The Odyssey by Homer

The Odyssey by Homer

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All my days are consumed in longing – to travel home and see the day of my arrival dawn. If a god must shatter me upon the wine-dark sea, so be it.

One of the most enduring tales ever told, The Odyssey is the original homecoming story. After the fall of Troy, victorious war-hero Odysseus sets off on his long return to Ithaca – an adventure which takes him through strange and foreign lands and brings a challenge at every turn from six-headed sea monsters and man-eating giants, seductive sorceresses and vengeful gods.

Passed down through the generations for three thousand years, Homer's The Odyssey, has been celebrated as an undisputed great of Western literature. Here in a translation by T. E. Lawrence, this timeless epic explores the longing, determination and courage of those who find themselves a long way from home and asks whether someone who has been at war can ever truly return the same.

Homer’s exact lifetime is unknown, but it is estimated as around 700–800 BC. Homer wrote the epic poems of ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’ and has had an enormous influence on the history of literature. He is considered the greatest of the ancient Greek poets.