The Odyssey

Created by graphic novelist and illustrator Gareth Hinds, this version of The Odyssey is a graphic novel that retells the story behind Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem of the same name. First published in 2010, Hinds’s version of The Odyssey uses colorful illustrations to present the story of Odysseus’s wanderings to a modern audience, especially younger readers. The graphic novel follows the same basic structure as Homer’s epic and traces the many trials that Odysseus must endure before he returns home from fighting in the Trojan War. Throughout the work, Hinds uses a unique blend of storytelling and art to explore The Challenges of Heroism and Leadership, The Role of Divine Intervention in Human Affairs, and The Importance of Family Loyalty.

This guide refers to the 2010 paperback edition published by Candlewick.

Plot Summary

On Mount Olympus, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, pleads with Zeus, king of the gods, to allow the hero Odysseus to return home to Ithaca. He has been trapped for a long time on Ogygia, the island of the nymph Calypso. Zeus sends Hermes to instruct Calypso to release Odysseus, while Athena disguises herself as the Taphian soldier Mentes and goes to Ithaca to see Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, who is frustrated by the suitors seeking to marry his mother. As Mentes, Athena encourages Telemachus to get rid of the suitors and to seek information about his father.

Telemachus confronts the suitors and announces his intention to search for news of Odysseus. The suitors mock him and refuse to leave Ithaca, but Mentor, an old Ithacan, helps Telemachus find a ship. Telemachus sets sail and ultimately arrives in Sparta, where he meets Menelaus (king of Sparta) and Helen (Menelaus’s wife, over whom the Trojan War was fought). Menelaus reveals that Odysseus is alive but trapped on Calypso’s island. Meanwhile, the suitors in Ithaca plot to ambush and kill Telemachus.

Hermes visits Calypso to tell her to release Odysseus. Calypso is upset but frees Odysseus and provides him with supplies to build a raft. Odysseus sets sail for home, but Poseidon creates a storm to wreck his raft. Odysseus struggles until a sea goddess gives him a magical veil to protect him, and he swims to a rocky shore, where he collapses from exhaustion.

In the morning, Odysseus encounters a girl who identifies herself as Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinoos, king of the Phaeacians. Nausicaa instructs Odysseus to visit her parents, King Alcinoos and Queen Arete, for assistance. Odysseus is welcomed at the palace of Alcinoos, where the king and queen offer him hospitality and promise to help him get home, even though Odysseus withholds his identity. Alcinoos organizes a feast and athletic competitions in honor of his guest. After the games, a bard sings about the Trojan War, causing Odysseus to weep as he remembers his years of hardship. Odysseus reveals his identity to Alcinoos and agrees to share his story.

Odysseus tells of how he and his men sacked the city of the Cicones after leaving Troy, though the Cicones killed many of his companions. Odysseus and his remaining men then came to the land of the Lotus Eaters, where some of the men tasted the magical lotus and lost their desire to return home. At another stop on their journey, the island of the Cyclopes, Odysseus and some of his men were trapped in the cave of the Cyclops, Polyphemus. Odysseus managed to escape by blinding the Cyclops and sneaking out of the cave. Before sailing away, Odysseus taunted Polyphemus, provoking the Cyclops to pray to his father, Poseidon, to make Odysseus’s homecoming long and difficult.

Odysseus and his men continued their journey, traveling to the island of Aeolus, the ruler of the winds, who tried to help Odysseus reach home more quickly by trapping all the winds in a bag and leaving only the west wind to blow Odysseus’s ship to Ithaca. However, Odysseus’s men opened the bag while he slept, freeing the winds and blowing their ship off course. Odysseus and his ships came to the island of the Laestrygonians, who destroyed all but one of Odysseus’s ships and ate his men. Only Odysseus’s ship escaped. Odysseus reached the island of the sorceress Circe, who turned some of Odysseus’s men into pigs before Odysseus forced her to turn them back into humans. Odysseus stayed with Circe for a year but eventually decided to continue his homeward journey.

However, Circe told Odysseus that before going to Ithaca, he must stop in the underworld to speak with the dead prophet, Tiresias. Odysseus did so, and Tiresias warned him of further dangers that awaited him on his travels, especially that he and his men must avoid eating the cattle of the sun god, Helios. Tiresias also warned Odysseus of the dangers that would await him at Ithaca: namely, the suitors trying to marry his wife. 

Continuing his journey, Odysseus managed to avoid being destroyed by the Sirens and the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, but when he reached the island of the sun god, Odysseus’s men disobeyed his orders and ate the sun god’s cattle. As punishment, their ship was destroyed. Odysseus, the sole survivor, washed ashore on Ogygia, the island of Calypso, where he was stranded for seven years. Only after the gods ordered Calypso to free him did Odysseus sail away and reach the island of the Phaeacians.

The narrative shifts back to the present as Odysseus ends his story. Alcinoos and the other Phaeacians are impressed and give Odysseus many gifts before sending him back to Ithaca on a ship. As Odysseus sleeps, the Phaeacians deposit him on the beach of Ithaca. When Odysseus wakes up, Athena warns him to proceed with caution, as the suitors pose a threat to him and his family. She disguises him as a beggar.

Odysseus comes to the hut of the swineherd Eumaeus, who offers him hospitality. Eumaeus is still loyal to Odysseus, but Odysseus does not yet reveal his identity. Meanwhile, Athena helps Telemachus return safely to Ithaca and avoid the suitors’ traps. On the way, Telemachus meets a seer named Theoclymenus, whom he brings to Ithaca.

On Ithaca, Telemachus stops at Eumaeus’s hut. Odysseus and Telemachus reunite and plan revenge against the suitors. Telemachus returns to the palace, while Odysseus reassumes his disguise. At the palace, Theoclymenus predicts Odysseus’s return.

Eumaeus takes Odysseus to the palace to beg for food. The suitors abuse Odysseus. At night, Odysseus, still disguised as a beggar, tells Penelope that Odysseus is coming home. Penelope sends the maid Eurycleia to wash Odysseus’s feet, and Eurycleia recognizes her master by a scar on his thigh. Odysseus swears her to secrecy, and Eurycleia promises to help Odysseus by identifying disloyal maids. Penelope decides to choose her new husband with a final test; she will marry whoever can string Odysseus’s old bow and shoot an arrow through 12 axe heads. Athena reassures Odysseus that the gods will support him in his fight with the suitors. 

The next day, Eumaeus introduces Odysseus to another loyal servant, the cowherd Philoetius. Penelope announces the test of the bow. All the suitors fail the challenge. When Odysseus asks for a chance, the suitors mock him, but Penelope and Telemachus grant his request. Telemachus tells Penelope to leave the hall. Odysseus, meanwhile, has revealed his identity to the loyal Eumaeus and Philoetius and has them lock the palace doors to trap the suitors inside. When Penelope leaves, Odysseus strings the bow and shoots an arrow through the 12 axe heads, passing the test.

Odysseus reveals his identity to the suitors and begins killing them with the help of Telemachus, Eumaeus, Philoetius, and Athena. Once the suitors are dead, Odysseus has the hall cleaned and executes the disloyal maids. Penelope returns to the hall. She initially does not recognize Odysseus, but when Odysseus passes her test, she embraces him and welcomes him home. Penelope and Odysseus go to bed together.

The next day, Odysseus visits his father, Laertes. Meanwhile, the families of the suitors arm themselves and set out to attack Odysseus. Before the two sides can clash, however, Athena appears and orders Odysseus and the people of Ithaca to make peace.