The Odyssey

Homer's Odyssey is the sequel to the Iliad, and it's synonymous with epic adventure. Once again we're faced with some potential Greco-Roman confusion, as the hero this time is Odysseus, or Ulysses, depending on one's language. Either way this poem focuses on our hero's long journey home after the 10 year Trojan War. Thinking he was dead, many suitors tried to get up on Odysseus' woman in his absence, but eventually his story is told to her: he has been to the ends of the earth and back, and is trying to return to his love. It seems a likely story, such as one might make up when asked "Where have you BEEN for 10 years?" Odysseus: "So there I was... fighting a Cyclops, and I tell him my name is 'nobody,' and when I instruct my men to attack him he shouts 'Help, nobody is attacking me!' And no one came to help. Ah that was a good one. Honey?" That 2800 year old joke and more can be found in Homer's epic, the Odyssey.