Twenty years after leaving for the Trojan War, Odysseus fights his way home across a hostile sea only to find his kingdom overrun — and must return in disguise to reclaim his wife, his son, and his throne from the suitors laying siege to his house.

1. Scenes 1–9

   Ithaca frozen in a decade of waiting: Penelope weaving, the suitors feasting, Telemachus unheard.

2. Just before
3. Scene 7

   The bard vows the trick will "burn it screaming to the ground" as he brings down his staff.

4. Scene 8

   Trojans capture the lone soldier Sinon guarding the Horse and torture him for its meaning; he claims it as an offering to Athena and they spare him, hauling the Horse toward the city.

5. Scene 9

   In the Ithaca hall, Penelope refuses the suitors' song of Odysseus; Telemachus defends a mistreated beggar-traveler, who urges him to seek news of his father from Menelaus.

6. Scene 10

   This scene