The Odyssey Retold By Teilo Berquier

Places

Ithaca, Troy, the underworld — the geography of the wandering.

  1. Ithaca Odysseus's island kingdom under the western sky. Sharp rocks, wild weather, olive groves, goat tracks. The thing he chooses over a goddess's eternity.
  2. Troy The city the Greeks besieged for ten years and burned in a single night. The wound underneath every other wound in the story.
  3. Acheron, Cocytus, Pyriphlegethon, Styx The four rivers of the dead in Homer. Skipped in the retelling.
  4. Aeaea Circe's island. Black sand beach, oak forest, a stone house in a tidy clearing. Wolves and mountain lions tame at the door.
  5. Aeolia A floating island ringed by sheer bronze walls. Home of Aeolus the wind keeper. A month of healing, then ruin.
  6. Circe's House A stone house in a clearing. A wide terrace, a feast spread on a long table, wolves and mountain lions watching from the shade.
  7. Crete A large kingdom across the sea. Odysseus's go-to false homeland in his lying tales.
  8. Delos The sacred island of Apollo. A young palm tree grew straight beside his altar there, and Odysseus has never forgotten it.
  9. Egypt Where Menelaus's fleet was driven by storms after Troy. The far edge of the Greek world.
  10. Eumaeus's Hut A swineherd's hill steading above the pasture. Smoke from a fire that never dies. The first place on Ithaca that takes Odysseus in.
  11. Ismarus A Cicone city on the Thracian coast, allies of Troy. Odysseus's men sacked it at dawn and partied too long on the beach.
  12. Laertes's Farmstead / Vineyard A small farm in the hills where Odysseus's father has self-exiled. He sleeps on the floor in winter, in the dirt of his vineyard in summer.
  13. Mount Neriton Ithaca's wooded mountain in Homer. The landmark Odysseus names when he says where he is from.
  14. Mount Parnassus The hunting ground of Odysseus's youth. Where a white boar gave him the scar that will give him away.
  15. Mycenae Agamemnon's home kingdom in Homer. The site of his murder in his own bath, the cautionary tale that haunts every other returning king.
  16. Ogygia A green island at the end of the world. Cedar smoke, grapevines, four springs, a cave that smells of firelight. A goddess. Seven years.
  17. Olympus The mountain home of the gods. Where Athena stands before Zeus and demands that Odysseus be let go.
  18. Persephone's Grove The grove of black poplars and willows at the underworld's edge in Homer. A specific landmark cut from the retelling.
  19. Phaeacia A wealthy peaceful kingdom of seafarers whose ships need no helmsman. The last shore Odysseus reaches before home.
  20. Pharos An Egyptian beach. Where Menelaus pinned the shape-shifting sea god Proteus and held him through every form until he answered.
  21. Phorcys Harbor / Cave of the Nymphs The harbor where the Phaeacians lay sleeping Odysseus on Ithaca's shore in Homer, with a sacred cave above it where his gifts are hidden.
  22. Polyphemus's Cave A vast cave on a hillside. Cheeses the size of millstones, lambs penned by age, a fire pit, and a boulder for a door.
  23. Pylos Old Nestor's kingdom. A beach loud with sacrifice when Telemachus arrives. The first stop on the boy's search for his father.
  24. Scylla's Cave A hidden cave high in the cliff face. Where Scylla lodges and from which her six heads come down.
  25. Sparta Menelaus and Helen's kingdom. A hall untouched by hardship, even after they burned a city to bring her home.
  26. Spring of Artakia The fountain outside Telepylos in Homer where Odysseus's scouts met the Laestrygonian princess and learned, too late, what they were dealing with.
  27. Syrie Eumaeus's birthplace in Homer. A small island his backstory unfolds on. Cut from the retelling.
  28. Telepylos A coast of tall cliffs and a deep sheltered cove. Above it, giants with spears longer than masts. Eleven ships died here.
  29. The Agora / AG-or-ah / The assembly square of Ithaca. Where Telemachus calls the first gathering in twenty years and finds out his voice is not enough.
  30. The Black-Sand Beach The beach on Ithaca where Odysseus wakes alone, the Phaeacian gifts scattered around him in the gray light. He does not know where he is.
  31. The Bronze Walls The sheer bronze ramparts ringing Aeolus's island. A wall of metal rising from the sea.
  32. The Cyclops's Island A green coast with deep harbors and gentle valleys. Above them, woodsmoke. And a cave nobody should have entered.
  33. The Fig Tree above Charybdis An ancient fig tree growing out of the cliff face above the whirlpool. Odysseus's only handhold when the wreck is sucked under.
  34. The Grove of Athena A sacred grove outside the city walls. Where Odysseus waits for Nausicaa to go ahead so people will not talk.
  35. The Hidden Cove An inland cove off the main harbor where Telemachus quietly puts ashore, away from the suitors' ambush.
  36. The Land of the Ethiopians The far rim of the world, where Poseidon was feasting and missed his chance to drown Odysseus on the raft.
  37. The Lotus Eaters' Shore A green welcoming island where the locals eat a fruit that erases will and memory. They offer it with a smile.
  38. The Marriage Bedchamber The room Odysseus built around a living olive tree. The bed cannot be moved. Only he and Penelope know.
  39. The Megaron / MEG-a-ron / The central hall of the palace. Stone columns, the great hearth, long tables. Where the suitors feast and where the slaughter happens.
  40. The Narrow Cliff Harbor The mouth of the Laestrygonian cove. Narrow, sheer-walled, beautiful. A perfect trap.
  41. The Offering Pit A hole dug into the mud at the underworld's edge. Honey, milk, wine, barley, and the blood of two sheep. The dead come for it.
  42. The Palace of Alcinous Bronze walls, golden doors, gold and silver guard dogs. Inside, a hall full of feasting lords. Outside, orchards in every season.
  43. The Palace of Odysseus The great house on Ithaca. Stone, olive wood, a hearth that should be a king's and is a beggar's. The center of every wound in the story.
  44. The Pig Sty The pen behind Circe's house where the transformed crewmen are thrown acorns. Their eyes still know.
  45. The River Mouth Where Odysseus crawls ashore on Phaeacia after two days swimming. The river god stills its current to let him land.
  46. The River Ocean The world-encircling river at the edge of everything. Where the sky closes down and you row into mud and silence.
  47. The Scaean Gate The great gate of Troy. The Ithacans waded through the dead here to end the war.
  48. The Sirens' Island A small jagged rock rising from the shallows. Figures sitting on the stones. White sand at the waterline that turns out to be skulls.
  49. The Storeroom The locked room where Odysseus's bow has hung for twenty years. Where the disloyal maids will be hanged from a single beam.
  50. The Strait between Ithaca and Samos The narrow water between two islands. Where the suitors' ship lies in ambush for Telemachus on his way home.
  51. The Strait of Scylla and Charybdis A narrow passage between two cliffs. A whirlpool on one side, a six-headed monster in a cave on the other. No way around.
  52. The Two Olive Trees A thicket of two olive trees grown together. Odysseus's first bed on Phaeacia, leaves heaped with bloodied hands.
  53. The Underworld The shore of the dead. Cold mud, dead trees, a pit of blood that brings the shades back to themselves. The single most dangerous place in the journey.
  54. Thrinacia An island of golden grass and slopes fat with herds. The sacred cattle of Helios graze here. Don't touch them.