PROLOGUE: Odysseus and his men taunt their prisoner-of-war Hecuba. She curses him.
ACT 1 scene 1: Ten years later. Phaecia. Nausicaa and her maids encounter the shipwrecked Odysseus.
ACT 1 scene 2: Nausicaa presents Odysseus to her parents, King Alcinous and Queen Arete. Odysseus remembers his time at war, and begins to
recount his journey back from Troy, how he rescued
his men by blinding the one-eyed giant Polyphemus.
ACT 2 scene 1: Circe’s island. Odysseus’ men,
transformed into pigs watch as Circe and Odysseus
make love.
ACT 2 scene 2: Hades, the underworld. Among the
shades Odysseus meets his mother, Anticleia, and the
blind seer Tiresias, who warns Odysseus about the
perils of the next leg of his journey. Odysseus
encounters these perils: the Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis to the accompaniment of Hecuba’s cursing. Disturbed by his story, the Phaecians put Odysseus to sea: the gods destroy their island.
ACT 3 scene 1: Ithaca, Odysseus’ palace. Penelope still waits, knits and makes love with her suitors.
ACT 3 scene 2: Odysseus is washed up on Ithaca, a shepherd boy tels him he is home.
ACT 3 scene 3: Odysseus kills the suitors and is reunited with his wife.
 Prologue: Odysseus taunts Hecuba |
 Prologue: Hecuba curses Odysseus |
 Act 1: Nausicaa and the maids |
 Act 1: Odysseus lands on Phaecia |
 Act 1: Cave of the Cyclops |
 Act 2: Circe and the pigs |
 Act 2: Tiresias's prophecy |
 Act 3: Penelope |
 Act 3: Odysseus is woven into myth |