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Hello, and welcome to this week's newsletter!
We're looking forward to the new Odyssey film. Gods and monsters, shipwrecks and battles, enchantresses, a Cyclops and a journey across perilous seas: The Odyssey is one of the great epics, a story told and retold for more than 2,500 years.
But for all its monsters and adventures, what has kept us returning to it for so long may be something much more human. At its heart is a story about longing for home, about love and loss, temptation and endurance, and the long, difficult business of finding our way back to where we belong.
Through myth and philosophy, the ancient Greeks explored some of the biggest questions we still wrestle with today. What is the nature of things? What makes a life well lived? How do we find our way through uncertainty? What is justice? How can I be true to myself? How should we treat one another?
More than 2,500 years later, those same questions still echo through our everyday lives. We recognise ourselves in Odysseus' longing for home, Persephone's journey through darkness and return to the light, and Sisyphus' determination to keep going despite impossible odds. We still turn to the Stoics for perspective when life feels uncertain, and to Aristotle's reminder that eudaimonia, a flourishing life, is found not in perfection, but in living with purpose and curiosity. The Greeks gave us not only unforgettable stories, but enduring ways of thinking that continue to influence democracy, psychology, literature and the way we understand ourselves.
The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson.
If you've always felt that Homer might not be for you, Emily Wilson's brilliant translation is a very good place to begin. The first woman to translate The Odyssey into English, Wilson brings extraordinary clarity, energy and humanity to one of the oldest stories in Western literature.
Tell me about a complicated man.
Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost
when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy,
and where he went, and who he met, the pain
he suffered in the storms at sea, and how
he worked to save his life and bring his men
back home.
Her Odysseus is not simply a great hero, but a complicated man: cunning, flawed, resilient and desperate to find his way home. The gods, monsters, shipwrecks and adventures are all here, but so too are the questions that have kept us returning to this story for more than 2,500 years. What does it mean to belong? What are we capable of when we want something badly enough? And after being changed by everything we've been through, can we ever truly go home again?
An ancient epic that, in Wilson's hands, feels really alive.
Take a look at our collection of books exploring the myths, philosophies and timeless ideas that continue to illuminate modern life. Their lessons remind us to question our assumptions, embrace uncertainty, cultivate resilience, and seek meaning rather than certainty. In a fast-moving world, they invite us to pause, think more deeply, and discover that many of the challenges we face today are, in fact, ancient ones—and that some of the oldest stories still have the most to teach us.
We often prescribe the poem Ithaka by C. P. Cavafy (1863-1933), widely considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century.
extract from Ithaka
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
By C. P. Cavafy
You can read the whole poem here.
Ithica, and a selection of the poet's best-loved works are featured in C. P. Cavafy's Collected Poems and the Everyman's Library pocket edition.
 
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