'İlyada ve Odysseia', Egeli bir ozan olan 'Homeros'un yarattığı iki büyük destandır. 'Homeros', sözlü edebiyat geleneğini sürdüren bir ozandı. Bu destanları İsa'dan önce dokuzuncu yüzyılda yarattığı sanılıyor. Yazılışı, kaleme alınışı daha sonradır. Bu İzmirli büyük ozan, "İlyada"da, Troya Kenti'nin destanını anlatır. Troya Kenti, Çanakkale Boğazının Anadolu yakasında bugünkü adıyla Hisarlık Tepesine kurulu varlıklı bir kentti. Yunanistan'dan gelen Akhalar'ın saldırısına uğrar, bu savaşta iki toplum karşı karşıya gelir. Yurtları Anadolu'da bulunan Troyalılarla Yunanistan'dan gelen Akhalar Topluluğunun savaşıdır bu büyük destan. Akhalar Topluluğu Yunanistan'ın çeşitli bölge krallarından oluşmuş bir ordudur. Her kral, kendi gemileri ve adamlarıyla yola çıkmıştır ve bu ordular, krallar kralı Agamemnon'un yönetiminde birleşip örgütlenmişlerdir. Güçlüdürler. Akhalar, daha soylu, daha yürekli, daha akıllı ve daha örgütlüdürler. Ve savaşı kazanırlar. Troyalılar'ın yenilgisinin destanı olan 'İlyada', 24 bölümden ve 16.000'i aşkın dizeden oluşur. Troya Savaşının dokuzuncu yılında 51 günlük bir süreyi kapsar. Yani o büyük savaşın kısa bir kesitidir bu destan. Helence aslından, 'Azra Erhat'ın, A. Kadir'le birlikte yaptığı bu ölümsüz çeviriyi Can Yayınları olarak kıvançla yayımlıyoruz.

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624. Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath. They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.

Odysseia on eurooppalaisen kirjallisuuden ensimmäinen suuri saavutus, mestariteos, jonka vaikutus länsimaiseen kirjallisuuteen on mittaamaton. Se kuvaa Troijan sodasta palaavan Odysseuksen matkaa kotiin Ithakaan, jossa Penelope odottaa miestään suostumatta kilpakosijoille. Teoksessa on Pentti Saarikosken mestarillinen proosasuomennos.

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey. If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance. In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students. -- Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.