Odyssey (Version 4)

Homer's "The Odyssey" forms the template of practically every adventure story that has been told in the West since it was composed nearly three thousand years ago: a bold and ingenious hero (in this case Ulysses, one of the principal warriors who fought at Troy) undertakes a long and perilous journey in the course of which he (or she) must confront many different dangers and temptations, both physical and psychological, before engaging in one final struggle that will prove decisive for the hero, and for all who depend upon the hero. Many episodes in this work have entered into our common lore — Ulysses' encounter with the one-eyed Cyclops, his brush with the deadly, beckoning Sirens and his daring pass between Scylla and Charybdis. Many other less familiar episodes in this justly famous tale are likely to strike a modern listener as rich, strange, or downright appalling, reminding us powerfully that the past is, indeed, "another country". - Summary by Peter Dann