Twenty years after the Second Trojan War, Odysseus is shipwrecked, together with his comrades, on the isle of Circe, where the fame of his heroism has preceded him; his heroic deeds have created a legend around his name, but Odysseus, who is small-built and old by now, cannot live up to it. So, he is forced to 'trade' his own myth, he forgets the pure ideals he used to believe in, and turns into a 'professional hero' for the sake of political necessity.