全书共24章，前12章讲述了奥德修斯家乡的现状以及他的传奇冒险经历。今天故事进入到第13章，终于是Ithaca, his homeland, at last。 但回到了自己心心念念的家，真的是 “功成名遂了”吗？虽然温暖的故乡是返航的目的地，但却是我们战场上的英雄，奥德修斯步步为营，重振威名的起点。
回想起来，奥德修斯率军离家前，Telemachus仍在襁褓之中。而后，特洛伊之战，戎马倥偬，终于，木马计胜仗欲返乡，却不幸，又是十年 ，海上漫漫回家路。
That very moment great Odysseus woke from sleep on native ground at last — he’d been away for years — but failed to know the land... And so to the king himself all Ithaca looked strange … He sprang to his feet and, scanning his own native country, groaned, slapped his thighs with his flat palms and Odysseus cried in anguish: “Man of misery, whose land have I lit on now?
奥德修斯终于看到自己的故乡时，却没能立马认出它来。二十年，真的“物否人非”了吗？
自己踏上了故土，却不能立刻与家人团聚，这是多么令人揪心！所以连奥德修斯也感叹道："God help me!” the man of intrigue broke out: “Clearly I might have died the same ignoble death as Agamemnon, bled white in my own house too, if you had never revealed this to me now, how to lay your hands on all those brazen suitors, lording it over your house now..." 要不是Athena相助，自己恐怕和Agamemnon是一样的下场！所以他希望Athena再助他一臂之力，也该和那些求婚者算总账了！
为了让自己的妻子相信自己平安返乡，所以Athena给了Odysseus以下建议：
1.不要向任何人吐露自己的身份。（And to no one—no man, no woman, not a soul— reveal that you are the wanderer home at last. No, in silence you must bear a world of pain, subject yourself to the cruel abuse of men.”）
2.找到自己以前的仆人，家人忠诚的朋友，也就是现在的猪倌，向他打听最近消息。（But you, you make your way to the swineherd first...Wait there, sit with him, ask him all he knows.）
3.乔装打扮隐藏身份 （Up now, quickly. First I will transform you—no one must know you.）
与此同时，Athena也安排好了Telemachus之后的路：
1. 在航行中一举成名天下知。（No need for anguish, trust me, not for him — I escorted your son myself so he might make his name by sailing there.）
2. 助他摆脱埋伏。（some young lords in a black cutter lurk in ambush,）
