Hey guys! This week we are reading a retelling of The Odyssey, by Homer. As the intro to the book says, we are picking up where we left off at the end of Mythology class with Odysseus’ [long and] eventful trip home after the Trojan War. Don’t worry if you missed that last Mythology class, though. There is a good lead-in in the book. This is one of the first epics of Western Literature and it has definitely hung around! You can probably identify elements that were inspired by this story in some of your favorite books and movies. Enjoy the adventure.
- Read The Wanderings of Odysseus (or if you have a British copy of the illustrated edition, it’s just called The Odyssey) by Rosemary Sutcliff. It’s not too long; the cheap paperback version is about 130 pages.
- Optional extra credit: read any portion of a translation of the original Odyssey by Homer. I have not read this, so if you read any part you will pass me up. You may have purchased a physical copy or here it is available to read free online (click “start reading” or “table of contents” to choose a section). If you choose a passage and come read it to us dramatically and tell us which episode it is from or have us guess which episode it’s from, that would be, well, epic.
