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In the Iliad Homer sang of death and glory, of a few days in the struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Mortal men played out their fate under the gaze of the gods. The Odyssey is the original collection of tall travellerโs tales. Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War, encounters all kinds of marvels from one-eyed giants to witches and beautiful temptresses. His adventures are many and memorable before he gets back to Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope. We can never be certain that both these stories belonged to Homer. In fact โHomerโ may not be a real name but a kind of nickname meaning perhaps โthe hostageโ or โthe blind oneโ. Whatever the truth of their origin, the two stories, developed around three thousand years ago, may well still be read in three thousand yearsโ time.
Robert Fagles (1933-2008) was Arthur W. Marks โ19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He was the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His translations include Sophoclesโs Three Theban Plays, Aeschylusโs Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award), Homerโs Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets), Homerโs Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid.