Produced by Liz Hanks, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE STORY OF THE ODYSSEY BY THE REV. ALFRED J. CHURCH, M.A. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE ODYSSEY: I. THE COUNSEL OF ATHENE II. THE ASSEMBLY III. NESTOR'S TALE IV. IN SPARTA V. MENELAUS'S TALE VI. ULYSSES ON HIS RAFT VII. NAUSICAA VIII. ALCINOUS IX. THE PHAEACIANS X. THE CYCLOPS XI. AEOLUS; THE LAESTRYGONS; CIRCE XII. THE DWELLINGS OF THE DEAD XIII. THE SIRENS; SCYLLA; THE OXEN OF THE SUN XIV. ITHACA XV. EUMAEUS, THE SWINEHERD XVI. THE RETURN OF TELEMACHUS XVII. ULYSSES AND TELEMACHUS XVIII. ULYSSES IN HIS HOME XIX. ULYSSES IN HIS HOME (_continued_) XX. ULYSSES IS DISCOVERED BY HIS NURSE XXI. THE TRIAL OF THE BOW XXII. THE SLAYING OF THE SUITORS XXIII. THE END OF THE WANDERING XXIV. THE TRIUMPH OF ULYSSES PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES INTRODUCTION Three thousand years ago the world was still young. The western continent was a huge wilderness, and the greater part of Europe was inhabited by savage and wandering tribes. Only a few nations at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in the neighbouring parts of Asia had learned to dwell in cities, to use a written language, to make laws for themselves, and to live in a more orderly fashion. Of these nations the most brilliant was that of the Greeks, who were destined in war, in learning, in government, and in the arts, to play a great part in the world, and to be the real founders of our modern civilization. While they were still a rude people, they had noble ideals of beauty and bravery, of duty and justice. Even before they had a written language, their singers had made songs about their heroes and their great deeds; and later these songs, which fathers had taught to children, and these children to their children, were brought together into two long and wonderful poems, which have ever since been the delight of the world, the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. The _Iliad_ is the story of the siege of Ilium, or Troy, on the western coast of Asia Minor. Paris, son of the king of Troy, had enticed Helen, the most beautiful of Grecian women, and the wife of a Grecian king, to leave her husband's home with him; and the kings and princes of the Greeks had gathered an army and a fleet and sailed across the Aegean Sea to rescue her. For ten years they strove to capture the city. According to the fine old legends, the gods themselves took a part in the war, some siding with the Greeks, and some with the Trojans. It was finally through Ulysses, a famous Greek warrior, brave and fierce as well as wise and crafty, that the Greeks captured the city.