The Odyssey

Homer · c. 725 BCE · Poem · Greek · Ancient

Ten years after Troy falls, Odysseus is still trying to reach Ithaca, delayed by gods, monsters and his own cleverness. At home his wife holds off a house full of suitors who assume he is dead, while his son goes looking for news of him. The founding voyage-and-return, where the road home doubles as a test of identity.

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Lineage

companion to ↑ The Iliad
Homer · c. 750 BCE · Poem
↓ The Aeneid
Virgil · 19 BCE · Poem — influenced by this
↓ Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain · 1884 CE · Novel — parallels this
↓ The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame · 1908 CE · Novel — alludes to this
↓ Ulysses
James Joyce · 1922 CE · Novel — retells this
↓ As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner · 1930 CE · Novel — parallels this
↓ The Myth of Sisyphus
Greek myth · c. 600 BCE · Myth / Legend — recorded in this
↓ O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Coen Brothers · 2000 CE · Film — adapts this
↓ 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick · 1968 CE · Film — alludes to this
↓ Ugetsu
Kenji Mizoguchi · 1953 CE · Film — parallels this
↓ Pericles
William Shakespeare · c. 1608 CE · Play — parallels this
↓ Heroides
Ovid · c. 15 BCE · Poem — responds to this
↓ Satyricon
Petronius · c. 60 CE · Novel — reworks this
↓ Argonautica
Apollonius of Rhodes · c. 250 BCE · Poem — influenced by this
↓ The Frogs
Aristophanes · 405 BCE · Play — alludes to this
↓ A True Story
Lucian · c. 170 CE · Novel — responds to this
↓ Helen
Euripides · 412 BCE · Play — influenced by this
↓ Cyclops
Euripides · c. 408 BCE · Play — adapts this
↓ Sea Grapes
Derek Walcott · 1976 CE · Poem — alludes to this
↓ Omeros
Derek Walcott · 1990 CE · Poem — reworks this
↓ Hermann and Dorothea
Goethe · 1797 CE · Poem — modeled on this
↓ The Cantos
Ezra Pound · 1925 CE · Poem — adapts this
↓ Ulysses
Alfred, Lord Tennyson · 1842 CE · Poem — alludes to this
↓ On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
John Keats · 1816 CE · Poem — responds to this
↓ Comus
John Milton · 1634 CE · Play — alludes to this
↓ The Faerie Queene
Edmund Spenser · 1590 CE · Poem — influenced by this
↓ The Lusiads
Luís de Camões · 1572 CE · Poem — influenced by this

Attributes

Closest analogues

The Ramayana
Valmiki · c. 400 BCE · Poem
52% · 18 shared
PoemEpicAdventureExile & HomecomingLoyaltyAncientHeroVoyage and ReturnHero's JourneyCrossing the ThresholdRoad of TrialsReturn with the ElixirFall–Rise (Man in a Hole)Home / ReturnThe Journeyvs Fate / GodsEpicMythic
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Coen Brothers · 2000 CE · Film
46% · 13 shared
AdventureExile & HomecomingIdentity & SelfTemptationTricksterVoyage and ReturnRoad of TrialsTemptationReturn with the ElixirHome / ReturnThe Journeyvs Fate / GodsMythic
Spirited Away
Hayao Miyazaki · 2001 CE · Film
43% · 13 shared
Identity & SelfHeroMentorShapeshifterVoyage and ReturnHero's JourneyCrossing the ThresholdRoad of TrialsReturn with the ElixirFall–Rise (Man in a Hole)The SeaThe ThresholdMythic
Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali
Mande oral epic · c. 1250 CE · Poem
42% · 15 shared
PoemEpicExile & HomecomingHeroMentorHero's JourneyRoad of TrialsReturn with the ElixirMaster of Two WorldsFall–Rise (Man in a Hole)Home / ReturnThe Journeyvs Fate / GodsEpicMythic
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien · 1954 CE · Novel
40% · 13 shared
EpicAdventureHeroMentorShapeshifterHero's JourneyCrossing the ThresholdRoad of TrialsReturn with the ElixirFall–Rise (Man in a Hole)The JourneyEpicMythic
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Salman Rushdie · 1990 CE · Novel
40% · 12 shared
AdventureLoyaltyHeroTricksterMentorVoyage and ReturnHero's JourneyRoad of TrialsReturn with the ElixirFall–Rise (Man in a Hole)The SeaMythic