The palace of Ulysses, king of Ithaca, is beleaguered by a horde of suitors wooing his wife Penelope after his failure to return from the war against the city of Troy.

Gradually, the stranger remembers that he is Ulysses, who was lost at sea when his ship was blown off course in a storm during his return voyage to Ithaca, as a consequence of his desecrating Neptune's temple during the sacking of Troy.

Going ashore on an unknown island to forage for food, they intrude on the cave of the cyclops Polyphemus, who locks them inside and then eats one of Ulysses' men.

Eager to learn what they sound like, Ulysses has himself tied to the mast while his men plug their ears to resist their enchanting singing, and is tormented when the sirens speak to him with the voices of his family.

Leaving his men to explore, Ulysses returns to find them all missing, captured and transformed into pigs by the mistress of the island, the sorceress Circe.

Circe tries to make him stay and enjoy an eternal life by her side by calling forth the dead from the underworld, including Ulysses' crew and his lost comrades-in-arms from Troy, but then his recently deceased mother Anticlea appears before him, telling him of Penelope's plight.

Upon witnessing her despair and faithfulness for him, he suggests that she hold a contest to determine the suitor who shall marry her the next day: stringing Ulysses' hunting bow and fire an arrow through a dozen axe heads.