The cast includes Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Irene Papas, Isabella Rossellini, Bernadette Peters, Eric Roberts, Geraldine Chaplin, Jeroen Krabbé, Christopher Lee and Vanessa Williams.

[3] Odysseus (Armand Assante), the king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Ithaca, is called to service in the Trojan War after the birth of his son Telemachus, much to the dismay of his wife Queen Penelope (Greta Scacchi).

The war lasts ten years, during which Greece's best soldier, Achilles (Richard Truett), is killed and the Greeks avenge him by using a giant horse to sneak inside and destroy the city of Troy.

A gargantuan Cyclops named Polyphemus (Reid Asato) traps them in his cave intending to eat them, but Odysseus gets him drunk on wine, causing him to pass out.

Then, he sharpens a tree branch into a stake and blinds Polyphemus, allowing them to escape by hiding under sheep skins when he removes the heavy stone door.

Odysseus travels to an island where Aeolus (Michael J. Pollard) provides him with a bag of wind to help him home, instructing him to open it when he gets close to Ithaca.

After Odysseus sacrifices a goat into the River Styx, Tiresias tells him that the only way home will take him past a treacherous isle where Scylla (sea monster) and Charybdis (tidal pool) live.

She informs him that back on Ithaca there are multiple suitors, including Eurymachus (Eric Roberts), vying with each other to marry Penelope for her money and power.

Meanwhile, Odysseus' now 15-year-old son Telemachus (Alan Stenson) tries to find his father and is told by Athena (Isabella Rossellini) to travel to Sparta and seek out one of his former comrades that fought with him.