Place in Homer’s Odyssey

Troy

The war behind everything

The city whose ten-year siege took Odysseus away and whose fall scattered the Greeks over the sea. It is remembered constantly and never once seen.

Bonds

• Odysseus visits Troy — ten years at the siege
• The Achaians enemies of Troy — ten years under its walls

Appears in

• Book I Visit of Athena to Telemachus
• Book III Interview of Telemachus with Nestor
• Book IV Conference of Telemachus and Menelaus
• Book XIV Meeting of Odysseus and Eumaeus

Scenes

1. Invocation to the Muse — Book I. Poet invokes Muse to sing of Odysseus
2. Athena pleads for Odysseus — Book I. Athena begs Zeus, plans to send Hermes
3. Telemachus asserts authority — Book I. Telemachus claims song, dismisses mother
4. Nestor Questions the Guests — Book III. Telemachus begs Nestor for Odysseus news
5. The Fleet’s Quarrel — Book III. Nestor recalls Atreus brothers’ quarrel
6. The Full Tale of Murder — Book III. Nestor tells of Aegisthus, Menelaus’s voyage
7. Helen’s Drug and Tales of Troy — Book IV. Helen’s drug, Menelaus recalls Troy
8. Fates of Ajax and Agamemnon — Book IV. Ajax drowns, Aegisthus kills Agamemnon
9. Poseidon Wrecks the Raft — Book V. Poseidon snaps mast, Odysseus clings
10. Odysseus’s Request — Book VIII. Odysseus asks for the wooden-horse song
11. The Fall of Troy Sung — Book VIII. Demodocus sings ambush, sack of Troy
12. Alcinoüs’s Question — Book VIII. Alcinoüs halts song, demands his name
13. Aeolus’s Gift of Winds — Book X. Aeolus gives Odysseus bound winds
14. Reunion with Anticleia — Book XI. Anticleia reports on family, eludes embrace
15. Odysseus Continues — Book XI. Alcinoüs asks about dead comrades
16. Achilles’ Lament — Book XI. Achilles prefers poor life to death
17. Ajax’s Silent Wrath — Book XI. Ajax’s ghost resents Achilles’s arms
18. The Shepherd’s Riddle — Book XIII. Odysseus spins a tale of fleeing Crete
19. Seated by the Hearth — Book XIV. Eumaeus believes his master died at Troy
20. The Cretan’s Long Tale — Book XIV. Odysseus invents war, plunder, betrayal
21. Eurymachus Flatters Penelope — Book XVIII. Eurymachus flatters, Penelope cites charge
22. The Cretan Tale — Book XIX. Beggar claims he hosted Odysseus
23. Achilles Meets Agamemnon — Book XXIV. Achilles greets shamefully slain Agamemnon
24. Achilles’ Funeral Recalled — Book XXIV. Agamemnon recalls Achilles’s funeral games

Troy is named in 64 of the poem’s scenes; these are the twenty-four that carry the most of the name.

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