The Odyssey
Homer (-900–-800), -800
★ 3.86 from 1.3m ratings on Goodreads
The first great story about a journey home — and every stop along the way is a good reason to give up. A singing, unhurried voyage through danger and longing, with strange hosts, vivid violence, and a steady pull toward home.
Feels like dread, longing and wonder. About home, freedom and adventure.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy adventure told in verse, with gods, monsters, and a hero who keeps finding reasons to delay. Some readers find the later sections slower, and translation choices shape the experience a lot.
Why read it
It offers a foundational story of return, hospitality, and endurance, told with enough strangeness and feeling to speak to any restless moment.
Pages from the book
What the greatest of the Greek heroes would trade for a day of paid labour.
“I spake; Achilles quickly answered me:—‘Noble Ulysses, speak not thus of death,As if thou couldst console me. I would beA laborer on earth, and serve for hireSome man of mean estate, who makes scant cheer,Rather than reign o’er all who have gone downTo death. Speak rather of my noble son,Whether or not he yet has joined the warsTo fight among the foremost of the host. The oldest picture we have of work that undoes itself.
“There I beheld the shade of SisyphusAmid his sufferings. With both hands he rolledA huge stone up a hill. To force it up,He leaned against the mass with hands and feet;But, ere it crossed the summit of the hillA power was felt that sent it rolling back,And downward plunged the unmanageable rockBefore him to the plain. Again he toiledTo heave it upward, while the sweat in streamsRan down his limbs, and dust begrimed his brow. The case for staying up late and telling your worst stories.
These nights are very long; there’s time enoughFor sleep, and time to entertain ourselvesWith talk. It is not fitting to lie downEre the due hour arrive, and too much sleepIs hurtful. Whosoever here shall feelThe strong desire, let him withdraw and sleep,And rise with early morn and break his fast,And tend my master’s swine. Let us remainWithin, and drink and feast, and pass the timeGayly, relating what we have endured,Each one of us; for in the after timeOne who has suffered much and wandered farMay take a pleasure even in his griefs. What readers say
Readers often call the epic surprisingly accessible and entertaining, praising its adventure, vivid violence, and emotional homecoming while admiring particular translations. Some found later sections slower or were frustrated by translation and adaptation debates.
Homer.Who Homer was is genuinely unknown; 'Homer' may name a tradition as much as a man, and these poems were made for singing, not reading.
Books that feel like this
More by Homer
The Iliad
Homer, -750
A war stalled outside a city, a commander's wounded pride, and the best fighter in the army refusing to fight. Seven weeks of rage, grief and armour.
The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original
Homer, -750
A homecoming story where the hero keeps losing ships, men and years, told through monsters, goddesses and one patient wife. Butler's plain prose reads like a travel narrative.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Odyssey for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy adventure told in verse, with gods, monsters, and a hero who keeps finding reasons to delay. Some readers find the later sections slower, and translation choices shape the experience a lot.
- What is The Odyssey like?
- A singing, unhurried voyage through danger and longing, with strange hosts, vivid violence, and a steady pull toward home. Feels like dread, longing and wonder. About home, freedom and adventure.
- What should I read after The Odyssey?
- If you liked The Odyssey, try Oedipus Rex (Sophocles), The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) and Dracula (Bram Stoker).
A taste of the feed
What stays unforgiven when a crime becomes the price of peace?
My lot be still to lead The life of innocence and fly Irreverence in word or deed, To follow still those laws ordained on high Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky. No mortal birth they own, Olympus their progenitor alone: Ne’er shall they slumber in oblivion cold, The god in them is strong and grows not old.
Oedipus Rex · Sophocles
Some dreams are worth crying over when they end.
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.
The Tempest · William Shakespeare
What if the punishment you wanted most was remorse, and it never came.
And if only fate would have sent him repentance—burning repentance that would have torn his heart and robbed him of sleep, that repentance, the awful agony of which brings visions of hanging or drowning! Oh, he would have been glad of it! Tears and agonies would at least have been life. But he did not repent of his crime.
Crime and Punishment · Fyodor Dostoevsky
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