Is the Odyssey a True Story?

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Painting of Ulysses (Odysseus) tied to a ship's mast as his crew rows with ears covered, while winged sirens with women's faces fly around the boat over blue water.

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.

Ary Ernest Renan: Scylla and Charybdis

Timeline image titled "Life of Odysseus" with a section labeled "Early Life" describing Odysseus's birth to Laertes and Anticleia, and an illustration of two figures.

Is the Odyssey a True Story?: Media

Videos

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.

Is Homer's Odyssey a True Story?

Fact or Fiction? This ancient Greek epic is less than historically accurate.

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

Painting of Ulysses (Odysseus) tied to a ship's mast as his crew rows with ears covered, while winged sirens with women's faces fly around the boat over blue water.

Ulysses and the Sirens

Painting of Odysseus's encounter with the Sirens, in the National Gallery of Victoria,...

© Fine Art Images/Heritage Images—Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images

Ary Ernest Renan: Scylla and Charybdis

Ary Ernest Renan: Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla and Charybdis (1894) by Ary Ernest Renan; found in the collection...

© Fine Art Images/Heritage Images—Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images

Interactives

Timeline image titled "Life of Odysseus" with a section labeled "Early Life" describing Odysseus's birth to Laertes and Anticleia, and an illustration of two figures.

Timeline of Odysseus's life

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.