---
title: "Odyssey Episode Guide and Reading Checklist | Myth Marsh"
description: "Odysseus's adventures in order, from the Cicones to Ithaca, with the book of the Odyssey for each and a reading checklist your browser remembers."
url: https://mythmarsh.me/odyssey-episode-guide/
---

Homer · 24 books

# Odyssey episode guide

Every adventure of Odysseus with the book that tells it, in the order things happen or in the order Homer tells them. Tick episodes as you read; your browser remembers them.

## How the Odyssey is told

The poem does not start at the beginning. Books 1–4 follow Odysseus's son Telemachus on Ithaca and on his journey to Pylos and Sparta; Book 5 finds Odysseus on Calypso's island, near the end of his long return. Only after he reaches the Phaeacians does he tell his own story: **Books 9–12 are Odysseus's tale, told in his own voice at the court of King Alcinous**, from the sack of Ismarus to his drift to Ogygia. Books 13–24 then follow him home to Ithaca.

Episodes marked “his own tale” are the ones Odysseus narrates. The line numbers given for some episodes follow A. T. Murray's translation at the Perseus Digital Library; other translations and editions number lines slightly differently, so use the book number to find your place.

### Why there is no map

The poem names places such as Ogygia, Aeaea, Thrinacia and Scheria but gives no way to fix them on a real map. Readers have tried since antiquity: Thucydides ([History 6.2.1](https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.perseus-eng6:6.2.1/)) reports that the Cyclopes and Laestrygonians were said to be the oldest inhabitants of Sicily, then adds that he cannot say who they were and leaves it to the poets. Modern suggestions disagree with each other, and none is certain, so this guide gives the poem's own place names and no map.

Publishers and course sites often offer a free reading guide or sample chapter of the Odyssey in exchange for an email address. A temporary inbox from [CleanTempMail](https://cleantempmail.com/) receives it with no sign-up, and empties itself after three days, so the follow-up emails go nowhere. Download the guide straight away, since the inbox will not keep it, and use your real address for anything you buy or enrol in.

## Sources

### Greek texts

- [Homer, Odyssey](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136:book=1:card=1), tr. A. T. Murray (1919), Perseus Digital Library.
- [Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War](https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.perseus-eng6:1.1.1/), tr. Richard Crawley (1874), Scaife reader (Perseus).

## Questions

**In which book does Odysseus meet the Cyclops?**

Book 9, where Odysseus tells the Phaeacians how he blinded Polyphemus and escaped under the rams. Poseidon, the Cyclops's father, is angry with him for it for the rest of the poem.

**Why does the Odyssey start with Telemachus?**

The poem opens near the end of Odysseus's long return and shows first what his absence has done at home: suitors in the palace and a son setting out for news. Odysseus himself appears in Book 5, and his earlier adventures come later as his own story in Books 9–12.

**How long was Odysseus with Calypso?**

Seven years, by his own account to Queen Arete in Book 7, before the gods sent Hermes to order Calypso to let him go.

**Where are my ticks saved?**

In your browser's local storage on this device, under the name mythmarsh-odyssey. Nothing is sent to a server, so the list does not follow you to another device, and clearing your browser's data for this site removes it.