Jinxed Hero

He sailed across a vast sea to fight and destroy

in that most fierce and glorious war in Troy.

His pride and wit became his fatal blight

he provoked the gods to get their wrath,

condemned by them to wander in the night.

For twenty years to roam in the ocean foam

until allowed to find his way back home,

to his kingdom now friendless, alone,

and his beloved Penelope

surrounded by 108 suitors

who proved to be traitors.

But his cleverness woke in him again,

and he shaped a simple trick.

None of the suitors could string

his famous bow nor shoot the arrow

through twelve axes except one—

a vagabond.

Dressed in rags and dirt

he bent the wood and put them on alert,

when his rags fell off to reveal himself.

His welcome

was a bloody feast,

and our hero Odysseus

finally had back his throne.

©2026, Vasiliki Papadopoulou