With wit and wile, the 'man of twists and turns' meets the challenges of the sea-god Poseidon, and monsters ranging from the many-headed Scylla to the cannibalistic Cyclops Polyphemus - only to return after twenty years to a home besieged by his wife Penelope's suitors. Here, one of the great modern translators presents us with The Odyssey, Homer's best-loved poem, recounting Odysseus' wanderings after the Trojan War. When Robert Fagles' translation of The Iliad was published in 1990, critics and scholars alike hailed it as a masterpiece. Other key players in the drama are the great strategist/soldier Odysseus and Troy's brave warrior Hektor, who use their superior intelligence and skills to fight their enemies, and seem to be above the petty fray.Literature's grandest evocation of life's journey, at once an ageless human story and an individual test of moral endurance, Homer's ancient Greek epic The Odyssey is translated by Robert Fagles with an introduction and notes by Bernard Knox in Penguin Classics. Menelaos doesn't want to return home until his army has sacked Troy and he has retrieved Helen. At the core of the war is the fact that Paris, a Trojan prince, has stolen Helen, the wife of Menelaos. Achilles refuses to fight until the woman is restored to him, and the gods choose sides. Agamemnon steals a woman who had been awarded to Achilles as a prize for battles won, but Achilles loves the woman and wants her to be returned. A key issue that carries through the poem involves a conflict between Agamemnon, the brother of Achaian king Menelaos, and the great warrior Achilles. Throughout the poem, the advantage shifts from one side to the other as gods and goddesses interfere, men and/or gods call temporary truces, and mortals jockey for power. When Homer's ILIAD begins, the Trojans and Achaians are already at war.
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