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Gods and Monsters in Homer’s Odyssey
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oil painting "Poseidon at Sea" by an unknown Italian artist, c. 1640, from a private collection. Central figure is the bearded sea god Poseidon enthroned in a shell chariot pulled by four sea horses through waves, holding a trident and golden orb amid tritons, nereids, cherubs, and rocky shores Minerva appearing as Telemachus to Odysseus
Illustration of a Greek warrior in armor next to large text reading "Who's who in the ODYSSEY" on a blue background.
A large wooden Trojan horse is labeled with a blue box reading "FICTION" and an arrow pointing to it, illustrating myth versus reality in Homer's Odyssey.
Etching by Theodoor van Thulden shows Odysseus's men slaughtering Helios's sacred cattle on a ship, with Helios in a chariot and Neptune threatening in the foreground. Sandro Botticelli: Birth of Venus Edward Burne-Jones: The Wine of Circe Odysseus's encounter with Polyphemus
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oil painting
John Singleton Copley: The Return of Neptune The Return of Neptune by American painter John Singleton Copley; c. 1754, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Gods and Monsters in Homer’s Odyssey

Written by
Gitanjali Roy
Gitanjali Roy is deputy managing editor, Encyclopaedia Britannica. She has over two decades of editorial experience across digital and broadcast media.
Gitanjali Roy
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

The gods are ubiquitous in Greek mythology, causing chaos as well as restoring order in human lives. In Homer’s Odyssey divine intervention powers Odysseus’s picaresque adventures, variously enabling and impeding his progress home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Monsters, too, abound, stretching a voyage that ought to have taken some weeks into a 10-year ordeal. The supernatural forces that Odysseus encounters transform a travelogue into a tale of human endurance, presenting a world where...

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