10 years · 1 survivor

The long way home

Trace Odysseus’ voyage from the ruins of Troy to his kingdom on Ithaca—through a sea where geography dissolves into myth.

Stop 01 / 15 Before Book 9

Troy

Hisarlık, Türkiye · secure identification

The city falls after ten years of war. Odysseus sets sail with twelve ships, aiming west for a home that should be only weeks away.

The company12 ships · roughly 600 men

The geographic map needs an internet connection to load its map tiles. The journey controls and story remain available.

Anchored in known geography

Traditional identification

The winds' reversal · nothing gained

Where myth meets map

Homer gives us a compelling sequence of encounters, but not a route that can be plotted with modern certainty. This chart uses a familiar western-Mediterranean tradition so the story can be explored spatially. Except for the broad anchors of Troy, Ismarus and Ithaca, its pins should be read as possibilities.

Ithaca, not Attica.
Odysseus is king of Ithaca, an island in the Ionian Sea. Attica is the region around Athens. Use the “A” control on the chart to reveal Attica for comparison.

Sources and method

Homer, Odyssey, Perseus Digital Library — primary narrative and book sequence.
Oxford University Press: “A map of Odysseus’s journey” — one influential modern plotting and an explicit warning that locations are debated.
The Odyssey Open Textbook — contextual overview.

The ship count and losses are condensed from Odysseus’ account in Books 9–12. “Year” labels are narrative approximations: the poem does not provide a neat modern calendar for every episode.

Attica shown for comparison