The Odyssey

Meet the voices

• Narrator · 旁白 — Tells Homer's story of Odysseus, starting on the last night of the war at Troy.
• Odysseus · 奥德修斯 — The clever king of the island of Ithaca, who has fought ten years at Troy and only wants to go home.
• A Sailor · 水手 — One of Odysseus's men, a different sailor each time one speaks alone.
• The Crew · 水手们 — Odysseus's men, who sail from Troy with him in twelve ships.
• The Cyclops · 独眼巨人 — A one-eyed giant shepherd who lives in a cave with his flock and doesn't care about Zeus.
• The Other Giants · 巨人们 — The Cyclops's giant neighbors, who live in their own caves in the hills nearby.
• Aeolus · 风神 — The keeper of the winds, who lives on a floating island with a bronze wall.
• Eurylochus · 欧律罗科斯 — Odysseus's kinsman and second-in-command among his men.
• Circe · 喀耳刻 — A goddess who lives in a house among the trees of her own island.
• Hermes · 赫尔墨斯 — The messenger of the gods.
• Elpenor · 埃尔佩诺 — The youngest of Odysseus's sailors.
• Tiresias · 特瑞西阿斯 — A blind seer who knows what is to come.
• Anticleia · 安提克勒娅 — Odysseus's mother, left at home in Ithaca when he sailed for Troy.
• The Sirens · 塞壬 — Two singers in a meadow by the sea, whose song calls to every passing ship.
• Calypso · 卡吕普索 — A goddess who lives alone on an island far out at sea.
• Telemachus · 忒勒马科斯 — Odysseus's son, a baby when his father left for Troy.
• The Guest · 客人 — A sea captain who comes to Odysseus's house as an old friend of the family.
• Mentor · 门托尔 — Odysseus's old friend in Ithaca.
• Penelope · 佩涅洛佩 — Odysseus's wife, as clever as he is, waiting for him at home in Ithaca.
• Antinous · 安提诺奥斯 — The boldest of the young men who want to marry Penelope.
• The Suitors · 求婚的人 — More than a hundred young men who sit eating in Odysseus's house, each hoping to marry Penelope.
• The Old Nurse · 老奶妈 — The old nurse of the house in Ithaca, who looked after Odysseus and then his son when they were babies.
• Menelaus · 墨涅拉奥斯 — The king of Sparta, Helen's husband, who fought beside Odysseus at Troy.
• Helen · 海伦 — Menelaus's wife, for whose sake the Greeks fought ten years at Troy.
• Poseidon · 波塞冬 — The god of the sea, who rules the waves.
• Ino · 伊诺 — A woman who became a goddess of the sea.
• Nausicaa · 瑙西卡 — The daughter of a kind island king.
• Athena · 雅典娜 — The goddess of wisdom, Odysseus's friend among the gods.
• Alcinous · 阿尔基诺奥斯 — The kind king of an island city, whose palace has walls of bronze.
• The Singer · 唱歌的人 — A blind singer in the island king's palace.
• Eumaeus · 欧迈俄斯 — Odysseus's loyal swineherd, who keeps his master's pigs in a hut in Ithaca.
• Laertes · 拉埃尔特斯 — Odysseus's old father in Ithaca.

29 chapters in 6 parts

Part 1: Leaving Troy 离开特洛伊

Part 2: Giants and Winds 巨人和风

Part 3: Ghosts and Monsters 鬼和怪物

Part 4: The Son and the Sea 儿子和大海

Part 5: The Stranger 客人

Part 6: His Own House 自己的家

Key words in The Odyssey

• 船 chuán: boat
• 国王 guó wáng: king
• 猪 zhū: pig
• 羊 yáng: sheep or goat
• 岛 dǎo: island
• 剑 jiàn: sword
• 爸爸 bà ba: father
• 妻子 qī zi: wife
• 儿子 ér zi: son
• 酒 jiǔ: wine

Behind the story

The Odyssey (奥德赛) is a long poem in ancient Greek credited to Homer (荷马). It follows Odysseus (奥德修斯), the clever king of the island of Ithaca (伊萨卡), on his long way home after ten years of war at Troy (特洛伊).

Homer doesn't tell the story in order. He begins near the end, with Odysseus still far away and his son waiting in Ithaca, and much of what came before is told later as memories. This book puts Homer's own events in time order over 29 chapters, from the night inside the wooden horse, retold in simple Mandarin from Samuel Butler's English prose translation of 1900.

In Homer's world a stranger at the door was sent by Zeus (宙斯), king of the gods, and a good host gave him food and a guest gift. That is why Odysseus waits in the giant's cave: he hopes its owner will treat him as a guest.

Did you know?

• The Chinese word for a Cyclops, 独眼巨人 (dúyǎn jùrén), means “one-eyed giant”, and 巨人 (jùrén), “giant”, is one of this book's key words.
• Homer's Greeks mixed their wine with water. The wine Odysseus carries to the giant's cave, a gift from a priest of Apollo, is so strong that one cup of it goes into twenty cups of water.
• Chinese writes Greek names by their sounds: Odysseus is 奥德修斯 (Àodéxiūsī), Athena is 雅典娜 (Yǎdiǎnnà) and Troy is 特洛伊 (Tèluòyī).