Summary: 奥德赛 – The Odyssey

The Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of the most famous stories from ancient Greece, with a history of nearly three thousand years. It tells the story of a man going home—but this ‘going home’ took a full ten years.

The hero of the story is named Odysseus. He was the king of a small island, and very clever. He left home to take part in a war. This war lasted ten years. After the war ended, all the other heroes went home, but only he couldn’t get back. Because along the way he had offended the god of the sea, who was very angry and decided not to let him return home.

So, Odysseus began another ten years of travel. He encountered many dangerous things.

He once met a giant with only one eye. The giant locked him and his friends up, planning to eat them one by one. Odysseus thought of a plan: he told the giant that his name was ‘Nobody.’ At night, he used a piece of wood to blind the giant’s eye. The giant shouted loudly: ‘Nobody is hurting me! Nobody is hurting me!’ The other giants heard this and said: ‘If nobody is hurting you, then why are you shouting?’ And so, Odysseus escaped.

He also encountered singing female monsters. Their singing was so beautiful that anyone who heard it would jump into the sea and die. Odysseus really wanted to listen, but he also didn’t want to die. So he had his friends tie him to the ship, and had everyone plug their ears with something. As the ship sailed past, he heard the most beautiful singing in the world, and also survived.

During these ten years, his friends died one by one. In the end, only he alone returned home.

But the situation at home shocked him greatly. Ten years of war, plus ten years of travel—he had not been home for twenty years. Everyone thought he was dead. More than a hundred men were living in his house, eating his food every day, drinking his wine, and even wanting to marry his wife.

His wife was named Penelope. She always believed her husband was not dead, so she thought of many ways to reject these men. She said: ‘When I finish weaving this cloth, I will choose one person to marry.’ But she wove the cloth during the day, and quietly unraveled it at night. This way, the cloth could never be finished.

Odysseus did not immediately reveal who he was. He put on old clothes, disguised himself as a poor old man, and first observed the situation at home clearly. Finally, he picked up his own bow—the bow that only he alone could draw—and drove away all those bad people.

Twenty years later, Odysseus finally returned to his wife’s side.