725 BCEThe Classical Epic
The Odyssey
Homer · 750–700 BCE · Ancient Greece
Originally Ὀδύσσεια (Ancient Greek) · translated by Emily Wilson
Why it matters
A soldier takes ten years to get home, through cyclopes, sorceresses, and the dead, while his wife holds off a houseful of suitors. The template for every journey narrative since, and, in its cunning, storytelling hero, the first great portrait of intelligence.
At a glance
epic
Difficulty 6/10fast pace450 pagesEpic conventions and a nonlinear structure, though the episodic adventures pull the reader along.
Deep dive
The poem stages a quiet argument about what actually counts as heroism, and gives Penelope her own version of her husband's defining trick.
