This epic poem by Homer centers on the Greek hero Odysseus and his long journey home following the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. His absence is twenty years in total, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteres, competing for Penelopes hand in marriage.