sdi

Okay, this is strictly silly and has nothing to do with spirituality.

Book II of the Iliad tells us that Odusseus came to Troia with twelve ships. It doesn't say how many men those ships had, but it does say the Boiotian ships had six score men apiece; if we assume the same figure for the Kephallenians, then Odusseus initially commanded 1440 men.

Odusseus still had all twelve ships by the time he reached the island of the Circle-Eyes. For sake of argument, I'll assume that he divided his remaining men—however many they were—evenly among his remaining ships when they left Troia, but didn't redistribute them afterwards as they took casualties (all of which came from Odusseus's ship).

When Odusseus reached Aiaia, he divided his men into two halves, one half commanded by himself, and the other by Eurulokhos, his brother-in-law. Eurulokhos's group had 23 men; I presume, therefore, that Odusseus's either also had 23 or else had 24 (with Odusseus taking the odd man out due to seniority). This means that at Aiaia, Odusseus had either 46 or 47 men.

Prior to Aiaia, seven of the men from Odusseus's ship got eaten (one by Antiphates, the king of the Laistrugons; and six by Very-Famous, the Circle-Eye), meaning he had 53 or 54 after the counter-attack by Ismarians; since they killed six men from each ship, the ships presumably had 59 or 60 each when leaving Troia.

If we assume 60 each, then things are too nice and neat to be a coincidence: this would mean that the Troians halved Odusseus's men, while the Ismarians decimated them, which is very convenient from an authorship perspective. If we accept that, then the voyage looks like this:

Odusseus left Ithake with twelve ships of 120 men each (1440).
Odusseus left Troia with twelve ships of 60 men each (720).
Odusseus left Thrake with twelve ships of 54 men each (648).
Odusseus left the island of the Circle-Eyes with eleven ships of 54 men each and one ship (his own) of 48 men (642).
Odusseus left the island of the Laistrugons with one ship of 47 men.
Odusseus left Aiaia with one ship of 46 men.
Odusseus left Skulla and Kharubdis with one ship of 40 men.
Odusseus left Triangle Island alone.

How harrowing! On the other hand, Odusseus was the only eyewitness and a notorious liar, so who really knows?