odysseus in his beggar disguise, sleeps with one of the leaders of the suitors, who have desecrated the palace, and is presumably among the twelve slaves to be executed after the suitors are slaughtered^note.
- Agamemnon lampshades the parallels between his wife, Clytemnestra, and Penelope. Both are married to kings, but while their husbands were busy fighting in the Trojan War, Clytemnestra went on to have an affair with Agamemnon’s cousin while Penelope remained faithful to Odysseus, even while under pressure by her many suitors. Once Agamemnon comes back home, his wife initially welcomed him with open arms, but it didn’t take long for Clytemnestra and her lover to ambush and kill him. After Odysseus proves his true identity to Penelope, she’s immensely happy to finally reunite with him after two decades apart and they promptly celebrate with a much deserved "sweet sleep". Clytemnestra served as an example of what Penelope could have turned into; an unfaithful wife that could have killed her husband in order to keep complete power in her control. Penelope chose not to out of the love she holds onto Odysseus. Agamemnon remarks that from centuries to come, everyone will decry Clytemnestra’s betrayal while praising Penelope’s loyalty.
The Mole: The herald Medon is Penelope's spy among the suitors, and is the major reason Penelope is aware of the suitors' activities. Medon is spared from death when Odysseus carries out his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
Moral Myopia: Polyphemus, who kidnaps, murders and even eats some of Odysseus' crew (which is a major violation of Sacred Hospitality, or Xenia, a Serious Business to the Greeks) gets his eye stabbed in self-defense by Odysseus. He goes to whine to his father Poseidon about it and Poseidon decides to make Odysseus' journey home extra difficult. Polyphemus' incapacity to even consider he was in the wrong is left explicit in his talk with his ram:
Polyphemus: "Good ram, why pray is it that thou goest forth thus through the cave the last of the flock? (...) Surely thou art sorrowing for the eye of thy master, which an evil man blinded along with his miserable fellows, when he had overpowered my wits with wine, even Noman, who, I tell thee, has not yet escaped destruction. If only thou couldst feel as I do, and couldst get thee power of speech to tell me where he skulks away from my wrath, then should his brains be dashed on the ground here and there throughout the cave, when I had smitten him, and my heart should be lightened of the woes which good-for-naught Noman has brought me." (Translation by A.T. Murray)
Mugging the Monster: Irus challenges Odysseus when the latter impinges on his turf. It doesn't end well for Irus.
Muggle in Mage Custody: Odysseus gets stuck for a year with the sorceress Circe who turns his men into pigs. Later on, he is also forced to remain for seven years with the nymph Calypso.
My Girl Back Home: Penelope is one of the most famous examples. She’s Odysseus’ faithful wife that awaits his return from war for 20 years while rejecting her suitors. Her loyalty pays off in the end after Odysseus finally makes its back home and stays with her for good.
My Girl Is Not a Slut: Penelope, again. She’s loyal only to her husband and will NOT remarry. Period. Meanwhile Odysseus had little to no choice in rejecting Circe and Calypso’s advances, especially more so with the latter since she outright imprisoned and raped him for seven years straight. Calypso even complains to Hermes over how the Gods regularly take mortal lovers while Goddess are expected not to.

Tropes N-Z

Nasal Trauma: Odysseus deals with treacherous goatherd Melanthios by cutting off his nose, ears, genitals, hands, and feet, in that order. If the bleed-out doesn't kill him, septic infection will.
Naked First Impression: Nausicaä is the only one of the group of maidens who's not afraid of a naked Odysseus after he shipwrecked.
Narrative Poem: Not quite the Ur-Example... but one of the earliest examples, nonetheless
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Odysseus and his crew end up making some pretty stupid mistakes that really doom the journey home.
- Odysseus and his remaining crew escape from the Cyclops when Odysseus has a fit of hubris and mocks the injured Cyclops, along with revealing his true identity. Sure, the mountaintop that is thrown at the ship misses. The raging storms, however, do not.
- After being given a magical bag of wind from King Aeolus, Odysseus' crew is convinced that it contains gold and open the bag, releasing the winds that send them right back to Aeolus' kingdom; the king refuses to replace them, as he assumes the crew is either cursed or downright stupid. To add insult to injury, they were right off the shores of Ithaca.
- Then, when the crew is marooned on the isle of Helios, the crew gives into their hunger and slaughters several of the cattle despite being explicitly told not to (at the instigation of the same man who insisted they put ashore for the night when Odysseus wanted to forestall temptation by not landing on the island at all). This results in the ship getting destroyed, all of Odysseus' crew dead, and Odysseus being stranded on the island of Calypso for several years.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Phaeacians help Odysseus reach Ithaca, but, on their way back, Poseidon discovers it and sinks their boat by turning it to stone.
No Matter How Much I Beg: Odysseus with the Sirens.
Nonchalant Dodge: When Odysseus returns home disguised as a beggar, one of the suitors, Ctesippus, throws an ox hoof at him. Odysseus dodges it with the slightest tilt of his head, then gives Ctesippus a grim smile in return.
Not Just a Tournament: The end of the story involves an archery tournament planned by Odysseus. While he was away, a large number of people tried to steal his kingdom by marrying his wife (Odysseus is believed to be dead). His wife offers her hand in marriage to the one who can win the tournament, but Odysseus kills everyone who shows up.
Now It's My Turn: In the final confrontation between Odysseus and the suitors, a group of the suitors, led by Agelaus, throw volleys of spears at Odysseus and his three allies. The suitors' entire first salvo misses cleanly; Odysseus, spurred by this, basically says, "Our turn, boys!" and the four of them throw spears back, killing one suitor each.
Ocean of Adventure: The Odyssey is in many ways the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier. The middle third of the story follows the long travels of Odysseus and his dwindling crew after they're swept far from known waters and into the vastness of the ocean, after which come long years of wandering between distant lands and islands home to cannibal giants, a powerful witch, the god of the winds and stranger entities, until Odysseus is eventually able, after ten years of travels, to limp his way back to the edge of the civilized world.
Oh, Crap!:
- When Irus sees the muscles of the "old beggar" he challenges to a fist-fight.
- The suitors in general when Odysseus reveals himself after having slain Antinous.
Old Retainer: Eumaeus the swineherd and the family's old nurse Eurycleia.
Only One Afterlife:
- Odysseus finds in Hades not only deceased members of his family but also other dead heroes such as Orion and Ajax, showing the belief of those times of mortals ending up there with no distinctions.
- When the souls of the dead suitors arrive in Hades they encounter Achilles and Agamemnon.
Oral Tradition: Until it was written down, at least.
Our Sirens Are Different: Odysseus runs into an island home to the sirens, who are bird-women who lure sailors with their enchanting voices and music. Their island is covered with dry corpses of past sailors, though it's not clear whether they eat them or just let them die as they shipwreck. His men stuff their ears with wax, but, true to form, Odysseus just has them tie him to the mast because he wants to hear the songs and be able to say that he's the only man to have heard the song and lived. It's also noteworthy that in the original, their song tempts him with knowledge and fame rather than with sex.
Our Ancestors Are Superheroes: Odysseus is actually an aversion; he has no special powers beyond being a really devious, clever, strong, and determined man.
Our Ghosts Are Different: The shades of Hades, who seem to crave fresh blood to drink but are otherwise friendly to our hero. None of them can be touched, although they can communicate with the living after drinking blood.
Pals with Jesus: Many examples, and on a few occasions Homer lampshades Odysseus' piety — not stinting with the burnt offerings to the gods even when there isn't much around that can be sacrificed.
- Athena, goddess of wisdom and intelligent warfare, has a long-standing friendly interest in the resourceful and crafty Odysseus, which she also extends to his son and wise Penelope. She intervenes on many occasions, usually taking the form of various friends, relatives, and acquaintances of the three. By the end of the whole thing, she outright puts a stop to a conflict that was soon to get very bloody.
- Hermes and Zeus also help on a few occasions, which may or may not have to do with the fact that Odysseus is Hermes' great-grandson and therefore Zeus' great-great-grandson.
Papa Wolf:
- Odysseus will do anything to return to his wife and son. He's willing to face monsters, witches, and Poseidon himself if he has to. He will even slaughter all 108 of Penelope's suitors for daring to pressure her into remarrying one of them and plotting to kill their son. And will do this with immense satisfaction.
- Odysseus’ own father Laertes is also just as protective of his son as the former is towards Telemachus. How does Laertes respond to the suitors’ relatives knocking on his doorstep to take vengeance on his long-lost son? Joining hands with his son’s allies to fight their enemies and kills their leader. For bonus points, he was the only person on either side to make any fatality.
- On the flip side, Poseidon intervenes when his son, Polyphemus, begs him to make Odysseus' journey back to Ithaca a living nightmare because the latter blinded him. Poseidon complies.
Pet the Dog:
- Man-eating giant Polyphemus gets a sympathetic moment talking to his favourite ram when letting the flock out to pasture.
- Odysseus is forced to avert this when he passes by his dog Argos because he must hide who he is.
- All the suitors (except Antinous) give the disguised Odysseus scraps of food when he begs, and are disgusted by Antinous' throwing a stool at him. Amphinomus in particular is so charitable that Odysseus tries to spare his life, though Athena isn't having it.
Pet Positive Identification: Odysseus' dog Argos is initially the only one to recognize him when he returns from his adventures.
Perpetual Storm: Odysseus' ship lands on the island of Thrinacia, where lives the cattle of the sun god, Helios. Zeus then causes a storm lasting for forty days, which prevents them from leaving the island. After depleting their food stocks, the ship's crew hunts down the cattle, angering the god. When the storm finally ends, they leave the island, only to have their ship crushed by another of Zeus' storms, which leaves Odysseus (the only one who did not partake of the cattle) as the sole survivor.
Prefers Raw Meat: During a Nested Story, Herakles stays the night in a Centaur's home. The Centaur is noted to eat his meat raw despite being civilized enough to understand Sacred Hospitality.
Pride: Odysseus has a really big issue with this. Odysseus does end up taking a very, very long time to get home as a result of it, though his crew arguably suffers more as they end up all dying off, many as a result of his actions.
Princess Classic: Nausicaä, personifying an Unbuilt Trope. As the princess of Phaecia, she is the most beautiful girl in the land, outshining her maids as Artemis must outshine her attendants. Odysseus even comments on her beauty when he meets her (although he could be flattering). She quickly proves herself courteous and compassionate, graciously leading Odysseus to her father's palace while always having a mind for her virtuous reputation. She does not, however, win the prince (technically a king) she loves (Odysseus) and live happily ever after... she merely helps Odysseus to his happy ending.
Quest to the West: The end goal of the whole story is to get back home to Greece after leaving Troy.
Questionable Consent:
- Circe transforms men into animals if they displease her. She demands that Odysseus sleep with her for her to turn his already-transformed crew back into humans and let them be on their way.
- Calypso finds Odysseus shipwrecked on her island and takes him as a companion (read: Sex Slave). Without a ship, crew, or any means of escaping the island, Odysseus goes along with her requests.
Random Events Plot: Odysseus' actual voyage, which is the most famous part of the story. By contrast, the parts about Ithaca, Telemachus, the suitors, etc., have a normal plotline.
Rambling Old Man Monologue: Just as in The Iliad, when Nestor talks, he talks a lot, mostly about what he's done as long as he can relate it to the current situation. Telemachus finds this out after visiting him to find information on what happened to his father Odysseus, which leads to Telemachus deciding to skip out on Nestor receiving him after realizing Nestor can't really help him much in that regard.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: In Samuel Butler's translation, when describing the adventures and hijinks of his crew after they set sail from Troy (and before arriving at the Cave of the Cyclops), Odysseus casually mentions that he and his crew sacked a town, raped the women, and sold survivors into slavery. You know, typical Greek Hero stuff.
Real Men Eat Meat: Being out of meat and forced to eat fish is always seen as a bad thing. Scholars have speculated that pre-Classical Greeks may have had some sort of taboo against eating fish or perhaps the fish in those areas was simply bad. On the other hand, good fishing is mentioned once or twice as a sign of a blessed country.
Red Shirt: Every time Odysseus lands on an island, at least a few members of his crew have to die to show that the journey is dangerous. Some get killed by the Kikonians, some more are eaten by the Cyclops, a whole bunch of others are slaughtered by the Lestrygonians, and one, seemingly unable to find another way to die, falls off Circe's roof^note. Six more are eaten by Scylla, and the few remaining after that are wiped out when the ship is struck by lightning and destroyed in a storm, leaving Odysseus the Sole Survivor.
Revealing Injury: Or revealing scar. Odysseus' old nurse figures out who he is when she sees his old hunting scar.
Rightful King Returns: Odysseus is the king of Ithaca, but so many of the suitors force themselves to move into his palace just so they can usurp his throne by marrying his wife since he’s been gone for 20 years. Once he comes back and wins Penelope’s Engagement Challenge, Odysseus, Telemachus, and a couple of loyal servants slaughter all of the suitors.
Road Trip Plot: The bulk of the story is Odysseus' long, complicated voyage home, and all the strange things that happen to him on the way.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Odysseus slaughters every suitor and twelve maids in his home once he returns. Subverted, though, in that Odysseus spares the kindly herald Medon and the poet Phemius^note. Also, he seemingly took a liking to one of the suitors, Amphinomus, and tried to warn him to leave Ithaca; but, as Homer relates, Athena detained him there and Amphinomus ended up killed by Telemachus.
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: Helios sics Zeus on your ass, lightning falls, and everyone dies.
Royal Inbreeding: The Phaeacian king Alcinous is married to his brother's daughter Arete. This isn't portrayed as anything unusual for the times. In fact, Alcinous is repeatedly mentioned to love his wife and their children dearly, is The Good King to the Phaeacians, and treats Odysseus generously under the laws of xenia.
Sacred Hospitality: Comes up repeatedly throughout the poem.
- It's a plot point often overlooked by modern audiences: the main reason that Penelope's suitors had to die was not that they were trying to seduce Penelope, but that they were a bunch of moochers. Overstaying their welcome, eating Penelope out of food and home, and taking advantage of the female servants, they were abusing their privileges under xenia and thus incurred the wrath of Zeus.
- By contrast, Odysseus shows up at the swineherd's home dressed as a poor beggar. Eumaeus gladly welcomes and feeds him.
- Polyphemus violates hospitality by eating some of Odysseus' men who have taken refuge in his cave. Odysseus warns him that Zeus will punish him for this, but Polyphemus believes that he's not subject to Zeus because he is a son of Poseidon. It's also worth noting that Odysseus and his men had immediately started stuffing themselves with Polyphemus' cheese and goat's milk stores without thinking as to whose hospitality they themselves were violating. Odysseus actually recognizes that indulging themselves and fleeing is a serious violation of xenia, hence why he insists on waiting for the owner of the cave to return so he could offer a gift of wine as compensation. That is what gets him and his men trapped by Polyphemus.
- Proper treatment of guests and hosts is repeatedly used to establish that a character is a good person. Telemachus, Nestor, Menelaus, the Phaeacians, and others all benefit from the halo of this trope.
Scarpia Ultimatum: Odysseus is forced to sleep with Circe in order to save his men. While the moly flower Hermes gave him renders him immune to her magic, his men still aren’t, and she has the ability to keep them as pigs or even kill them if Odysseus doesn’t give her what she wants.
Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When Odysseus finally reveals himself to the suitors, Eurymachus attempts to escape death by offering to compensate for the flocks they'd slaughtered for their feasts, with interest (essentially trying to bribe his way out), but Odysseus isn't having it.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Odysseus protests that eating travelers goes against Sacred Hospitality. Polyphemus, as a son of Poseidon, believes himself immune to repercussions.
Scylla and Charybdis: Trope Maker. Notably, Odysseus ends up having to choose between them twice. First, he's with his crew on a ship and orders them to pass by Scylla. Scylla (giant tentacled beast) kills six men, but it is better than Charybdis (enormous whirlpool), who would have swallowed the entire ship. Later on, Odysseus has to pass by them in a raft and chooses Charybdis this time. Being alone, he's able to cling to a tree near the whirlpool and makes it back onto the raft after it's swallowed and then expelled.
Seamless Spontaneous Lie: Odysseus is good at making up backstory from whole cloth, which he makes use of when he's trying to keep his identity a secret. It helps that when people press him for certain details, said details are about the person he claimed to have met (Odysseus, i.e., himself), and not about the land he supposedly hailed from.
Self-Serving Memory: Helen portrays herself as the ally of the Greeks during the war by recalling how she helped Odysseus when he was disguised and spying in Troy. In response, Menelaus claims that Helen almost exposed the Trojan horse by imitating the voices of the warriors' wives. Both characters are biased but Helen's story arguably more consistent with her character from the Iliad.
Serial Escalation: In the retellings of his journey to the Phaeacians, Odysseus' travels get progressively more supernatural, and the threats he faces, more inhuman. For example, in Book 9:
- Their first stop from Troy is the raid against the Cicones, who are only normal mortals. The only supernatural element is a powerful wine gifted to them by a priest.
- After a storm diverts them from the path, they meet the Lotus Eaters, mortals who eat a hypnotic fruit that makes anyone forget home and only desire to stay on the island. This is the first introduction to the supernatural.
- Then, they meet the cyclops, a fully supernatural creature who eats Odysseus' men. The trend continues into Book 10, when they meet the divine Aeolus, giants even more uncivilized than Polyphemus (who at least was a shepherd), and minor goddess Circe.
Shipper on Deck:
- At the climax of the story, Athena goes out of her way to make Odysseus and Penelope more attractive, by bestowing ambrosia onto Penelope and eventually infusing beauty on Odysseus before he formally reunites with her. Athena even holds back the dawn so that Odysseus and Penelope can enjoy sweet sleep for as long as they can.
- Penelope’s male relatives are charmed by Eurymachus and try to urge her to marry him. This was Eurymachus’ intentions to better his chances on forcibly winning her hand. Naturally it doesn’t come to pass once Odysseus comes back into the picture and kills him.
- Alcinous is so impressed by everything Odysseus has gone through that he offers his daughter Nausicaä’s hand in marriage. Odysseus rejects the offer since he’s already married and still in love with his wife Penelope.
Siren Song: The Trope Maker. In Book 12, the sirens try to lure Odysseus by promising to sing of his glorious deeds in the Trojan War. It's impossible to resist the song; he has to be lashed firmly to the mast to prevent him from giving in.
Sirens: "Come hither, as thou farest, renowned Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans; stay thy ship that thou mayest listen to the voice of us two. For never yet has any man rowed past this isle in his black ship until he has heard the sweet voice from our lips. Nay, he has joy of it, and goes his way a wiser man. For we know all the toils that in wide Troy the Argives and Trojans endured through the will of the gods, and we know all things that come to pass upon the fruitful earth." (Translation by A. T. Murray)
Sociopathic Hero: Odysseus, according to Harold Bloom, is a man you don't want to cross or be around too long. He's willing to do nearly anything to survive, including sack towns and villages, sell people into slavery, lie, and manipulate, and in the end, after retaking Ithaca, he brutally murders not only the suitors but also the palace servant girls in highly brutal ways. Of course, the Greek idea of The Hero differs entirely from the Christian, chivalric, and modern conception.
Sole Survivor:
- Odysseus is the only member of his crew to make it back to Ithaca.
- Only two people survive the slaughter of the suitors: a bard (the suitors had forced him to come along to entertain them) and the herald Medon, (who had acted as Penelope's spy throughout the story).
- Inverted in the last skirmish in the epilogue; only the leader of the mob of suitors' parents (appropriately, Antinous' father) dies before Athena stops the fighting.
Solitary Sorceress: Circe is a famous early example. She lives on an island and turns any visitors into pigs for her larder.
Spin-Off: Pretty much the Ur-Example. The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, who was a secondary character in the Iliad.
Star-Crossed Lovers: To say that Odysseus and Penelope had a hard time staying together is an understatement. While they’re Happily Married, Odysseus had no say in rejecting his enlistment for the Trojan War and has to leave his wife and their newborn son, which then culminates into a combined 20 year long adventure before he could finally make it back home. Meanwhile, Penelope struggles with putting up with her Unwanted Harem trying to force her into accepting Odysseus is dead and should remarry one of them. By the end of the story, Odysseus kills all of Penelope’s suitors and stays by her side for good.
Statuesque Stunner: The princess of the Laestrygonians, the cannibalistic giants; she's strong, good-looking, and implied to be young as her mother and father are way bigger than she is.
Stranger in a Familiar Land: When Odysseus finally gets back to Ithaca, he's at first convinced the Phaecians betrayed him and just left him on any old coast, as he's been away so long he can't recognize the place anymore.
Stranger Safety: Many characters take care of the main hero Odysseus when they don't know him.
A Success, by Comparison: When Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca incognito, he learns that his queen Penelope has been trying to fend off numerous powerful suitors who have erroneously assumed him dead. Together with their son Telemachus, they secretly devise a test for the suitors: whomever can string Odysseus' bow and then fire an arrow through a row of twelve axe-heads, gets to marry her. None can manage it, but Telemachus himself comes closest to stringing the bow, symbolizing that the young man is nearly ready to be king himself. (Why he was taking a test where the prize was his own mother is probably best left unquestioned, though some adaptations claim that Penelope could remain unmarried if he won.)
Surrounded by Idiots: It cannot be overstated just how dumb Odysseus' crew is, from opening the bag of winds to eating Helios' sacred cattle to staying too late sacking a city. The only useful things they do on the entire trip is row the boat and tie Odysseus to the mast when going past the Sirens (and that was only done because Odysseus was being his Prideful self and wanted to actually listen to Sirens' song without actually risking himself or anyone else on the ship).
Take a Third Option: Averted when faced with the prospect of Scylla and Charybdis. Odysseus inquires if there's a way he can neutralize both of them and pass through the strait without losing any more men. Circe makes it clear that the best he can do is steer closer to Scylla and minimize his losses.
Taking Advantage of Generosity: Penelope's suitors stayed a long time and thinned out Odysseus' herds by eating them. No wonder he killed them all in the end!
Tell Me About My Father: The first few chapters have Telemachus setting out to Sparta to find out what happened to his dad.
Tempting Fate: Odysseus bragging after blinding Polyphemus. In some tellings, he taunts the Cyclops first, which nearly gets their boat hit by a thrown boulder. Odysseus' men tell him to shut up before he gets them all killed, but he keeps going, which is the point where he gives his name.
Textile Work Is Feminine:
- Penelope's work to hold off the suitors, which she keeps up for three years.
- Many of the other women, for instance, when Hermes goes to Calypso in the fifth book, she is weaving; Odysseus encounters Nausicaä when she and her companions have just finished doing the laundry; when Telemachus leaves Sparta, Helen gives him a dress she made herself as a present for his future bride.
There's No Place Like Home: Ithaca to Odysseus. Granted, it is described as rocky and his life there was frugal, but that's where he wants to return to, so he rejects offers to stay in more pleasant and richer places.
The Thing That Would Not Leave: The suitors, for three years at least.
To Hell and Back: Hades is one of Odysseus' stops.
Token Good Teammate: One of the suitors named Amphinomus was considered the most well behaved of them. He even tried to dissuade other suitors when they were plotting to kill Telemachus. Odysseus knew about this and warned him to leave before the massacre. Unfortunately, because he still was one of the suitors, Athena compelled him to stay and he ends up being killed.
Too Awesome to Use: Odysseus' bow, which is so valuable he didn't bring it to the Trojan War, where it would certainly have been extremely useful.
Too Dumb to Live: Could be the subtitle of the book. Zeus even mentions in the opening pages that for all the humans blame the gods for their suffering, a very large portion of it they bring on themselves in their pride, selfishness, or sheer stupidity.
- The appropriate thing to do, after raiding a village, would be to flee the scene as quickly as possible, since a raiding party can't expect to stand up to the army inevitably headings its way. Naturally, Odysseus' crew loiters around and celebrates while Odysseus begs them to get the hell out of dodge, leading to them getting thoroughly routed by said arriving army.
- What does Odysseus do, after sneaking out of Polyphemus' cave with his surviving men? Turn around and yell insults back. If the boulder Polyphemus threw (which barely missed them) didn't make it clear that he should keep his mouth shut, his crew begging him to do so should have been a giant flashing sign. But he keeps up the barrage, topping it off by telling Polyphemus who he is and where he's from, y'know, just in case Polyphemus feels like revenge. Cue ten-year voyage courtesy of Poseidon.
- Odysseus' crew, upon witnessing him receive a bag from Aeolus, think it must contain valuable treasure and starting grumbling about how they want some. When they get a chance, they open it, and an explosion of wind sends them sailing far away from Ithaca, which they were in eyesight of. At that point Odysseus considers just taking his chances in the ocean.
- Consider: you are one of the few surviving members of Odysseus' crew. You have just landed on the Isle of Helios. Odysseus has told you that he was warned by the famous Seer Tiresias and the witch Circe that eating any of the cows there will get everyone but him killed. He's begged you and made you swear a solemn vow not to do that. The second his back's turned, what do you do? Why, eat some cows of course! As if that wasn't dumb enough, you've been able to catch fish and birds, so you're not even dying of starvation like Eurylochus claims. You just get yourself killed because you really, really wanted a burger.
Tragic Intangibility: Odysseus attempts to hug his mother's ghost not once but three times in Book 11, only to pass through her and be left with his sorrow.
Trickster Girlfriend: Penelope, of all characters. She is revealed to be pretty sharp herself (Odysseus must have married her for a reason), as she keeps the suitors under her thumb with various tricks...and then she plays a mind game with her husband, the King of Tricksters himself when he shows up in disguise, ordering a slave to drag Odysseus' bed from their chamber and causing Odysseus to demand who dared to cut the bed from the living olive tree he carved it from. It's something only the two of them knew, thus tricking him into proving his identity while she proved her fidelity to him in a single move.
Trojan Horse: Given a mention in the Odyssey, but despite common perceptions never shows up personally in Homer's works. The epics they did appear in have been lost.
Underside Ride: Odysseus and his crew are trapped within a cave by Polyphemus, a man-eating cyclops. Odysseus and his crew escape by clinging to the underside of Polyphemus' sheep.
Undignified Death: Elpenor, the youngest of Odysseus' men, goes to bed on the roof drunk, wakes up with a hangover, and proceeds to forget he's on the roof, so he falls off it and breaks his neck.
Undying Loyalty:
- No matter how many decades has passed while under pressure by over a hundred suitors chasing after her hand in marriage, Penelope refuses to abandon her devotion towards her husband Odysseus.
- Likewise, Odysseus had no hesitation on eventually leaving Circe and rejecting Calypso’s offer of immortality while refusing to marry her, because he ultimately loved Penelope more.
- Odysseus' dog Argos predates the trope namer, waiting faithfully for his master before dying shortly after his return.
- Any of the loyal people in Odysseus' household. His swineherd, cowherd, and former wet nurse are all pointed out as being exceptional in their devotion to him after many decades.
Ungrateful Bastard:
- The servants and maids who transfer their loyalties to the suitors count as this, considering the royal family they served treated them with great care. With Melantho, the maid who became Eurymachus' lover, it's explicit, as Homer points out that Penelope had raised her like a daughter.
- When upbraiding Antinous for trying to kill her son, Penelope points out that Antinous’ father took refuge with Odysseus to escape retaliation for his piracy. That’s not even getting into Antinous mooching off of Odysseus’ home while pressuring his wife to remarry him. Antinous' father later launches a rebellion over his son's death and is the only one to be killed by Odysseus’ own father before Athena forcibly settles everything.
Unreliable Expositor: The most famous stories relating to Odysseus' journey are part of one of his accounts. He tells completely different stories on other occasions. However, the salient facts of Odysseus' account to the Phaeacians are confirmed by the opening narration and by the dialogue of the gods themselves in various places.
Unwanted Harem: Dozens of foreign and local nobles seek Penelope's hand in marriage after her husband is presumed dead. He returns and kills them all. It's fair to say that he not only kills them for being pretenders but also because for 20 years they mooched from Odysseus' estate and fortune (along with trying to kill his son).
- Odysseus has all the ladies from Ithaca behind him, though they want to hang him by the short hairs for managing to kill basically an entire generation of able-bodied men in The Trojan War, on his little trip back and on that last number he pulled by killing his wife's pretenders.
Villainous Glutton: Charybdis, an unspeakably horrifying monster who devours everything that passes her.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Odysseus and Athena. The first thing they do after Athena throws off her disguise is argue.
Wait for Your Date: Penelope, the acting regent of Ithaca as the wife of Odysseus, kept a bevy of suitors housed and fed in a reception hall while waiting at least nine years for her husband to return home from the Trojan War. Almost all of these suitors were opportunists, social climbers, wannabes, or straight-up mooches leeching off the Ithaca treasury. Greek custom of the time forbade Penelope from shooing them away, as that would be an affront to Zeus; however, she also remained circumspectly distant from them, allowing only servants to content them.
Watch It Stoned: The Lotus Eaters, who eat nothing but a fruit that causes them a sort of never-ending lethargic contentment.
What Happened to the Mouse?:
- You'd be forgiven if you forgot that Odysseus has a younger sister named Ctimene, as she's only mentioned twice when Eumaeus recalls how he grew up with her. According to a scholia, she was married to Eurylochus, but she's never mentioned anywhere else, even when it would make sense to do so, like when Odysseus and Anticleia reunite in the underworld. She’s not even brought up when Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca.
- Odysseus never mentions the women enslaved and "shared between his men" in the land of the Cicones again. They either all died alongside the rest of the fleet to the Laestrygonians, or, in the best case, were rescued when the Cicones brought reinforcements and Odysseus had to leave the plunder in a hurry.
Widow Mistreatment: When her husband Odysseus is thought to be dead, Penelope has 108 suitors gather around her kingdom to dine and party, harass her servants, slaves, and even her son Telemachus all the while strong-arming her to find a new husband.
Who's on First?: Possibly the oldest example in the book. Odysseus told Polyphemus his name was "Nobody" (Οὖτις). When the Cyclops started screaming that he had been blinded, his brothers asked who had done this foul deed. The Cyclops replied that "Nobody has blinded me", so his brothers told him to shut up with the screaming over things that hadn't happened. As an added bit of wordplay, "Nobody" can also be stated as μη τις, while μητις (one word) meant "cunning" in Ancient Greek.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: While most, such as the gods, definitely disagree with this sentiment Odysseus himself rejects Calypso's offer of immortality while being trapped on an island in order to remain free and to return to his wife and family.
You Can't Fight Fate: What we would call an Overused Running Gag.
You Can't Go Home Again: Except Odysseus does. No matter how much Poseidon and the seas throw at him, no matter what freaks go at him, he still returns home. But not the rest of his crew, who were fated to die away from home.
You Have Waited Long Enough: The suitors want to convince Penelope of this. She's not buying it. Correctly, as Odysseus isn't actually dead.
You Remind Me of X: Odysseus says Nausicaä resembles the goddess Artemis.
You Wake Up on a Beach: Odysseus wakes up naked on a beach at the end of Book 5 (shortly after the protagonist is introduced: the first four books focus on Telemachus). He is found by Nausicaä and her maids.

The Odyssey

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The Odyssey

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