TOP 10 ODYSSEYS / ODYSSEY ICEBERG

 

Sing, Muse, of my Top 10 Odysseys.

Wait, what?

Top 10 Odysseys? Plural?

Do I mean my Top 10 Books of the Odyssey, of which there are 24, essentially the equivalent of modern chapters, hence more than enough for a top ten? Or do I mean my Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey, particularly given the prominence of Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation at the time of writing this in 2026?

No to both, as I do have separate top ten lists for them – my Top 10 Books of the Odyssey and my Top 10 Adaptations of the Odyssey.

Perhaps I mean literary odysseys – odyssey as a literary genre, fictional or picaresque journeys analogous to the Odyssey, such as those of Aeneas, Sinbad or Gulliver?

Again no, I do not, although that is an interesting idea so let’s put a pin in that.

Perhaps editions or translations of the Odyssey, whether prose or verse?

Yet again, no. While there are obviously enough editions or translations for a top ten, I am not familiar enough with the different editions or translations, relying as I did on the good old Penguin Classics edition.

Yes, I mean the top ten odysseys to be found within the text of the Odyssey.

But Stark after Dark, I hear you ask, isn’t there just the one Odyssey within the text of the Odyssey?

Yes, there is one fundamental continuity of the Odyssey within its text, although I suspect the Odyssey was a lot more fluid when it was sung as bardic performance – while the core remained the same, I suspect peripheral or even large parts of it changed from performance to performance.

However, there are or have been demarcations or parts identified within the fundamental continuity of the Odyssey – perhaps most notably the standard demarcation of the Telemachy from the balance of the Odyssey, with the latter also often divided into two parts (or arguably more). So don’t be surprised if that standard demarcation plays a prominent role in my top ten, although I also look at “thematic” demarcations or parts in or that cut across books of the Odyssey.

So yes, this is another of my mostly tongue-in-cheek top ten lists where I look at demarcations or parts within what is the fundamental continuity of the Odyssey – you could think of it as my Odyssey iceberg. Hence, I won’t be my usual countdown but counting them out or going from the top of the iceberg to lower down.

 

S-TIER (GOD TIER – OR IS THAT ODYSSEY TIER?)

 

 

 

 

(1) ODYSSEY (OR THE WANDERINGS OF ODYSSEUS)

 

Well obviously, except I’m not talking about the Odyssey as a whole but the actual odyssey part of the Odyssey, often more formally titled the Wanderings of Odysseus. The otherworldly Odyssey. The mythic fantasy adventure Odyssey. The Odyssey’s monster mash. What we think of when we think of the Odyssey.

In other words, the part for which most people come to or keep coming back to the Odyssey, or at least remember most about it, in the style of the trope Just Here For Godzilla in TV Tropes.

Except in the case of the Odyssey, Godzilla is the Cyclops, or the Sirens, or any or all of the mythic fantasy elements of this part, which after all is the mythic fantasy adventure or otherworldly core of the Odyssey – and certainly has the most exciting action set pieces, with one arguable exception in the part in my second place entry. While the other parts certainly have their supernatural or divine elements, this is the part where those elements are wall to wall – and play their most direct role as antagonists or obstacles to Odysseus.

Ironically, it is only a third of the Odyssey – Books 5-12 out of 24 books. And let’s face it, Books 5-8 are the more mundane tail end of the fantasy odyssey part, recounting the wanderings of Odysseus from Calypso to the Phaeacians, which might more accurately be considered as the prelude to Odysseus’ homecoming.

The core fantasy odyssey of the Odyssey is in Books 9-12, which recount the wanderings of Odysseus from Troy to Helios’ cattle. Interestingly, the contents of these books are the story within the story, told by Odysseus himself to the Phaeacians – which begs the question of how true it is, given Odysseus’s defining traits of deception and disguise. Even more interestingly, Nolan’s cinematic adaptation plays with this question, despite omitting the Phaeacians – here the deception may be self-deception, lying in Odysseus’ own mind or memory through a lotus haze.

Also, without the seven years with Calypso, Odysseus only spends three of the ten years of the Odyssey, well, odysseying – two if you also knock off the year with Circe (in the book that is, not the Nolan film adaptation).

But who cares? We’re just here for the odyssey.

 

 

 

 

(2) THE WRATH OF ODYSSEUS (OR DADDY’S HOME)

 

The Return of the King.

More formally labelled along the lines of the Homecoming of Odysseus and the Fate (or Slaying) of the Suitors – although personally I think that people missed the chance to mirror the wrath of Achilles from the first line of the Iliad, hence my title.

Alternatively, in the parlance of Nolan’s film, Daddy’s home – and he’s here to hand out some spankings!

While the Wanderings of Odysseus is the adventurous soul of the Odyssey – “I am become a name for always roaming with a hungry heart” – his Homecoming is its emotional core. Home is where the heart is – certainly Ithaca is where the heart of Odysseus is, as well as that of the Odyssey.

The Wanderings of Odysseus are his adventure; the Homecoming of Odysseus is his quest.

It’s not simply a matter of coming home or even coming home after war, it is a restoration akin to resurrection – a restoration not so much of good over evil, but even more fundamentally of law or order over chaos.

As such, it is arguably of more thematic importance than even the adventurous odyssey, as the latter is, after all, just in the nature of titillating entertainment or divertissement.

This is reflected in that it is literally at least half the books of the Odyssey – Books 13-24 – and more if you count Books 5-8, which arguably you should. The entire Odyssey is set in the time of the Homecoming, at the tail end or in the very last year of its ten years, much like the Iliad is only a tiny segment of the ten years of the Trojan War or its events. Everything before that are essentially flashbacks, stories within the story – including the odyssey part of the Odyssey, the wanderings of Odysseus from Troy to Helios’ cattle, are told by Odysseus himself to the Phaeacians just before he returns to Ithaca.

 

 

 

 

(3) TELEMACHY (OR WAITING FOR ODYSSEUS)

 

Where’s Odysseus?

Effectively the introduction to the Odyssey, the Telemachy is the term traditionally applied to Books 1-4 of the Odyssey as they tell the story of Odysseus’ son Telemachus and Odysseus himself is nowhere to be seen.

That’s the whole point – the Odysseus-shaped hole at the start of the Odyssey that everyone is looking to fill. His wife Penelope and his son Telemachus desperately trying to hold the line in Ithaca against the rapacious suitors, in turn looking to take his queen as wife and hence his place as king usurping Telemachus as his heir, while abusing the hospitality of his household.

Yes, it’s not as gripping as the wanderings of Odysseus or his return to Ithaca, but it is vital as set-up for the Odyssey as a whole, particularly the tension to be resolved by Odysseus’ homecoming and the stakes involved, such that he has to infiltrate his own home in disguise and retake it by ruse – mirroring the ruse by Odysseus of the Trojan Horse to take Troy.

It also gives Telemachus an odyssey of his own, as he journeys from home to Pylos and Sparta after news of his missing father – as well as, not coincidentally, avoiding the threat to his life posed by the suitors now that he is coming of age as heir, including an assassination attempt by them left as cliffhanger at the end of Book 4 while we switch to Odysseus.

This journey evokes the most direct flashbacks to the Trojan War, given that Telemachus is seeking out the Greek heroes with the most fortunate homecomings or returns from the war – Nestor in Pylos, and Menelaus in Sparta, with the visit to the latter also featuring the figure behind the whole war and since essentially named for it, Menelaus’ wife Helen of Troy. Their fortunate homecomings are obviously in contrast to that of the missing Odysseus, but also that of the Greek hero with the most unfortunate homecoming – one that, as Nestor effectively points out to Telemachus, highlights the threat the suitors pose to Odysseus 0r his royal household – which was of course the leader of the Greek coalition against Troy and king of Mycenae, Agamemnon.

The Nolan film conflates Telemachus’ visit to Nestor with that to Menelaus, while also omitting the latter was able to impart to Telemachus, essentially by way of divine Grecian whispers via the shape changing god Proteus, that Odysseus was still alive and  Calypso’s captive on her island of Ogygia. That of course sets up Odysseus himself to appear with Calypso in Book 5, although as usual it takes divine intervention by Athena to allow him to leave.

Accordingly, the Telemachy is the shortest part of the Odyssey, a sixth or 4 books (Books 1-4) out of 24 books, followed by the Odyssey proper or the wandering of Odysseus, a third or 8 books (Books 5-12), and then the homecoming of Odysseus as the longest part, half or 12 books (Books 13-24).

 

 

 

 

(4) KATABASIS (DESCENT TO THE UNDERWORLD)

 

All true heroes and poets go down into the underworld…

A katabasis is a journey into the underworld, harrowing Hades as it were – “its original sense is usually associated with Greek mythology and classical mythology more broadly, where the protagonist visits the Greek underworld, also known as Hades”.

Yes, okay, it is one book of the Odyssey, namely Book 11, albeit as part of the core mythic part of the Odyssey in Books 9-12, in turn part of the wider Wanderings of Odysseus in Books 5-12. Although Robert Graves in his classic book The Greek Myths argues persuasively that almost every part of the wanderings of Odysseus is essentially through one aspect or another of death or the underworld.

And yes, okay, Odysseus barely went into the underworld, a liminal katabasis as it were, certainly when compared with those of some other Greek heroes who went to the very heart of the underworld. I understand there is even some dispute whether he went to the highest part of the underworld, or simply “the lowest edge of the living world” bordering it.

And yes, yes, okay, it’s also a combination of katabasis and nekyia, the latter being necromancy and tending to involve a vision of the underworld rather than a visit to it. Although it’s not so much that the dead in general have any particular gift of prophecy in the Odyssey, but rather the shade of Tiresias which retains the gift of prophecy he had when he was alive. He just happens to be, you know, dead, so doesn’t do prophecy house calls any more.

I don’t care. It is the single best book of the Odyssey, arguably its narrative and thematic crossroads that tie it all together.

It is also the definitive core mythic heart of the Odyssey (within its most mythic part for the wanderings of Odysseus), so much so that it easily earns its own place. It is the first literary katabasis of classical mythology, inspiring in turn the katabasis of the Aeneid, which in turn inspired that of Dante’s Inferno (with the Aeneid’s author Virgil as guide to Dante).

Although I anticipate that it was not the first katabasis in Greek mythology or religion, as it was probably preceded by cultic practice, in turn perhaps ultimately originating from shamanic practice. Of course, everyone goes down into the underworld at some point – the trick is to come back.

As such, I could compile a top ten katabases from Greek mythology (or a wider top ten of underworld journeys) but let’s face it – the katabasis of Odysseus is at the top.

 

 

 

 

 

(5) NOSTOS (RETURN)

 

“I have returned”

Nostos, literally meaning return home in Greek, is “a theme used in ancient Greek literature, which includes an epic hero returning home, often by sea”.- “in the Odyssey, Homer has nostos being the return home from Troy by sea”.

But wait a minute, I hear you say, haven’t I already included the homecoming of Odysseus in Books 13-24 as my second-place odyssey within the Odyssey?

Well yes, but I include nostos here as its own entry for four reasons.

Firstly, Odysseus has a threefold return in the Odyssey – his return home from Troy by sea (throughout the Odyssey in general but particularly Books 13-24), his return from the mythic realm of his fantastic voyage to the mundane one (within his return from Troy), and his return from the underworld or katabasis (within his return from the mythic realm).

Secondly, unlike the return of other heroes from Troy, Odysseus faces not only mortal dangers in the path of his return(s) but also temptations to entice or take him away from that path altogether, as an alternative to nostos.

Thirdly, there is more than one nostos in the Odyssey, arguably even for Odysseus himself as it has different aspects or “meant several different things in the epic” – “escaping death, safe landings, returning home from war, and being back home”. The lone nostos of Odysseus also contrasts with the lost nostos of his crew or men, since only he survives to return. He is also not the only narrator of nostos in the Odyssey – Nestor and Menelaus also tell Telemachus of their happy returns, while the unhappy returns of heroes like Agamemnon are warnings, including by Agamemnon himself in the underworld to Odysseus.

Fourthly and finally, the Odyssey is one of many nostoi from Troy, with other such nostoi being the subject of another poem of that title (Nostoi) within the eight or so books of the larger Epic Cycle or Trojan Cycle – of which now only the Iliad and Odyssey survive intact.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(6) ILIAD (OR THE SHADE OF ACHILLES)

 

Wait – isn’t this the other one?  How does the Iliad feature as a distinct odyssey within the Odyssey?.

Well, firstly, we’re now moving to the narrative or thematic odysseys I tease out from within the Odyssey as a whole.

But secondly, and more fundamentally, we’re not talking about the Iliad as such, we’re talking about the Iliad in the Odyssey. The Iliad is suffused throughout the Odyssey, as you might expect where the latter is told as a sequel of the former, although not quite a direct sequel as we use that term today but more as part of a shared universe – the Homeric mythic universe as it were.

And beyond the Iliad – which after all only tells a small part within a mythic war of ten years duration – the events and figures of the wider Trojan War are suffused through the Odyssey.

Hence, the Odyssey is very much a post-Iliad story, but arguably also an anti-Iliad one, the anti-Iliad as it were, with its direct counterpoint to the Iliad’s wrath of Achilles (as the Iliad’s opening line and subject) in the Odyssey’s shade of Achilles among its book of the dead in Book 11, lamenting what his wrath and choice of short-lived glory got him.

 

 

 

 

(7) ATHENIAD

 

As I said, now we’re moving to the narrative or thematic odysseys I tease out from within the Odyssey as a whole – except now moving away from Odysseus as protagonist, although he remains fundamental.

Hence, I present the Atheniad, as Athena plays the decisive moving role in Odysseus’ return and homecoming, effectively as his divine patron – and where he is essentially her champion, embodying the intellectual prowess that was one of her divine aspects.

Yes, he’s on his own in his fantastic voyage from Troy to the cattle of Helios he narrates in Books 9-12, but for all his survival by his own wits, he simply would not have been able to return home without her.

Her decisive moving role in the Odyssey is from the very outset in Book 1, where she successfully petitions Zeus to compel Calypso to release Odysseus from his captivity, albeit captivity with benefits, through to the conclusion in Book 24, where she intervenes to broker peace from blood feud by the families of the slain suitors.

She not only guides and protects Odysseus, but also his son Telemachus through Books 1-3 of the Telemachy, even taking human guise to help Telemachus as Mentes and Mentor, the latter lending his name as the source for our use of the term mentor.

She critically intervenes in the end of Odysseus’ wanderings in Books 5-8 to secure his release from Calypso, appear in a dream to Princess Nausicaa, and guide him among the Phaeacians for their aiding him to return to Ithaca.

And she doesn’t stop when Odysseus is back in Ithaca, appearing in almost every book of his homecoming in Books 13-24 to lend him and Telemachus critical assistance to defeat the suitors, again taking human guise when needed.

 

 

 

 

(8) PENELOPIAD

 

Yes, it’s the title of a novella by Margaret Atwood adapting the events of the Odyssey from Penelope’s perspective, but I’m claiming it as its own genuine part within the Odyssey – Penelope’s odyssey as it were.

Penelope might be absent from Odysseus’ fantastic wanderings within the Odyssey, for obvious reasons that the whole point of his wanderings was to return home to her, but she is very much present in the prelude with Telemachus (the Telemachy, in Books 1-2 and 4) and for his homecoming in Books 16-24 – indeed, giving Odysseus one final test, literally for their matrimonial bed.

Ultimately, all of Odysseus’ efforts in the Odyssey, even with Athena’s divine intervention, would have been for naught without Penelope’s steadfast fidelity to him and her cunning at keeping the suitors at bay.

Sadly, it might be noted that Odysseus didn’t reciprocate Penelope’s fidelity – cough Circe and Calypso cough” – although he cried about it a lot for the seven years he spent on Calypso’s island.

There was a variant legend that Penelope did sleep with all her suitors, giving birth to the god Pan, but not in my Odyssey – not my Odyssey, not my Penelope!

 

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

 

(9) CIRCEAD

 

Yes, okay, Circe only appears in one book of the Odyssey – Book 10 – and doesn’t even have that book to herself with Odysseus, albeit her scenes within that book are among the most iconic in the Odyssey, but her liaison with him has been the source of enduring fascination and influence ever since. Artists, poets, and writers have added to that liaison, most notably through adding her son with Odysseus, Telegonus.

Even in the Odyssey itself, her role extends beyond her book as she gives him critical guidance to find his way to the underworld in the following book.

Also, since he was with her for one year of the ten years of the Odyssey, it seems only apt that she have one entry out of ten in my Top 10 Odysseys.

 

 

 

(10) CALYPSONY

 

And yes – it might be pushing it to give Calypso her own odyssey within the Odyssey. Like Circe, she has her own book within the Odyssey – Book 5 – although she is also mentioned in two other books, Books 1 and 7.

However, since Odysseus spends the large majority of the ten years of the Odyssey – indeed, 70% of them or seven of the ten years  – with Calypso on her island, I feel she’s only due her place here. In a very real sense, in duration and in significance, most of the Odyssey is Calypso’s odyssey.

Also, she poses perhaps the most substantial temptation to Odyssey not to return home, over and above being the longest obstacle to his homecoming in duration of years – and that is her promise of immortality. For the narrative and thematic significance of that alone, she deserves her own odyssey within the Odyssey.