After Odysseus and his men had passed the six headed dragon and the whirlpool they saw land. They could see cattle but no people. The men wanted to go there but Odysseus remembered what Tiresias in the Land of The Dead had said.

His men begged him to stop and so he agreed but told them not to hurt any of the cattle as Tiresias had told him. They had lots of food.

A few days later there was a terrible storm. It went on for days and days lasting a month. They ate all their food and looked for more. They all grew hungrier and hungrier. The cattle looked very tasty to the men.

One day Odysseus left the men, he lit a fire and fell into a deep sleep. When he woke up the storm had gone but the men had eaten two of the cattle. Odysseus knew that the Sea God would be angry.

They sailed away from the island but before long the boat was hit by a thunderbolt and whilst the Sea God was laughing, the boat was sucked into the whirlpool.

Down and down the men went. Odysseus hung onto a bit of the boat and prayed to the Gods whilst he saw his men killed by the whirlpool.

For many days and nights he hung onto the wood then he was found by Calypso,a nymph. She looked after Odysseus. Calypso said he could live forever if he would stay but Odysseus wanted to go home to his wife Penelope. Seven years Calypso kept him on her island.

Calypso gave Odysseus tools, so he made a raft and set off again to try and get home. The Sea God made another storm and his raft was smashed. Odysseus had to swim.

Odysseus had lost everything. King Alcinous found him and gave him a boat to take him home. Alcinous also gave him treasure. He fell asleep and was still sleeping when the boat arrived at the island of Ithaca, his home.

When he got to Ithaca, they left him asleep on the sand.

As he had been away for so long men had come to marry his wife. They told her he was dead but she would not give up hope. Athene,the Goddess of War thought that these men would kill Odysseus if they found him so she hid him in mist.

Odysseus looked but he did not know where he was. Athene took the mist away then Odysseus saw that he was home. They hid the treasure in a cave whilst Athene told him of the plan, made by the men who wished to marry his wife, to murder his son Telemachus.

Athene told Odysseus that he must return home as an old man. She touched him and he found that he had become old. Athene said for him to go to Eumaeus his herder and listen to him rather than go home to his wife.