The
ancient Greeks were great
storytellers. They created
many stories about gods, goddesses, and other mythical creatures. Some of these stories tell tales of what happened when magical beings meet mortal men.
The Greeks loved heroes. One of their heroes was King Odysseus. The stories of brave Odysseus and his loyal band of men were told over and over by traveling storytellers during the dark ages of ancient Greece.
A man named Homer lived right at the end of dark ages, in the 8th century BCE. (During 700 BCE.) Over 2700 years ago, the poet Homer collected and wrote down many of the ancient legends told by the traveling storytellers.
Homer took all the stories about King Odysseus and put this collection of stories together in one book, which he named The Odyssey.
The stories told of Odysseus and his men who lived on the island of Ithaca. Odysseus had been away from home, fighting a war. After the
battle of Troy, which the Greeks won, King Odysseus and his men finally sailed for home. Ithaca is a little island as far away from Troy as you could get and still be in ancient Greece.
It was a long trip. It could have taken Odysseus a good month to get home. These were early times, and the ships were not as strongly built as they are today. But because of the trouble Odysseus faced on the way, it took Odysseus and his men ten long years to get home!
According to the ancient Greek storytellers, in ten long years, Odysseus and his men had quite a few adventures, and all of them had to do with mythical creatures!
Click on the pictures and learn more about the hero. Now watch this video!
