The Iliad and the Odyssey were composed nearly 3,000 years ago, and they are still constantly translated, imitated, dramatized and—above all—read. In a world in which few things stay in fashion for more than a single season, that is indeed a surprising fact. It is also a fact that distinguishes our society from most others of the past: The ancient Greeks, for example, did not possess and read texts nearly so old or remote from their own time. But that is not all. These ancient poems, which have been read and reread for so many centuries, are in many […]