The Odyssey

Journeys are most often linear – Here to There – or circular – "There and Back Again." The Odyssey is actually a return leg in the most traumatic and perennial circular journey: going to war, and then, getting back. "Wily" (in modern terms, read, "sneaky," "trickster")  Odysseus left Troy a famous warrior, but takes seven years to get home. The fabulous episodes of that journey, the Cyclops, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, Circe, and Calypso, the wreck in Phaeacia that leaves him bereft even of clothes, have grounded the Western imagination. But the concluding little things – the recognition… show more.

It doesn’t get any more epic or classic than Homer’s Odyssey. Of the many trials the hero overcomes, outwitting Polyphemus (the Cyclops), and tying himself to his ship’s mast to hear the alluring call of the Sirens, are my two favorites. Everything about this war-weary hero’s saga to return back from Troy to Ithaca is storytelling at its finest. I’ve always loved Greek mythology, and Homer demonstrates the capricious pettiness of the gods as they play games with us mere mortals. When Odysseus finally gets home, everything is changed. He’s changed. At least his dog still recognizes him. Read… show more.

The Odyssey is one of the oldest extant literary works still read by modern audiences, and for good reason. It is an epic poem (in 24 short “books”) about the long voyage home from the Trojan Wars of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and his retinue, aboard an ancient Greek vessel powered by sail and oars. The prose evokes wonderful imagery (“the wine dark sea),” while the plot is thoroughly entertaining. The book remains the quintessential model for a quest. I found the ending to be most satisfying as Odysseus is forced to ruthlessly resolve an existential crisis upon returning home… show more.

No book list about adventure is truly complete without the story often called “the greatest ever told.” Setting the blueprint for heroes to come after, Odysseus travels through hardships in a humble attempt to get back home, battling mythical monsters on one page, and the vengeful gods on the next. Sure, it’s that one book you were forced to read in high school that you hated every second of, but you’re grown now. A seasoned adventurer! And any good hero is never going to enjoy something if they’re told to do it. Without the pressure of teachers and grades, step… show more.

Possibly the greatest story ever told, and almost certainly the most influential outside of the Bible. For all the marvellous fantasy elements – the man-guzzling Cyclops, Circe with her powers of transformation or the eerie visit to the underworld – not to mention the blood-soaked climax (providing a template for thousands of action tales ending in a single location shoot-out), the story is at its most exhilarating when it slows down to the personal. The reunion between the hero and his long-suffering wife is a poignant climax, and so is Odysseus’s encounter with his son Telemachus, a lost boy who’s… show more.