The Odyssey: A Mythical Journey Through the Real World - Folded

Homer's Odyssey has been read and studied for thousands of years, and this summer it reaches a new audience with Christopher Nolan's epic film adaptation, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, in cinemas July 2026. This printed map and travel guide locates the mythological places of the poem in real Mediterranean islands and coastlines, from the volcanic Aeolian Islands to the straits of Messina, from the Croatian island of Mljet to the shores of Corfu.

The Odyssey is among the oldest and most enduring works of Western literature, a poem about wandering, homecoming, and the capricious cruelty of gods and seas. For centuries, scholars and travellers have argued over where its fantastical landscapes actually exist: which island was Circe's Aeaea, which whirlpool was Charybdis, where exactly did Odysseus descend to the underworld? This guide draws on those centuries of debate, presenting the most compelling theories alongside the stories themselves. Around 16 locations in total, each with its own entry covering what happens in the poem, which real place scholars have proposed as the inspiration, and competing theories where they exist.

The guide is written by Laura Coffey, travel writer and author of Enchanted Islands: A Mediterranean Odyssey, a memoir of a six-month journey through the Greek islands that traces the mythological and real-world landscapes of Odysseus's voyage. Her work has appeared in Condé Nast Traveller, The Guardian, and BBC Travel.

Witty, informed, and designed to make people want to visit these places, the guide treats the Mediterranean not merely as a backdrop to a poem but as a living landscape, one that still carries the weight of the myths mapped onto it. These are not just islands with ancient ruins. They are places where the mythological and the real genuinely converge.