the structure of the Odyssey

• 2. Eurycleia is bought as a slave (1)
• 3. they have a son, Odysseus (19)
• 4. Eurycleia is his nurse (19)
• 5. as a young man, Odysseus goes on a boar hunt and is wounded on his foot (19)
• 6. he has a dog called Argus (17)
• 7. he is given a bow which is special to him and which he keeps safely locked away in Ithaca (21)
• 8. he marries Penelope (2)
• 9. he builds a special bed, constructed round an olive tree (23)
• 10. Telemachus is born (4)
• 11. he leaves for Troy, telling Penelope that she is to remarry if he has not returned by the time Telemachus become a man (18)
• 12. he devises the wooden horse trick (8)
• 13. other Greek leaders (Nestor and Menelaus) arrive home (3/4)
• 14. Agamemnon is killed by his wife (1,4,11)
• 15. Odysseus travels and has adventures (9-12)
• 16. He is eventually washed up on Ogygia, where he stays for 7 years (5)
• 17. in year 4 of his stay on Ogygia, the Suitors move into the palace (11)
• 18. Telemachus is grown up and in despair (1)
• 19. Penelope has to choose a husband from the Suitors (1)
• 20. Athene asks for Odysseus to be released (1/5)
• 21. Telemachus visits Nestor and Telemachus, looking for news of his father (3/4)
• 22. Odysseus is released (5)
• 23. Odysseus gets to the Phaeacians and receives Xenia (6-13)
• 24. Odysseus ploys to kill the suitors and then does so (13-23)
• 26. peace is restored in Ithaca (24)
• year of absence 1-3


  told is flashback books
• year of absence 4-10 


  7 years hidden by Calypso. No information except for the last few days
• year of absence 10

  from Ogygia to Scherie

  from Scherie to Ithaca
• time of 1-4


  6 days: Telemachus goes to Pylos and Sparta
• time of 5-12


  28 days: 4 days of raft building (1 line); 17 days at sea (1 line); 3 days of storms and swimming & 3 days with Phaeacians (7 books)
• time of 13-23


  7 days
• time of 13


  1 days - Odysseus wakes up on Ithaca and talks to Athene
• time of 14-15


  2 days - Telemachus returns
• time of 16


  1 day: Telemachus and Odysseus meet
• time of 17-23 


  2 days: Odysseus at the palace
• time of 24


  1 day: Odysseus meets him father