Is this a real route?

No, and it is not offered as one. The Odyssey is a poem in an oral tradition, and it gives no itinerary, no coordinates and no calendar. The positions on this map are traditional identifications made by Greek, Roman and Renaissance readers who wanted the episodes to be somewhere, and they disagreed with each other. Every leg is labelled as reconstruction for that reason.

Why is there no date slider with years on it?

Because the poem does not supply dates, and manufacturing BCE dates to fill a timeline would be inventing evidence. The sequence here runs on narrative order — book and episode — which is what the source actually provides. Durations the poem does state, like the seven years on Ogygia and the ten years overall, are given as the poem gives them: relative to each other.

Why is the journey to the dead on the map at all?

Reluctantly, and marked as symbolic. Book XI sends Odysseus beyond the stream of Ocean to the edge of the world, which is a statement about cosmology rather than a place. The pin sits at the western limit of the ancient known world only so that the narrative sequence stays unbroken, and it carries a note saying it should not be read as a location.

Odysseus — The Return from Troy, narrative · Homeric tradition

Departure from Troy — before Book IX 01 / 14 Troy Ilion, north-west Anatolia

Odysseus's wanderings are told in flashback: he narrates them himself at the Phaeacian court in Books IX to XII, which is why the poem's order and the story's order are not the same thing. Twelve ships sail from Troy.

“I am Ulysses son of Laertes, renowned among mankind for all manner of subtlety, so that my fame ascends to heaven.” — Odysseus, telling his own story at the Phaeacian court

traditional Twelve ships leave Troy for Ithaca.

Book IX — the Cicones 02 / 14 Ismaros Thrace — the Cicones

The raid that starts the punishment. The men sack the town, refuse to leave while there is wine to drink, and are counter-attacked at dawn with heavy losses. The poem is explicit that this disaster is caused by indiscipline, not by any god.

“When I had set sail thence the wind took me first to Ismarus, which is the city of the Cicons. There I sacked the town and put the people to the sword.” — Odysseus, telling his own story at the Phaeacian court

traditional A raid goes wrong. Six men from each ship are lost.

Book IX — the Lotus-Eaters 03 / 14 The Lotus-Eaters North Africa — traditionally Djerba

Blown off course rounding Cape Malea, the ships reach a coast where the food makes men forget the way home. Odysseus drags the affected crew back to the benches by force. The first of the poem's temptations, and the mildest.

“I was driven thence by foul winds for a space of nine days upon the sea, but on the tenth day we reached the land of the Lotus-eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower.” — Odysseus, telling his own story at the Phaeacian court

reconstruction Forgetting. The crew is taken back aboard under compulsion.

Book IX — Polyphemos 04 / 14 The Land of the Cyclopes Traditionally Sicily, near Etna

The episode that drives the rest of the poem. Odysseus blinds Polyphemos, escapes under the sheep, and then shouts his real name from the ship — and Polyphemos, who is Poseidon's son, prays for the curse that keeps him at sea for a decade. The disaster is caused by the hero's own boasting.

“Cyclops, you ask my name and I will tell it you; give me, therefore, the present you promised me; my name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends have always called me.” — Odysseus, telling his own story at the Phaeacian court

Content note: Graphic violence, including the eating of men

reconstruction Polyphemos blinded. Poseidon's anger is earned by name.

Book X — the bag of winds 05 / 14 Aiolia The floating island of Aeolus

Aeolus gives Odysseus all the contrary winds tied in a bag. Ithaca comes into sight — close enough to see men tending fires ashore — and the crew, convinced the bag holds treasure being kept from them, open it. The ships are blown all the way back. Aeolus refuses to help a second time.

“Thence we went on to the Aeolian island where lives Aeolus son of Hippotas, dear to the immortal gods.” — Odysseus, telling his own story at the Phaeacian court

reconstruction Ithaca sighted and lost. The winds are let out.

Book X — the Laestrygonians 06 / 14 Telepylos The Laestrygonians

Eleven of the twelve ships moor inside a sheltered harbour and are destroyed by giants throwing rocks from the cliffs above. Odysseus had kept his own ship outside. One ship of twelve continues; this is the single heaviest loss in the poem.

“In that country a man who could do without sleep might earn double wages, one as a herdsman of cattle, and another as a shepherd, for they work much the same by night as they do by day.” — Odysseus, telling his own story at the Phaeacian court

Content note: Mass death

reconstruction Eleven ships destroyed at anchor. One survives.

Book X — Circe 07 / 14 Aiaia Circe's island — traditionally Monte Circeo

Circe turns the scouting party into pigs; Odysseus, protected by the herb moly, forces her to reverse it. They then stay a year. It is Circe who tells him he must go to the land of the dead before he can go home, and Circe who later gives him the sailing directions for the Sirens and the strait.

“Thence we sailed sadly on, glad to have escaped death, though we had lost our comrades, and came to the Aeaean island, where Circe lives—a great and cunning goddess who is own sister to the magician Aeetes—for they are both children of the sun by Perse, who is daughter to Oceanus.” — Odysseus, telling his own story at the Phaeacian court

reconstruction A year on the island. Circe gives the route onward.

Book XI — the Nekuia 08 / 14 The Land of the Dead At the edge of Ocean — not a place

Odysseus sails to the edge of the world to consult the dead prophet Teiresias. He speaks with his mother, who died of grief for him, and with Achilles, who says he would rather be a landless labourer alive than king of the dead. The centre of the poem, and the one episode that cannot be put on a map without misrepresenting it.

“All day long her sails were full as she held her course over the sea, but when the sun went down and darkness was over all the earth, we got into the deep waters of the river Oceanus, where lie the land and city of the Cimmerians who live enshrouded in mist and darkness which the rays of the sun never pierce neither at his rising nor as he goes down again out of the heavens, but the poor wretches live in one long melancholy night.” — Odysseus, telling his own story at the Phaeacian court

reconstruction The dead consulted. Teiresias gives the prophecy of the homecoming.

Book XII — the Sirens 09 / 14 The Sirens Traditionally off the Campanian coast

Wax in the crew's ears, Odysseus lashed to the mast so that he alone can hear it and survive. What the Sirens actually offer is knowledge — they promise to sing of what happened at Troy — which makes this a temptation aimed precisely at him.

“If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song.” — Circe, warning Odysseus

reconstruction The song heard and survived.

Book XII — the strait 10 / 14 Scylla and Charybdis Strait of Messina

A forced choice between a six-headed monster on the cliff and a whirlpool that swallows the sea three times a day. Circe's advice is to hug Scylla's rock and accept the loss of six men rather than risk the whole ship. Odysseus takes it and does not tell the crew.

“There is no help for it; your best chance will be to get by her as fast as ever you can, for if you dawdle about her rock while you are putting on your armour, she may catch you with a second cast of her six heads, and snap up another half dozen of your men; so drive your ship past her at full speed, and roar out lustily to Crataiis who is Scylla’s dam, bad luck to her; she will then stop her from making a second raid upon you.” — Circe, warning Odysseus

traditional Six men taken by Scylla. The ship passes.

Book XII — the cattle of the Sun 11 / 14 Thrinacia The island of the Sun's cattle

Warned twice not to touch the cattle of Helios, the crew are pinned ashore by a month of contrary winds, run out of food, and eat them while Odysseus is asleep. Zeus destroys the ship with a thunderbolt as soon as they sail. Odysseus alone survives, on a raft of the wreckage.

“You will now come to the Thrinacian island, and here you will see many herds of cattle and flocks of sheep belonging to the sun-god—seven herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep, with fifty head in each flock.” — Circe, warning Odysseus

reconstruction The cattle eaten. The last ship destroyed; all the companions die.

Books V and XII — seven years with Calypso 12 / 14 Ogygia Calypso's island — traditionally Gozo

Seven of the ten years pass here — most of the voyage, in a single stationary episode. Calypso offers immortality and he refuses it, which is the poem's clearest statement about what the homecoming is actually for. He is released only when the gods intervene, and leaves on a raft he builds himself.

“I was carried along for nine days till on the tenth night the gods stranded me on the Ogygian island, where dwells the great and powerful goddess Calypso.” — Odysseus, telling his own story at the Phaeacian court

reconstruction Seven years. Immortality offered and declined.

Books VI–VIII — the Phaeacian court 13 / 14 Scheria The Phaeacians — traditionally Corfu

Shipwrecked, naked and salt-crusted, he is found by Nausicaa and taken in. It is here, at the Phaeacian court, that he finally gives his name and tells the whole story of the wanderings — so everything from the Cicones to Calypso is narrated at this point in the poem, not lived at it.

“Now the Cyclopes were stronger than they and plundered them, so their king Nausithous moved them thence and settled them in Scheria, far from all other people.” — The narrator

traditional The story told. The Phaeacians undertake to carry him home.

Book XIII — the homecoming 14 / 14 Ithaca Ionian Islands

The Phaeacians put him ashore asleep, and he does not at first recognise his own country. Half the poem still remains: the disguise, the recognition, the killing of the suitors. The voyage ends here; the story does not.

“He counted his goodly coppers and cauldrons, his gold and all his clothes, but there was nothing missing; still he kept grieving about not being in his own country, and wandered up and down by the shore of the sounding sea bewailing his hard fate.” — The narrator

disputed Landed asleep on Ithaca after ten years.

Odysseus

Troy

The voyage in brief

Ship's Log

Landfalls & Plates

Reckoning

Difficulty

The route today

How to read the route

How the world was understood

Primary Sources

Further Reading

On Screen

Questions

Is this a real route?

Why is there no date slider with years on it?

Why is the journey to the dead on the map at all?

Editorial note

Odysseus

Troy

The voyage in brief

Ship's Log

Landfalls & Plates

Reckoning

Difficulty

The route today

How to read the route

How the world was understood

Primary Sources

Further Reading

On Screen

Questions

Is this a real route?

Why is there no date slider with years on it?

Why is the journey to the dead on the map at all?

Editorial note

Counting readers