One of the most important heroes of the Trojan War, Odysseus was presented in the two Homeric Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey as the cleverest of all the Greek heroes.

The Greeks won the war in Troy, but it took Odysseus another 10 years to return home. His adventures were many and most of them were caused by the anger of the God of the seas Poseidon who revenged him for blinding his son, the Cyclop Polyphemus.

(1) MYCENAE, the kingdom of Agamemnon, leader of the greek army, was the place where all Greek heroes/kings have summoned upon request of king Menelaos of Sparta (brother of Agamemnon whose wife, the beautiful Helena had been kindnapped by Paris in Troy).

(1a) AULIS, the place where the entire Greek fleet was gathered waiting for the favourable winds after the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter Ifigenia to the Goddess Artemis.

(2) DELOS, in the sacred island of Apollo and Artemis, the Greeks made a stop and it was the king of the island Anios, son of Apollo, who informed them using his prophetic powers that the war would last 10 years.

(3) TROY: The ten-years war ended by Odysseus‘ idea of the wooden horse.

(4) MARONEIA, the first port where Odysseus and his ships stopped on his way back to Ithaca, was the place called Thrace and it was the land of the Ciconians.

(5) DJERBA in Tunisia was the land of the Lotus-Eaters, a land that its fruits made someone forget his country and his beloved ones.

(6) ACI REALE which is located near Etna, was the land of the Cyclops where Odysseus blinded the son of Poseidon, the Cyclop Polyphemus, having tried to escape from his cave him and his companions by hiding under the belly of the Cyclop’s sheep.

(7) MALTA was the island that they reached after a big storm coming from Poseidon who tried to punish them for blinding his son. It was the island of Aeolus, God of the winds who welcome Odysseus and his companions and who decided to help them by giving to Odysseus in a wineskin all the winds except the west wind, Zephyrus the only wind who could have led them directly to Ithaca.

But shortly before reaching Ithaca, Odysseus‘ curious companions, opened the leather bag letting all the winds coming out and causing a storm that led them back to Malta. Aeolus was angry that they didn’t listen to him and sent them away without offering his help again.

(8) MOZIA : On the western edge of Sicily was Laestrygonia, the land of Laestrygonians, fierce giants who destroyed all Odysseus‘ ships except his own.

(9) MONTE CIRCEO, a place called after the name of the sorceress Circe was the place where the winds led Odysseus‘ ship. Circe, daughter of the son, was transforming humans into swines but Odysseus after having been warned by one of his companions and having been advised by the messenger God Hermes, managed to make Circe to give back to his companions their human form and win her respect.

Circe advised him to descend to Hades (the world of the deads) in order to learn from the seer

Teiresias when he would return home.

(10) GALLI ISLETS situated in the bay of Naples are considered to be the place where Sirens have lived.

The sirens were mythical monsters half women, half mermaids who dragged the ships near the shore, using their irresistible singing, and where the ships were destroyed by big rocks.Odysseus who wished to listen to their singing voices, passing in front of them but without risking to sink his ship and the lives of his crew, told his companions to block their ears with wax and to bind him to the mast of the ship.

(11) STRAITS OF MESSINA, between Italy and Sicily, there it was where Odysseus tried to pass between the terrible monsters Scylla (monster with 12 legs and 6 heads who grapped the sailors and devoured them) and Charybdis (monster who sucked in the water of the sea three times a day destroying that way all ships which were passing by).

(12) TAORMINA in Sicily, called Thrinakia, was the kingdom of Helios (Sun). Odysseus having in mind the advices of Teiresias told his companions not to eat any of the animals on the island. During his absence though, his companions desobeyed him and killed the fattest of the God’s cattle in order to feed themselves.

Helios asked Zeus to punish them and the father of the Gods sent a big storm during which the Odysseus‘ ship was sunk and all his companions were drowned.

(13) GOZO or Ogygia, as Homer names it, was the island of the immortal nymph Calypso where Odysseus found himself after being shipwrecked.

Odysseus stayed with Calypso for 8 years until Gods decided that they had punished him enough and Calypso announced him that the Gods would allow him to return to Ithaca. Odysseus left then from Ogygia on a raft that he made by himself and reached...

(14) CORFU or Scheria, the island of the Phaenicians where Nausika and his father Alcinous who was the king of the island, helped him to go back to Ithaca providing him with a ship and crew.

ITHACA : Arriving at last on his beloved homeland after being away for 20 years, Odysseus had to confront the suitors who wanted to marry his wife Penelope and took his throne and kingdom. Odysseus killed them with the help of his son Telemachus and his protector Goddess Athena and presented himself in front of his wife who had remained faithful to him all these years during his absence.

The Trojan War lasted 10 years and came to an end because of the Odysseus idea to manufacture a wooden horse, hide some of the best warriors in it and pretend that the Greeks had left Troy and abandoned their plans to conquer it. The Trojans who thought that the horse was a gift to the Goddess Athena, dragged the horse into the city part of its big walls they had to pull down. As the whole city was drunk, celebrating the end of the war, it was easy for the Greek warriors to get out of the horse and open the gates to the rest of the Greeks who meanwhile had returned onshore by their ships.

The Greeks won the war and were ready to return to their kingdoms bringing the glory of the victory and with what was most important for the standards of the epoch much gold and slaves.