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What made Odysseus want to return home to his wife after he had been gone for twenty whole years?

There was no one specific event that made Odysseus want to return home to his wife, Penelope, after twenty years.  Honestly he didn't really want to leave in the first place, but he got called away to fight Troy on behalf of Menelaus whose wife, Helen, had been abducted Paris, the prince of Troy.  Odysseus was away from home for the first ten years because that is how long the Trojan War lasted.  Eventually, he conceived of the Trojan Horse idea, and this is what turned the tide of the war; it's how the Achaeans actually got inside the walls of Troy and eventually defeated the Trojans.


Odysseus tried to go right home to Ithaca, but a number of unfortunate events (some his fault, others not) occurred to delay him.  After yet another ten years, Odysseus remains just as committed to reaching home as he ever was.  His tenacity and perseverance, as well as his (relative) loyalty to his wife and religious piety, were seen as much to be admired by the ancient Greeks.

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