THE ODYSSEY (Homer, Greek, c. 8th century BCE)
A sort of sequel to The Iliad, Homer's Odyssey tells of the hero Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and his return home from the ten-year Trojan War. They wander the Mediterranean ten more years before Odysseus arrives home alone, having lost all his men. He meets the nymph Calypso, the drug-addled lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, cannibals, the witch Circe, the dangerously alluring Sirens, and the twin threats of Scylla and Charybdis. At home he finds that over 100 "suitors" have been vying for his "widow"--while eating him out of house and home. In a sub-plot, his son Telemachus had set out to search for him. In the end, father and son are re-united at Ithaca, slay the suitors, and restore balance to the kingdom.
- It was "Clever Odysseus" who devised the ruse of the "Trojan Horse" that ended the Trojan War.
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