BOOK ONE: A GODDESS INTERVENES

Sing in me, Muse,

and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending,

the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after he plundered the stronghold

on the proud height of Troy
He saw the townlands

and learned the minds of many distant men,
and weathered many bitter nights and days
in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only
to save his life, to bring his shipmates home.
But not by will nor valor could he save them,

for their own recklessness destroyed them all—