The Odyssey, like the Iliad, is divided into 24 books, corresponding to the 24 letters in the Greek alphabet.
Within the middle section of the poem (Books 9-12), Odysseus describes all the challenges that he has faced trying to get home.
These include monsters of various sorts, a visit to the afterlife, cannibals, drugs, alluring women, and the hostility of Poseidon himself. These challenges resemble those of earlier heroes like Heracles and Jason.
Odysseus’s return to his island, however, is not the end of his woes. He finds that 108 young men from the local vicinity have invaded his home to put pressure on his wife Penelope to marry one of them.
A stalemate exists, and it is only resolved by an archery contest at the end of the poem, which then leads to a slaughter of all the suitors by Odysseus and his son, Telemachus.
Peace on the island is eventually restored through the intervention of Athena, goddess of wisdom, victory, and war.
In the Iliad, the hero Achilles faces no such challenges, indicating that The Odyssey has a very different idea of heroism.

CURIOUS ABOUT HIS JOURNEY BACK to Ithaca, Maria also searched for all the different places Odysseus stopped. She found that he made twelve stops:

Stop 1-Cicones
The Cicones were allies of Troy, Odysseus attacked them and won, Cicones regrouped with 6 benches being left empty on each ship.

Stop 2-Lotus Land
The Lotus plants that grow there make people never want to leave, 3 crew members eat and are dragged away by Odysseus.

Stop 3-Cyclopes Island
The land of one-eyed farmer giants who herd sheep, home of Polyphemus, Odysseus tricked him by calling himself Nobody, Odysseus escapes along with surviving men by hiding under sheep.”

Stop 4-Aeolus’ Island
Where Odysseus was given a bag of winds, once Ithaca was in sight the men mutiny and open up the bag, they end up back at the island.

Stop 5-Laestrygonians
Southern Sicily, where giant cannibals destroy every ship except Odysseus’s.

Stop 6-Circe’s Island (Aeaea)
Where the goddess Circe turns half the crew to pigs, Hermes gives Odysseus Moly (a magical white flower) to protect himself, Circe falls in love with him, and they stay for one year.

Stop 7-Hades
A rift in the far shores of the earth encircling River Oceanus, Odysseus speaks with Teiresias about the route home, he speaks with his mother and Elpenor.

Stop 8-Circe’s Island (Aeaea)
Odysseus buries Elpenor, Circe warns him of Sirens, Scylla/Charybdis, cattle of Helios.

Stop 9- Isle of Helios (Thrinacia).
Odysseus and his crew get stuck on this island but run out of supplies, men eat the cattle, all are killed by Zeus except for Odysseus.”

Stop 10-Calypso’s Island (Ogygia)
Calypso falls in love with him and keeps him for 7 years, Hermes tells her to allow him to return, after Odysseus built a boat and begins to sail home, Poseidon destroys the boat. He was saved by Ino who gave him a magical veil to keep him buoyant.

Stop 11-Phacia
The daughter of Alcinous (Nausicaa) finds him, Odysseus tells his story here, he is given a boat to return to Ithaca.

Stop 12-Ithaca
Odysseus arrives home disguised as a beggar; he has to find a way to get rid of the suitors.

Excerpt From
Artemis Child: A Rain of Stars
Diane Ioannou
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 Author’s website: https://dianeioannou.com