| 1 - | Island of Ciconians. | Odysseus' party sacked the city; got drunk; driven back with casualties. |
| 2 - | Lotus-eaters (Lotophagi) | Vegetatively-peaceful community survives by chewing a mind-altering drug. Companions who try it forget about the home and refuse to leave. Odysseus drags them to the ship by force. |
| 3 - | Island of cyclopes: Polyphemus. | One-eyed giant ate a few men in his cave. The rest escape by making him drunk and piercing his eye. |
| 4 - | Island of Aeolus. | Sack of winds, Aeolus' gift, untied in view of Ithaca! |
| 5 - | Laestrygonians. | Ate some men; crushed all ships but Odysseus'. |
| 6 - | Island of Circe. | Men>pigs; Hermes' moly; make love. |
| 7 - | Underworld. | Elpenor (asks for a funeral); Teiresias; Mother-Anticlea; Women of
the past; Agamemnon; Achilles; Ajax; Minos; Tityos, Tantalus; Sisyphus;
Heracles. ...
- Back to Circe; bury Elpenor; Circe gives directions. |
| 8 - | Sirens. | Plugs the ears of companions; has himself tied to the mast and enjoys the singing sirens. |
| 9 - | Scylla. | Ate 6 men. Pass the whirpool Charybdis. |
| 10 - | Thrinacia: the island of Helios. | Ate the holy cows! > Storm; all except Odysseus perished. |
| 11 - | Driven back to Charybdis. | Grasps a tree branch and hangs on till evening, when the whirpool spits back the broken mast; then grabs it and swims away. |
| 12 - | After 9 days of drift, - Ogygia, the island of Calypso. | 7 years stay. In the absence of Poseidon, Athena procures Odysseus' release. |
| 13 - | Poseidon returns from Ethiopians: storm crushes Odysseus' raft. | Odysseus is saved by Leucothea's veil. Swims for 2 days. |
| 14 - | Phaeacians. | Nausicaa; Arethe & Alcinous; Demodocus sings of Troy. (~Magic mariners?..) - Take Odysseus home. |
| 15 - | Ithaca at last! | Reveals himself to the swineherd Eumaeus and Telemachus. Redognized by Argus the dog and old nurse Euryclea. Insulting suitors. Poses as a beggar. Penelope - weaving a shroud. |
| 16 - | Suitors' contest: bow of Odysseus; 12 axes & rings. | Followed by the slaughter of suitors (+ complacent slaves and slave-girls!) |
| 17 - | Reveals himself to Penelope. | She recognizes him by bed-test: common secret: the bed, made by Odysseus' own hands from the tree-trunk, is rooted in the ground. |
| 18 - | Visit to Father-Laertes. | Confrontation and reconciliation with the people of Ithaca. |
| 19- | More adventures... | To reconcile with Poseidon, Odysseus must carry an oar to the land where people are ignorant of navigation. (He would know when someone asks him, why he carried a shovel.) |
| 20- | The end: Later, killed by Telegonus, son from Circe, who had landed on Ithaca in search for the father. | All family departs to the island of Circe, where Odysseus is buried; Telemachus marries Circe, and Telegonus - Penelope!.. |