what challenges does odysseus face on his journey back to ithica

Odysseus's
journey back to Ithaka at the end of the Trojan War is fraught with seemingly endless
difficulties, which he describes to his Phaiakian hosts in Book IX of the
Odyssey.

• After leaving Troy, Odysseus and his
  men land at Ismaros and raid the city there. They stay long enough for the inhabitants to muster
  a counterattack, and Odysseus loses many of his crew before they can flee the island.


• They sail for nine days, buffeted by storm winds, until arriving at the island of the
  Lotus Eaters. The lotus was used in the ancient world as a powerful narcotic, and the Lotus
  Eaters are addicted to it. Anyone who takes the drug becomes completely indifferent to life, and
  wishes only to have more and more lotus, forever. Three of Odysseus's men eat the lotus and he
  has to drag them back to his ships to get them off the island.
• The crew
  sail on to the land of the Kyklopes, where they encounter Polyphemos, who eats several of
  Odysseus's men before Odysseus manages to blind the giant by stabbing him in his one terrible
  eye. Unfortunately, as Odysseus makes his escape, he can't help letting Polyphemos know exactly
  who outwitted him, and Polyphemos calls upon his father, the god Poseidon, to curse Odysseus.
  Poseidon's wrath towards Odysseus causes Odysseus to eventually lose all his ships and crew and
  remain trapped on Calypso's island for years.
• The crew then sails to the
  island of Aiolos, the King of the Four Winds, who gives Odysseus a leather sack containing the
  winds, which Odysseus can use to drive his ships directly back to Ithaka. They are within
  landfall of the island when one of his men opens the leather sack and lets all the winds out at
  once. A terrible storm arises and blows the ships all off course, so Odysseus limps back to
  Aiolos and asks him if he can fill the leather sack again, but Aiolos refuses, saying Odysseus
  has clearly incurred the wrath of the gods.
• Making their painful way back
  toward Ithaka, this time with no winds at all in their sails, Odysseus's crew sails up a strange
  fjord in a silent country. Odysseus sends a scout out to see if there are any inhabitants who
  might spare them some food. Alas, they've come to the land of the Laistrygonians, vicious
  cannibals who pour out of the seemingly silent landscape and manage to kill most of Odysseus's
  crew before he can escape with just one ship.
• Odysseus and his remaining
  men next land on Aiaia, where the beautiful witch Kirke turns some of the men into pigs.
  Odysseus manages to overcome Kirke and forces her to undo her enchantment, and she becomes a
  friend and ally to him. They stay on Aiaia for a year to rest and recuperate before sailing
  onwards.
• Their next destination is the land of the dead, for Odysseus must
  speak to the ghost of Tireisias, the old blind prophet of Thebes, in order to determine how to
  get home to Ithaka. Odysseus speaks to many ghosts, including Tireisias, who warns him that
  whatever happens, his men must not eat the Cattle of the Sun.
• On their way
  back from the land of the dead, the crew stops at Aiaia again, and Kirke warns Odysseus of the
  perils of the Sirens, the monster Skylla, and the whirlpool Kharybdis.


• Odysseus takes Kirke's warnings to heart and manages to get past the deadly Sirens by
  blocking his men's ears with beeswax so they cannot hear the Sirens' song. The monster Skylla
  manages to eat several of Odysseus's men as they skirt the edge of the whirlpool Kharybdis, but
  this fate cannot be avoided.
• Having passed the monster, the ship lands at
  Thrinakia, where the Cattle of the Sun dwell. Odysseus warns the men never to kill these cattle,
  no matter how hungry they are, but once the food stores run out, the men get desperate, and kill
  the cattle and eat them. Odysseus immediately sets sail from the island, but his ship is
  destroyed by a lightning bolt, and he is the only survivor.
• Cast adrift on
  the ocean in a terrible storm, Odysseus washes up on the island of the nymph Calypso. She takes
  care of him and falls in love with him, and keeps him prisoner on her island for seven years.
  She only lets him go when the gods order her to. She gives Odysseus a raft and provisions, and
  Odysseus sets sail once again. He nearly drowns in a storm sent by Poseidon before washing up on
  the Phaiakian shore.

The Phaiakians give Odysseus food, shelter,
and many gifts and take him safely back to Ithaka in one of their own ships. It has taken
Odysseus ten full years to reach Ithaka's shore.