A...B...Sea

Now a major movie. HarperCollins is proud to present our range of timeless literary classics All my days are consumed in longing – to travel home and see the day of my arrival dawn. If a god must shatter me upon the wine-dark sea, so be it.One of the most enduring tales ever told, The Odyssey is the original homecoming story. After the fall of Troy, victorious war-hero Odysseus sets off on his long return to Ithaca – an adventure which takes him through strange and foreign lands and brings a challenge at every turn from six-headed sea monsters and man-eating giants, seductive sorceresses and vengeful gods. Passed down through the generations for three thousand years, Homer's The Odyssey, has been celebrated as an undisputed great of Western literature.Here in a translation by T. E. Lawrence, this timeless epic explores the longing, determination and courage of those who find themselves a long way from home and asks whether someone who has been at war can ever truly return the same.

Book 18 of the Iliad is an outstanding example of the range and power of Homeric epic. It describes the reaction of the hero Achilles to the death of his closest friend, and his decision to re-enter the conflict even though it means he will lose his own life. The book also includes the forging of the marvellous shield for the hero by the smith-god Hephaestus: the images on the shield are described by the poet in detail, and this description forms the archetypal ecphrasis, influential on many later writers. In an extensive introduction, R. B. Rutherford discusses the themes, style and legacy of the book. The commentary provides line-by-line guidance for readers at all levels, addressing linguistic detail and larger questions of interpretation. A substantial appendix considers the relation between Iliad 18 and the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, which has been prominent in much recent discussion.