Some of the oldest and most widespread stories in the world are stories of adventure such as Homer's The Odyssey.

He is a significant figure in Homer's Iliad and is also mentioned in the Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.

The Achaeans (, Akhaioí ) is one of the collective names used for the Greeks in Homer's Iliad ( used 598 times ) and Odyssey.

Attempts to find classical or Late Latin influence or analogue in Beowulf are almost exclusively linked with Homer's Odyssey or Virgil's Aeneid.

In Greek mythology, Circe (; Greek Κίρκη Kírkē " falcon ") is a minor goddess of magic ( or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress ), described in Homer's Odyssey as " The loveliest of all immortals ".

In Homer's Odyssey, Circe is described as living in a mansion that stands in the middle of a clearing in a dense wood.

In addition, the 2003 Radio Tales drama " Homer's Odyssey: Voyage to the Underworld " retells the portion of Homer's epic featuring Circe, followed by the voyage to Hades to consult with Tiresias.

Odysseus faced both Charybdis and Scylla in Homer's Odyssey while rowing through a narrow channel.

In Homer's Iliad, the horses of the Myrmidons graze on wild celery that grows in the marshes of Troy, and in Odyssey, there is mention of the meadows of violet and wild celery surrounding the cave of Calypso.

The name Crete ( Κρήτη ) first appears in Homer's Odyssey.

In Homer's Odyssey she is the blond-haired goddess who separates the chaff from the grain.

The premier examples of its use are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.

In the 1920s, James Joyce managed " a more upbeat version " of Hamlet — stripped of obsession and revenge — in Ulysses, though its main parallels are with Homer's Odyssey.

" Samuel Butler argues, based on literary observations, that a young Sicilian woman wrote the Odyssey ( but not the Iliad ), an idea further pursued by Robert Graves in his novel Homer's Daughter and Andrew Dalby in Rediscovering Homer.

Homer's Odyssey also uses the hexameter verse throughout his poem.

Even earlier, a kind of primitive haggis is referred to in Homer's Odyssey, in book 20, ( towards the end of the eighth century BC ) when Odysseus is compared to " a man before a great blazing fire turning swiftly this way and that a stomach full of fat and blood, very eager to have it roasted quickly.

From Homer's Odyssey, the Iliad, and some Attic vase paintings, we know that Hephaestus was born of the union of Zeus and Hera.

Chiron had told Jason that without the aid of Orpheus, the Argonauts would never be able to pass the Sirens — the same Sirens encountered by Odysseus in Homer's epic poem the Odyssey.

The importance of this can be seen throughout Greek mythology — in particular, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Andronicus also translated Homer's Greek epic the Odyssey into an old type of Latin verse called Saturnian.

Minos appears in Greek literature as the king of Knossos as early as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

* Il ritorno d ' Ulisse in Patria, first performed in 1640, is an opera by Monteverdi based on the second half of Homer's Odyssey.

* Every episode of James Joyce's modernist novel Ulysses ( 1922 ) has an assigned theme, technique and correspondences between its characters and those of Homer's Odyssey.

* Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey ( 2007 ) is a series of short stories that rework Homer's original plot in a contemporary style reminiscent of Italo Calvino.

Odysseus ( or ; Greek:, Odusseus ), also known by the Roman name Ulysses (; ), was the perhaps fictional Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey.

Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle.

In Homer's Odyssey ( Book 9 ), Odysseus lands on the Island of the Cyclopes during his journey home from the Trojan War.

Aeneas observes Polyphemus as he leads his flocks down to the sea after Achaemenides re-tells the story of how Odysseus and his men escaped Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey.

In ancient Greece, the earliest mention of oratorical skill occurs in Homer's Iliad, where heroes like Achilles, Hektor, and Odysseus were honored for their ability to advise and exhort their peers and followers ( the Laos or army ) in wise and appropriate action.

In Homer's Odyssey XII, Odysseus is given advice by Circe to sail closer to Scylla, for Charybdis could drown his whole ship: " Hug Scylla's crag — sail on past her — top speed!

Odysseus ' ten year journey home to Ithaca was told in Homer's Odyssey.

In Homer's Iliad, Phoenix, along with Odysseus and Ajax, urges Achilles to re-enter battle.

In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope ( ; ) is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence and is eventually reunited with him.

In Homer's epic, the Odyssey, Odysseus visits the kingdom of Aeolus, and this is the old name for Thessaly.

In a famous episode of Homer's Odyssey, the hero Odysseus encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and Thoosa ( a nereid ), who lives with his fellow Cyclopes in a distant country.

Virgil's account acts as a sequel to Homer's, with the fate of Polyphemus as a blind cyclops after the escape of Odysseus and his crew.

It was renamed Ulysses, the Latin translation of " Odysseus " at ESA's request in honour not only of Homer's mythological hero but also with reference to Dante's description in Dante's Inferno.

Modern Ithaca is generally identified with Homer's Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, whose delayed return to the island is one of the elements of the Odyssey's plot.

Despite any difficulties with Homer's description of the island, in classical and Roman times the island now called " Ithaca " was universally held to be the home of Odysseus ; the Hellenistic identifications of Homeric sites, such as the identifications of Lipari as the island of Aeolus, are usually taken with a grain of salt, and attributed to the ancient tourist trade.

Telemachus (;, Tēlemakhos, literally " far-fighter ") is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central character in Homer's Odyssey.

In Homer's " The Odyssey ", when Odysseus is captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus, he tells the Cyclops that his name is Outis ( No-one ).

Homer's young brother's name, Ulysses, is the Roman form of the name Odysseus, the Odyssey's protagonist.

Ithaca is both Homer's and Ulysses ' home-town in the novel and Odysseus ' home-island in the Odyssey.

The mythic theme was an ancient one, for Homer's listeners were expected to know the allusion, when Penelope reveals to the still-disguised Odysseus her anguish of a night:

Although not mentioned in Homer's Epic, Achaemenides is significant ; his stranding and subsequent rescue by Aeneas ' fleet make him the only known member of Odysseus ' crew to survive the return journey to Ithaca ( as every ship besides the flagship was destroyed by the Laestrygonian giants, and those besides Odysseus on the last ship were drowned after his men devoured Helios ' sacred cattle ).