odyssey
- 01 C1 Advanced
a long, exciting journey with many adventures and problems to solve.
an extended adventurous voyage, often involving a series of wanderings and hardships.
Simple“The family began a three-year odyssey across the continent in an old van.”
In context“His physical odyssey through the remote mountain passes was marked by extreme weather and unexpected hospitality from local villagers.”
- 02 C1 Advanced
a long process of learning or changing your ideas and feelings.
an intellectual or spiritual quest marked by significant personal development or discovery.
Simple“The book describes her spiritual odyssey from doubt to deep faith.”
In context“The documentary tracks the scientist's intellectual odyssey as he moved from traditional physics toward more controversial theories of time.”
- 03 C2 Proficiency
the famous ancient Greek poem about the hero Odysseus and his journey home.
the Ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer, detailing the ten-year journey of Odysseus to Ithaca.
Simple“Students often read the Odyssey to learn about ancient Greek culture.”
In context“Scholars continue to debate the oral traditions that shaped the Odyssey before it was finally committed to writing.”
“From there she begins an odyssey that takes her across the reserves to find the family she barely knew.”
“Everton’s quest for a new right-back is their very own Odyssey, while central defence was another area of concern last season.”
The war at Troy was over. The great walls had fallen, the fires had burned down, and the Greek kings were loading their ships to sail home to their wives and their harvests. Among them stood Odysseus, king of little rocky Ithaca, who wanted nothing in the world so much as his own hearth and his own bed. He should have been home within the month.
But the sea had other plans, and so did the gods. A storm scattered his fleet. He put in at the wrong islands and woke the wrong monsters. He blinded a Cyclops who happened to be a son of the sea-god Poseidon, and from that day the ocean itself seemed to hold a grudge against him.
Ten long years he wandered. He was trapped in the cave of a one-eyed giant and slipped out clinging to the belly of a ram. He heard the Sirens sing and lived, because he had lashed himself to the mast. He sailed between a snatching monster and a devouring whirlpool, and lost good men to both. He was held captive on an enchanted island by a goddess who loved him, and still he wept on the shore, facing the water, longing for home.
When at last he came again to Ithaca, alone, in rags, no one knew him. He had to win back his own house by cunning and by the string of a bow no other man could bend. His journey had become the longest way home ever told.
Homer set it all down in a poem, and named that poem after the man: the Odyssey. So the word came to us not for the war he fought, but for the enormous, winding, danger-strewn voyage he took to get back. That is why any long journey full of trials and turnings-back is called an odyssey today.
Original etymology written by Shinotoshi Nakamura.
Odysseus' ten-year voyage home through monsters and temptation.
- 01
mentor (word)
a person who gives advice and help to someone with less experience, especially at work or school.
the guide left behind
- 02
between Scylla and Charybdis (idiom)
Caught between two dangers, where avoiding one forces you closer to the other.
trapped between two deaths
- 03
to outwit the Cyclops (idiom)
To defeat a much stronger opponent by using cleverness rather than force.
escaping the one-eyed giant
- 04
siren song (idiom)
An appeal that is powerfully tempting but leads to ruin.
the song that lures to ruin
- 05
the patience of Penelope (idiom)
Great loyalty and patience shown by someone who waits faithfully for a long time.
the wife who waited