World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
The Odyssey: The Full Journey
奥德赛：十年回家路
The Odyssey: The Full Journey (奥德赛：十年回家路, Àodésài: shí nián huí jiā lù) is a classic by Homer, retold in simple Mandarin as a 10-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 3 (Intermediate).
Retold from Homer's ancient Greek epic: the full ten-year voyage of clever Odysseus, from the wooden horse to a giant, a witch, singing sea-women and the underworld, then home to a wife who never stopped waiting.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — An old storyteller who tells the great voyage plainly, like a grandfather by the fire.
- Odysseus · 奥德修斯 — The clever king of Ithaca, who thinks his way out of every trap and only wants to go home.
- The Sailor · 水手 — Odysseus's cheerful, nervous old friend, who complains a lot and never leaves his side.
- The Crew · 水手们 — The rest of Odysseus's men, hungry, greedy and easy to tempt.
- The One-Eyed Giant · 独眼巨人 — A huge shepherd giant with a single eye, who lives in a cave and does not fear the gods.
- The Other Giants · 巨人们 — The giant's neighbors, who wake up grumpy and do not help.
- Aeolus, King of the Winds · 风神 — The kindly ruler of all the winds, who gives Odysseus a bag of them.
- Hermes · 赫尔墨斯 — The quick, cheerful messenger of the gods, who helps Odysseus with a white flower.
- Circe · 喀耳刻 — A beautiful goddess who lives on a green island and turns visitors into pigs.
- The Sirens · 塞壬 — Sea-women whose lovely voices call sailors to their rocks.
- Tiresias · 特瑞西阿斯 — The ghost of a blind prophet who tells Odysseus the way home and warns him about the cattle.
- Anticleia · 安提克勒娅 — Odysseus's mother, who meets him as a gentle ghost.
- Calypso · 卡吕普索 — A kind sea goddess who keeps Odysseus on her island for seven years because she loves him.
- Nausicaa · 瑙西卡 — A cheerful young princess who finds Odysseus washed up on her beach.
- Alcinous · 阿尔基诺奥斯 — The kindly king who promises Odysseus a ship home.
- Athena · 雅典娜 — The goddess of wisdom, who watches over Odysseus and guides him home.
- Telemachus · 忒勒马科斯 — Odysseus's son, a baby when his father left and a brave young man now, who goes out to look for him.
- Menelaus · 墨涅拉奥斯 — The warm king of Sparta, who fought beside Odysseus at Troy.
- Penelope · 佩涅洛佩 — Odysseus's wise wife, who has waited twenty years and will only believe a secret only he knows.
- Antinous · 安提诺奥斯 — The loudest and rudest of the guests who fill Odysseus's house.
10 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Wooden Horse
木马
After ten years of war, clever Odysseus draws a horse in the sand. Then a storm throws his ship onto an island where the ground shakes with giant footsteps.
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Chapter 2: Nobody
没人
Trapped in a giant's cave, Odysseus gives the giant wine and a false name. That name is his cleverest trick, until his pride gets him in trouble.
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Chapter 3: The Bag of Winds
风的袋子
A kind wind king gives Odysseus a bag of bad winds and one warning. Home is in sight, until a bored crew decides to peek. Then comes news that chills his blood.
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Chapter 4: Circe's Cup
喀耳刻的杯子
Odysseus goes alone to save his friends from a goddess with a magic cup. A stranger hands him a tiny white flower, and it turns out to be the best weapon he has.
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Chapter 5: The Land of Shadows
影子的世界
In a foggy land where the sun never shines, Odysseus asks a ghost the way home and meets someone he can never hold. Then a song from the sea begins to call his name.
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Chapter 6: The Monster and the Whirlpool
怪物和漩涡
Between a six-headed monster and a whirlpool, Odysseus must make a terrible choice. Then hungry sailors break the one rule that matters, and a storm comes.
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Chapter 7: The Son Who Went Looking
出海找爸爸
Back in Ithaca, Odysseus's son Telemachus is tired of the rude guests eating his house empty. When a strange shepherd says his father is alive, he sets out to find him.
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Chapter 8: The Raft and the Princess
木筏和公主
After seven years on a goddess's island, Odysseus builds a raft, but the sea god is waiting for him. A princess with a red ball finds a very muddy stranger.
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Chapter 9: Home at Last
回家
Odysseus wakes on a beach and does not know it is his own island. A goddess turns him into a beggar, and an old dog is the first to know him.
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Chapter 10: The Great Bow
大弓
The suitors cannot bend Odysseus's great bow, so an old beggar asks for a turn. When the arrow flies, everyone learns who he is, and Penelope has one more question.
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Key words in The Odyssey: The Full Journey
Behind the story
The Odyssey is an ancient Greek poem, told aloud by poets for a long time before anyone wrote it down. It is credited to Homer, and it follows the clever king Odysseus on his ten-year voyage home from the Trojan War, past a one-eyed giant, a witch with a magic cup, singing sea-women and the land of the dead, while his wife and son wait and search for him at home.
Chinese readers know it as 奥德赛 (Àodésài) and usually meet it beside its partner poem about the war itself, 伊利亚特 (Yīlìyàtè). It is read in translation as one of the great books of the world, and the word odyssey, meaning a long journey full of trials, is now an everyday word in English.
Did you know?
- The wooden horse is called 特洛伊木马 (Tèluòyī mùmǎ) in Chinese. Today 木马 (mùmǎ) is also the everyday Chinese word for a Trojan horse computer virus, a harmful program that hides inside something that looks like a gift.
- The poem has twenty-four books and about twelve thousand lines. Many of its lines were made to be spoken aloud, which is why the story is full of repeated phrases and tricks that are easy to remember, like Odysseus telling the giant his name is Nobody.
- Odysseus and Penelope prove who they are with a secret only they share: their bed is built around a living olive tree and can never be moved.