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P UFFIN C LASSIC S

P UFFIN C LASSIC S

High in the window of Pelicata Palace, Penelope, Queen of Ithaca and wife of Odysseus, looked out across the wave-striped ocean. A dark shape caught her eye, far, far out across the sea. At once she was leaning out of the window and her hands were plunged into the unpruned vine which cloaked the palace walls. ‘Odysseus! Odysseus!’

GERALDINE M C CAUGHREAN

INTRODUCED AND RETOLD BY GERALDINE McCAUGHREAN

Illustrations by V ICTOR G. A MBRUS

P UFFIN C LASSIC S

PUFFIN BOOKS

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First published simultaneously by Checkerboard Press Inc., USA, and Oxford University Press, Great Britain, 1993

Published in Puffin Books 1997

Reissued 2015

This edition published 2025

001

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INTRODUCTION BY

GERALDINE MCCAUGHREAN

The Greek myths are like a great patchwork bedspread of stories, stitched together over centuries, growing and growing as the Greek Empire flung itself across more and more of the ancient world. Each new territory seized joyfully on the myths and wanted to be a part of them. ‘Do you think Heracles visited here? Bet he did!’ So they stitched themselves into the bedspread. For me, though, The Odyssey is the greatest of stories and one near the very centre of the bedspread. It seems to me like an advertisement for all things Greek: that willingness to explore the world and carry Greek cunning, courage and strength into every cove and port around the Mediterranean. Odysseus doesn’t mean to spend ten years meeting the world’s oddities, but he is equal to every terror, adored by every woman who sees him. How good it must have felt to be a Greek listening to the courageous adventures of Odysseus!

The Greeks were a seagoing race – fishermen and traders, forever setting sail in small boats – and yet the voyage of Odysseus was, for them, like science fiction is for us: a journey into the unknown. You only have to think for a moment of Star Trek where the starship Enterprise flies from planet to planet, encountering new monsters and dangers every time it comes in to land. Captain Kirk is a direct descendant of Odysseus. The one story has shaped countless stories that came after. I return to The Odyssey time and time again; I’ve told it for all ages of reader. It has everything – monsters, giants, nymphs, fools and gods, bravery, suffering, magic and shipwreck.

I could tease many a new story out of its characters too. Did Circe put her magic to good use after Odysseus left? Didn’t Telemachus want to see for himself all the wonders his father talked about when he got home? Great stories drop fruit from their branches, inviting you to pick up – taste! – make them your own. Do it. Savour the taste of Story – as strong today as it was in ancient Greece. And maybe the delectable fruit of The Odyssey will tempt you out on to the world-encircled sea of the Imagination. But be careful: like the lotus fruit, Story is addictive.

For Alexander Leslie Krasodomski Jones

Yearning for Home

Thewar lasted so very, very long. Then suddenly it was over in a flash of fire, a splash of blood and a trampling of horses. Men whose ships had rolled idly over a thousand tides in the bay of Troy mustered by the water’s edge in groups. There were many faces missing, many oars lacked a rower after ten years of war. But those who unfurled their sails, latched their oars over the oar-pins and set the tillers, were cheerful. Their masts were hung with