The Odyssey by Homer is one of the most well-known Greek classics and is one of the most personal of all stories. The hero of the epic is Odysseus, a crafty and exhausted king who is seeking to return to his kingdom after the Trojan War. It takes him ten years to travel, and he encounters monsters, storms, temptation and the wrath of the gods. But the poem isn't just about adventure. It's also about longing and loyalty, identity and coming back to the normal life after war.

Odysseus is not an ideal hero. He is courageous and clever, but he can be arrogant, suspicious and at times, rash. He meets the Cyclops Polyphemus when he is first introduced as both good and bad. He narrowly escapes through a clever turn, but his pride causes him to reveal his name, and incur the wrath of Poseidon. This gives him more depth than a basic warrior character. It is his mind that keeps him alive, but his frailties make it difficult.

Home is also an important aspect of the poem. Not a great or perfect place, but for Odysseus Ithaca is a place of belonging. His wife Penelope is patient and intelligent in its own right to defend that home. Odysseus fights his way out across the sea and Penelope is surrounded by the suitors who have taken over the palace and are forcing her to remarry. She is a loyal woman who is not passive. She postpones, tries and tricks when she needs to, which is one of the best characters in the poem.

A theme is hospitality, too. In The Odyssey, hospitality toward strangers is a measure of a person's character. The good hosts will provide food, shelter and respect before they ask a lot of questions. This is the custom which the bad hosts (cyclops, suitors) violate. The episodes illustrate in the poem the importance of respect and restraint for civilization.

Despite the fact that The Odyssey was written thousands of years ago, it is still familiar, for its concerns are very human. People know what it is to want to come home, to know the pain of separation and the hardship of being the person you are now after time and suffering have made you into someone you no longer recognize. The gods and monsters abound in the adventures of Odysseus, but it is also a tale of endurance. It poses the question, "What does a person need to live, what must they remember, to be able to find their way back?