Omero
Odissea

"...Oh Muse, tell me of the journey that lasted so long to reach beloved Ithaca after he [Isso] entered sacred Troy..."

This immense poem was written by the great poet Homer through oral tradition, that is, stories passed down verbally since time immemorial.

The sage's brilliant idea was to bring together all these oral traditions and make them into a well-defined poem with an adventurous and fantastic spirit, featuring a hero who embodied Greek and religious values—key characteristics of the oral traditions popular in those years.

The story, the archetype of all adventurous tales to come, tells a story where another Homeric poem, the Iliad, ends and creates a sort of continuum.

It is the story of Ulysses who, after defeating and entering Troy thanks to the cunning of the famous wooden horse, takes possession of it and then burns Troy. Afterward, he must return home by sea with his faithful companions. The journey will be full of hardships, fantastic encounters, visions, and supernatural monsters.

Ulysses is the hero par excellence—loyal, cunning, courageous, and wise. He knows how to evade every danger and hardship to reach his beloved Ithaca, which meanwhile has been taken over by the Suitors, one of whom, believing Ulysses is missing or lost, wants to marry his beloved wife Penelope, who to deceive the Suitor, weaves the famous never-ending tapestry.

After long wanderings across the seas and overcoming various adversities, including the dangerous Cyclops and the sorceress Circe at Circeo who transforms them into pigs but thanks to Ulysses they return to human form, and with the help of the Greek gods, he returns to Ithaca disguised as a beggar. Here, he must confront the Suitors and drive them away. At first, the Suitors mock him, but Ulysses manages to defeat them one by one. However, Penelope does not recognize him anymore; Ulysses' journey has lasted so long that they don’t recognize each other, also due to his disguise. But after a series of questions and answers, Penelope is convinced and finally reunites with Ulysses.

This poem, an immense cultural genetic heritage, is the beginning of everything; it is the first adventurous tale ever written, and from then on, everyone draws inspiration from this literary marvel. It may seem challenging because Homer wrote it in verse, but here lie all the seeds of adventure novels to come.