The Odyssey

So begins Robert Fagles's magnificent translation of the Odyssey.

If The Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, The Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of the everyman's journey through life. During his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, Odysseus relies on his wit and wiles for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces.

In the myths and legends retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom. It's a version to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles's translation.