map

The map above shows the sites of Odysseus' wanderings as they have been reconstructed by scholars, relying in part on descriptions in the Odyssey itself and in part on the speculations of ancient writers like Strabo and Eratosthenes. The voyage home proceeds in the following order.

Polyphemus the Cyclops

The Realm of the Dead

Nausicaa

Odysseus and the nymph Calypso

The fall of Troy.
Ismarus, the country of the Cicones. Now part of Bulgaria.
Blown off course past Cape Malea
Land of the Lotus-Eaters, often identified as the coast of Libya, but also on the southern tip of Greece.
The Cyclopes' island, perhaps the steep slopes of Mt. Eryx at northwestern corner of Sicily.
Aiolia island, home of Aeolus. Made of bronze and capable of travel like a modern ocean liner.
Almost home to Ithaca
The Laestrygonians, Bonifacio, on the southeastern tip of Corsica, where there is a narrow harbor and steep cliffs.
Aiaia, Circe's isle. Capo Circeo, once an island on the Italian coast southwest of Rome, now a peninsula.
The land of the dead. Not an "underowrld, but an island somewhere iin the Atlantic past Gibralter (the "Pillars of Heracles)".. Then back to Circe.
The Sirens, lurking on o ne of the islands north of Sicily.
The Wandering Rocks.
Scylla and Charybdis, perhaps the northern entrance to the straits of Messina (Sicily), where a massive chunk of rock is still called Scylla.
Thrinacia, where the oxen of Helius graze.
Ogygia, Calypso's isle, perhaps Gozo, one of three islands in the Malta group, where there is a cave bearing Calypso's name.
Scheria or Phaeacia, perhaps Corfu, an island near the western coast of Greece
Ithaca.

Circe the witch

Scylla

The old nurse Euryclaea recognizes Odysseus by the scar on his thigh

Odysseus roamed all the way from Turkey in the East to the Atlantic Ocean in the West; as far south as Lybia or Tunisia, as far north as Corsica.

This map shows the known world in Odysseus' day. A comparison with the map of the wanderings above will reveal how far outside his universe Odysseus strayed.