The Odyssey () is an eight-episode Italian TV miniseries broadcast on RAI in 1968 and based on Homer's Odyssey. It is a Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française coproduction, it was directed by Franco Rossi, assisted by Piero Schivazappa and Mario Bava; the cast includes Bekim Fehmiu as Odysseus and Irene Papas as Penelope, Samson Burke as the Cyclops, as well as Barbara Bach as Nausicaa, and Gérard Herter.
Plot
First episode: Telemaco and Penelope
Athena arrives in Ithaca, disguised as Mentes, to make sure that Odysseus' return is pleasant. Although welcomed with respect by Telemachus, Mentes discovers that the palace of the king of Ithaca is besieged by numerous nobles of the region, the suitors, who wait for Queen Penelope to decide to take a new husband between them, supposing that Odysseus died since twenty years have passed since his departure for Troy, looting without reserve the cellar and the pantry of the palace. Penelope tries to take time by declaring to the suitors that she must weave a shroud for her father-in-law Laertes, but with this pretext, every night she undoes it and starts it again the next morning.
Telemachus announces a town meeting to try to find out who is on his side to be able to chase away the suitors and who is willing to follow him on the land to ask for information about Odysseus to King Nestor, the oldest commander who participated in the war. The suitors also arrive at the assembly, claiming to be right about the king's long absence and the fact that Penelope is spending too much time weaving the shroud. To these answers, the people of Ithaca are silent and dare not oppose, yet the soothsayer Egizio, noting a hawk perched on the battlements of the palace, sees the success of Telemachus' journey, but is derided by the suitors. The next morning, Telemachus is joined by his father's friend and adviser Mentor, who gives him a boat and sailors to get to Pylos. Before leaving, Telemachus asks the nurse Eurycleia not to say anything to Penelope. During the night, Melantho, a young female servant of the palace who is a lover of Eurymachus, betrays Penelope by revealing to the suitors what Penelope does to her shroud at night. Discovered, Penelope is forced to finish the shroud without apology.
The next day, the suitors noticed the absence of Telemachus and discovered, by threatening a boat seller, that he has really left to look for news about his father. Concerned that his research might be successful, Antinous, suggests an ambush of Telemachus. Arriving in Pylos in the middle of a sacrificial ceremony for Poseidon, Telemachus joins the king after the ceremony. Nestor tells Telemachus about the evening before he returned from Troy: there were those who, like Odysseus, wanted to punish the allies of the Trojans and those like Menelaus who wanted to go home; after several discussions, the Achaean fleet separated and Nestor no longer knew about Odysseus, so he advised Telemachus to go to Sparta, to Menelaus, with Pisistratus, who would guide him. Medon, on hearing the suitors, runs to warn Penelope who, after a moment of anger at Eurycleia for not having told her anything, prays for the safety of her son.
At night, Penelope receives in a dream Athena's visit, under the guise of her sister Iftime, who assures her that the gods are watching over her son and also Odysseus. Finally the figure of Odysseus is presented: a lonely man at the head of a miserable raft at the mercy of the waves that move him away from his final destination.
Second episode: Odysseus, Nausicaa and Calypso At the beginning of the second episode there is a discussion between Zeus and Athena in which the two agree that Poseidon has tortured Odysseus enough and that it is time for his suffering to end. Odysseus is shipwrecked on an island and, having found a refuge, wanders into a grove of trees and falls asleep on a bed of fallen leaves. The island in which Odysseus arrived is Scheria, governed by the Phaeacians, and Athena appears in a dream to the young princess Nausicaa, in the guise of a friend, telling her that she should prepare herself for her now near marriage and go with the maids to the mouth of the river to do the laundry. The next day Nausicaa goes to the river's mouth and after doing the laundry, the princess starts to play with the maids, when she sees in the bushes a man, naked and caked with salt and leaves. All the girls run away except for Nausicaa, who is staring at the man. Odysseus also remains captivated by the beauty of the girl and compares her to a goddess, then begging her to take him with her to the palace and to help clean him up.
Nausicaa has him washed and dressed by the maids, but she asks that he not follow her to the palace, or the young people would believe she had chosen him as a husband. Accepting the wishes of the girl, Odysseus goes to the city, while an internal voice suggests to him how to behave in front of the sovereigns: Alcinous and Arete. The nobles and monarchs of the palace, suspicious of all the foreigners who come to their land, ask him many questions, only to apologize for their interrogation, after they recognize a good man with nothing to hide. Odysseus pretends to be a shipwrecked traveler in search of protection. Alcinous tells that long ago his people, ruled by his grandfather, resided in the Land of the Cyclops, monstrous and violent beings, who continually threatened their lives; so they decided to move with the help of the gods to a new island, paying the price of being isolated and unknown to any traveler, except Odysseus.
Hosted in the palace, Odysseus knows that the Phaeacians are peaceful and that they know how to build boats that never sink and never get lost, but have stopped building them, worried by a prophecy that Poseidon would punish the Phaeacians by destroying the crew of the ship that accompanies an enemy on board. Odysseus spends a lot of time with Nausicaa, telling her that until a few weeks ago he had been a prisoner in Ogygia for seven years, an islet in which the nymph Calypso resides, to whom Odysseus mentally resisted, until she was finally ordered by the gods to allow him to depart on a raft.
A few days later, Odysseus is invited to see the games that will decree a husband for Nausicaa. The champion asks the guest to participate in the sword contests, but Odysseus refuses, in order not to be recognized, at least until the athletes question his strength, making Odysseus so angry that he not only beats all the other participants, but also nearly kills one. Odysseus asks Alcinous for forgiveness, but Alcinous demands to know his name rather than to hear his apologies.
Third episode: the fall of Troy and the island of the Lotus-eaters
For the victory of the athletes, the blind aedes Demodocus tells everybody the history of the last thing he saw before losing his sight: the fall of Troy. Ten years had passed since the beginning of the war, but neither of the two factions gave up, until one day, the Trojans found the achaean camp deserted and a gigantic wooden horse on the beach. While Priam and many other citizens interpreted it as an offer of the Achaeans to Poseidon to secure a safe journey, the priest Laocoön understands that it is a trap, or an offer asking that the god destroy the city. The priest is sure of what he said that he thrust a spear in the belly, almost piercing Odysseus and the others hidden inside. On the verge of burning it, Priam stops Laocoön and orders for the horse to be brought inside the city to repent the offense made. Odysseus' plan works: with the horse inside the walls, the Acheans come out of the sculpture, warn the hidden companions and Troy is conquered. The tragedy is unstoppable and on that same night, the Trojans are wiped out by the Greeks; this is the destiny also of Priam, of Deiphobus, the new husband of Helen, and of Astianax, the baby son of Hector and Andromache, who is taken from his cradle and thrown out of the walls by Neoptolemus, the cruel son of Achilles. Odysseus starts to cry softly, shaken by violent shivers, and Demodocus, after realising it, recognize him under the shock of all people.
Telemachus and Pisistratus arrive in Sparta, where Menelaus and Helen have just returned from their journey. The sovereigns welcome Telemachus, in contrary to his expectations, finds himself in front of two spouses, tested by the fatigue of the war and the fate of the survivors. Agamemnon, was killed by his wife Clytemnestra, and many met the same death in their homes. He says that the last time he heard about Odysseus, he heard from Proteus, who also told him how to go home. Helen drugs the wine of her husband and of the guests to relieve their pain and tells of the time she saw Odysseus before Troy was conquered. After being beaten to death by his friend Diomedes to appear as a beggar, he entered the city presenting himself as a soldier attacked by his comrades. The priestess Cassandra, immediately believes him and confides in him that she knows that her city is destined to lose, if the Palladium of Athena were to be stolen from the temple. After Cassandra goes away, Helen arrives, who has become the widow of Paris, immediately recognizes Odysseus, although battered and bleeding. Odysseus, furious, threaten her of playing the double-cross and unnecessarily wasting time in that palace, since the entire army of Greece is fighting for her, he finally leaves her, warning her against Menelaus.
Odysseus tells the Phaeacians the misadventures that cost him his return home, his fleet and companions. Departing from Troy with twelve ships and many companions, he first loses six men for each of his ships in the land of the Cicones, allies of the Trojans. Later he loses eleven of his twelve ships in the land of the Laestrygonians, giants that sink ships that have entered the port; only the ship of Odysseus is saved, who for precaution had kept it out of the port. Odysseus lands on the Mediterranean coast of Africa, inhabited by strange people called Lotophagi, or eaters of an aphrodisiac flower called Lotus. Three companions are sent scouting, but after several hours they never return. Odysseus goes to look for them and arrives in an immense garden with poor houses. All the inhabitants smile and rave about laughing, and among them there are also the three friends of Odysseus. They have completely lost their memory because they ate the dust obtained from the crushing of the flowers of that field, and now they don't want to leave the island. Even when Odysseus tries to remind them of their wives, children and loved homes, the companions do not express the slightest consideration and continue to devour the lotus with a laugh; Odysseus takes them all and binds them on the ship, to continue the journey.
Odysseus and his companions go to get supplies and so they go hunting until they discover a huge and rough cave. Intrigued, the sailors enter and discover a huge deposit of cheese, milk, and ricotta, and utensils belonging to a giant: the bowls that contain the food are huge, and so are an ax and the bed. However, deaf to the insistence of his companions who would like to leave, believes he can establish a dialogue with the inhabitant whose skills in making knots and producing good ricotta he appreciates, but then there is no more time to escape because the animals of the flock arrive in the cave.
Fourth episode: Polyphemus and the gift of Aeolus