Odysseus (Ὀδυσσεύς), known in Latin as Ulixes, was a very wise man and the king of Ithaca, a large island in Greece. He had Penelope as wife and was the pupil of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Odysseus had a very large and beautiful castle, and he was the hero of multiple stories. When the Trojan War broke out, all the leaders of Greece had to come and fight. On the day Odysseus would go, Telemachos, his son, was born. Penelope didn't want him to go, but he said: "When this boy has a beard and I'm not back yet, you have to choose another husband." And he went to Troy. Afer ten years of fighting, Odysseus came up with a genius idea; they would build a giant horse, say they would leave and hide in the horse. When the Trojans took the horse inside their city, they would come out and kill everyone. The plan worked, and Troy was defeated. Everyone who didn't die, returned home, except for Odysseus. That was because Poseidon was the main god of Troy, and he said Odysseus was the reason Troy felt. Seen Poseidon's the god of the sea, he could easily stop Odysseus from sailing home. To punish him, Poseidon made Odysseus sail to the Island of the Lotus-Eaters. The people who lived there, were very hospitable. They offered Odysseus and his men some of their favorite food, the Lotus fruit. This fruit made you forget all your worries, your home and your family. When Odysseus discovered this, he had difficulty forcing his men back onto the ships, but finally he did. They had already spent a half year on the island, they could have been home! Poseidon let them and after a few days sailing, they moored at an island to provide themselves. But, in their bad luck, this was the island of the Cyclopses! After a while, they found a cave with giant amounts of cheese, and they started to eat. In the evening, the cyclops Polyphemos came home. When he saw the men, he immediately shut the door with a giant rock and grabbed to of Odysseus' men to eat them. Odysseus screamed: "Hi, I'm Nobody, you know, before you eat, you should drink the wine I brought you!" And when Polyphemos was drunk, he began sleeping. Odysseus and his men made a point to a stick and pushed it through the giant's eye. Polyphemos wake up, opened the cave and screamed to his brothers: "Help! help! Nobody has blinded me!" His brothers didn't take this serious and went back to sleep. Polyphemos started to bring out his sheep, feeling for Odysseus and his men. But the clever explorer bound his men under the sheep, so the cyclops didn't feel them. They escaped to their boats and rowed away. You have to know, Polyphemos was Poseidon's son, so know Poseidon was mad at them again. This would make him travel for nine more years.

The next island were they came, also wasn't a normal island. It was the island of Kirke, an immortal semigoddess. When Odysseus arrived, a few of his men went to explore the island. Some time later, a pig came running over the beach, and the rest of the men had almost slaughtered it when Eurylochos came running. He screamed: "Dont't kill him! He's one of you!" Odysseus asked for explaining and Eurylochos said: "I didn't go in because I didn't trust her, and I was right! That witch turned them all into pigs!" "Well, I'll go search for them, you'll all wait here." said Odysseus. And while he was travelling, he walked into Hermes, the messenger of the gods. Hermes said: "I'll help you, listen; when you come in Kirke's house, she'll ask you to drink some of her honeywine. There's a potion in that wine, but all you have to do is eat this. It's μῶλυ (moly). Than, you have to attack her, and she'll ask you to go to bed with her. You have to do that, than she'll turn your friends back into men and she'll tell you how to reach Ithaca." With this advice, Odysseus went to Kirke, but everything happened just like Hermes predicted. When Odysseus had been to bed with her, he called the rest of his men to come and rest. So they did for a few days.

In the meanwhile, Penelope also had her worries, because suitors were coming from everywhere to marry her and become king. They all said Odysseus was dead, but Penelope didn't want to believe that and said to them: "I will weave a burial shroud for Odysseus, and when I've finished it, I'll choose one of you." But she went back to the weaving room every night to take some of the shroud apart.

On the same day, Odysseus asked Kirke how he could return to Ithaca, and she said: "I don't know the exact way to Ithaca, you'll have to go to the underworld to ask Tiresias, the priest. I do know you'll pass the Island of Helios, where his cattle lives. You have to leave the cows and don't eat them, otherwise Helios will kill you. And something else; I'm deciding how time is going in here, you've already been here for five full years." Shocked by those last words he and his men went to the underworld to visit Tiresias, and after a while searching, Odysseus found him. He said: "To come on Ithaca, you'll have to pass the Sirens, get through the street of Scylla, a monster with six heads, and Charybdis, a monster you can't see, but if she opens her mouth, a giant whirlpool arises." A few days of sailing later, they are going to pass the Sirens. Odysseus had heard that whoever hears the Sirens' singing, became much wiser, but also wanted to sail to them and crash on rocks. So he made his men bind him to the mast and put some wool in their own ears. Sailing like this, they got past the magical Sirens. Another few weeks sailing later, they got to the street of Scylla and Charybdis. Odysseus could choose between the six heads full of sharp teeth or just some whirling water which he didn't even see. He chose the heads. And that was smart, because if he had chosen Charybdis, the whole ship would have been destroyed. With Scylla, what he did choose, only a few men would be eaten. So, with a lighter boat, they sailed further. They moored at the island Thrinacia, Helios' island. Odysseus said to his men they could better sail further, but his friends were very hungry. So they stayed at the island and ate some plants. But after a while, when Odysseus was sleeping, his men started killing some cows and ate them. Next day, Helios made a giant storm which killed all of the men except for Odysseus, he was floating over the sea for nine whole days without food or water. After a while, he washed ashore on Calypso's island, the island where Calypso was banned to for being on the wrong side in a war. Calypso immediately fell in love with Odysseus, and she didn't want to let him go any more. But, after three years and a lot of insistance from Odysseus, she gave him wood to build a raft. And, for the second time, Odysseus was floating over the ocean. Poseidon still thought Odysseus hadn't been punished enough, and made a storm almost killing him. But, luckily, Athena protected Odysseus and made him drift ashore in the land of the Phaeacians. There, Nausikaä, the princess, found him and brought him to the castle. There, he told the king, Alkinoös, his adventures, and he decided to bring him finally back to Ithaca.

In the meanwhile, the suitors discovered Penelope's secret, and they wanted her to choose. But when Odysseus arrived at Ithaca, he knew he couldn't just go up to the castle, the suitors would kill him before he reached the doors. So he first went to a shepherd he knew very well. There, he got a disguise from Athena, and he met Telemachos, his son. They got to the castle together, like a young boy and a very old wanderer. Telemachos told his mother she should make a competition, whoever would draw the bow and shoot through seven rings into an apple, be her husband. One by one, all of the suitors tried to draw the bow, but it was enchanted, so only Odysseus could draw it. When all the suitors had tried, Odysseus asked he could try too, and all of the suitors began to laugh, seen they thought he was an old wanderer. But they let him, and he did it, he drew the bow and shot right into the apple. And as last test, Penelope asked Odysseus: "Well, old man, could you please move my bed to the wedding chamber then?" And Odysseus answered: "I can't, seen I've built our bed around an olive tree, around which we've built our whole world, so it can't move." At this answer, Penelope knows this old man really is a disguised Odysseus and she flies into his arms. After that, Telemachos and Odysseus start killing all of the suitors who drank all of his wine, ate all of his food and raped all of his servants.