Book I. The poem opens in the island of Calypso, with a complaint against Neptune and Calypso for preventing the return of Odysseus (3 syl.) to Ithaca.
II. Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, starts in search of his father, accompanied by Pallas, in the guise of Mentor.
III. Goes to Pylos, to consult old Nestor, and
IV. Is sent by him to Sparta; where he is told by Menelāus that Odysseus is detained in the island of Calypso.
V. In the mean time, Odysseus leaves the island, and, being shipwrecked, is cast on the shore of Phæācia.
VI. Where Nausicāa, the king’s daughter, finds him asleep, and
VII. Takes him to the court of her father, Alcinöos, who
VIII. Entertains him hospitably.
IX. At a banquet, Odysseus relates his adventures since he started from Troy. Tells about the Lotus-eaters and the Cyclops, with his adventures in the cave of Polyphēmos. He tells how
X. The wind-god gave him the winds in a bag. In the island of Circê, he says, his crew were changed to swine, but Mercury gave him a herb called Mōly, which disenchanted them.