The Odyssey begins ten years after the end of the ten - year Trojan War (the subject of the Iliad), and Odysseus has still not returned home from the war. Odysseus ' son Telemachus is about 20 years old and is sharing his absent father 's house on the island of Ithaca with his mother Penelope and a crowd of 108 boisterous young men, "the Suitors '', whose aim is to persuade Penelope to marry one of them, all the while reveling in Odysseus ' palace and eating up his wealth.
when did the events in the odyssey take place
begins ten years after the end of the ten - year Trojan War