Library / Separation from Loved Ones
Read this when
The Odyssey
Ten years trying to get home, and the dog is the first one to recognise you. The Odyssey is about coming home changed. 🐕
Who it's for
Odysseus spends ten years trying to get home while his wife Penelope holds off suitors and his son Telemachus grows up without him.
Feelings it meets
What it is
An ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer, composed around the 8th century BCE. Ten years after the Trojan War, Odysseus has still not returned home to Ithaca, where suitors crowd his house pursuing his wife Penelope, who delays remarriage with the ruse of a shroud she weaves by day and unravels by night, while their son Telemachus sets out for news of his father.
Where to find it
Public domain in older English translations (Samuel Butler, Alexander Pope, Butcher & Lang) free on Project Gutenberg. Emily Wilson's (2017) and Robert Fagles's translations are in print, in libraries.
Before you start
Heads up: Bloody massacre and hanging of women.
Age: Ages 12+
Parting is such sweet sorrowWilliam Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2
