After seven years of being pleasurably detained by the goddess Calypso on the island of Ogygia, Ulysses longs to return home to Penelope. The gods send Mercury, who bids Calypso to let go of the mortal. Ulysses suffers shipwreck. Swept ashore unconscious, he is discovered by Nausicaa, who leads him to her parents, the king and queen of the Phaeacians. At dinner, after briefly mentioning the wooden horse, Ulysses tells of his sexual exploits [flashbacks]: how he was captured by the ugly and squalid daughter of Neptune: a female cyclops who forced him to pleasure her, and how he met the beautiful sorceress Circe who had transformed his companions into pigs. Impressed by his tales, the Phaeacians promise to escort him home to Ithaca. On the gods' plane, Athene is pleased that Zeus fulfilled her wish and allowed Ulysses to regain his favor. An Olympian orgy consummates the joyous occasion. Ulysses' wife Penelope is not satisfied by the sexual prowess of her suitors, which pales in comparison to the power of Ulysses. When a beggar arrives and claims he can do it, she first laughs at him; but after he reveals himself to be her husband and chases the suitors away with his sword, he makes love to his wife like never before.