About The Odyssey Companion

The Odyssey Companion is a small, independent editorial project with one aim: to make Homer's Odyssey genuinely readable for adults — before the film arrives on July 17, 2026, and long after it leaves theaters.

Why this exists

This summer, millions of people will meet Odysseus for the first time — or return to him after years away. Most quick material online stops at plot, names, and searchable facts. This project is built for adults who want the story to mean something before it becomes spectacle.

We think the poem deserves better, because it gives adults more. The Odyssey — traditionally dated to the 8th century BCE — is an adventure story on its surface. Underneath, it is a story about fate, exile, temptation, fatherhood, and the long, complicated work of coming home. That second layer is what we are really here for. The first layer — the story, the characters, the map — is how we earn the right to show it to you.

How we work

Our method is simple and strict:

• Public-domain text only. When we quote the poem, we quote Samuel Butler's 1900 translation, which is safely in the public domain. Modern translations — Wilson, Fagles, Fitzgerald, Lattimore — are discussed and compared, never quoted.
• Checkable claims. Every factual statement about the poem points to a Book number you can verify yourself. If we say the Sirens sing in Book 12, they do.
• Named sources on every page. Each article lists the texts and scholarship behind it. We do not invent references, and we do not present opinion as fact.
• Human-edited essays. Research and drafting are supported by modern tools; every interpretive passage is marked internally and edited by a human being before publication, and we keep a log of how each piece was made.

What we sell, and why

The core articles on this site — the story explained, the characters, the journey — are free and will stay free. What we sell is the deeper layer: The Odyssey Home Pack ($19), a designed companion plus our Butler-based digital Companion Edition, with reading plans, a journey map, character cards, anchor passages, links, and reflective essays on homecoming, temptation, and fatherhood.

Selling our own work directly is what keeps the project independent: no ads, no sponsored content, and no reason to say anything about the film beyond the public facts.

Who makes this

The Odyssey Companion is founder-led and deliberately small — closer to a serious magazine desk than a content farm. One person is responsible for every page that ships, and every page carries its sources so you can check the work.

Contact

Questions, corrections, and disagreements are welcome — especially corrections. If we have gotten a fact about the poem wrong, write to us with the Book number and we will fix it and note the change.

Email: hello@odysseycompanion.com

For the full source list, see Sources. For the fine print, see the Disclaimer, Privacy, and Terms pages.