The Odyssey: It’s a Really, Really, Really Long journey review – dynamic retelling of Homer for all ages
Breathtaking set design and transportive music drive a family-friendly musical of the epic Greek myth
March 2024
The Odyssey: It’s a Really Really Really Long Journey review – Behold, Telemachus the mummy’s boy!
Unicorn theatre, London Even a cyclops can get lonely, even a parent can make a mistake … this electric rendering of the classic is for all the family as Odysseus’s son takes centre stage
October 2023
What we're reading
What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in October
Authors and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments
September 2023
Book of the day
The Iliad by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson review – a bravura feat
‘The Iliad may be ancient – but it’s not far away’: Emily Wilson on Homer’s blood-soaked epic
August 2023
‘Somehow I failed to clock her magnificence’: was the world’s first literary hero a woman?
For centuries, Gilgamesh has been thought of as the world’s oldest literary hero – but does that title rightfully belong to the ancient goddess Inanna?
July 2023
Brief letters
For Boris Johnson, Homer is where the heart is
Brief letters: A naming odyssey | Frankly, Mr Johnson | Bird nest scoop | Vole in a hole | Odes to Northampton
March 2023
Travelling Homer: how the National Theatre is staging a multi-city Odyssey
In episodes developed with communities around England, the production aims to tell ‘a story of resilience and healing and hope’
November 2022
Books interview
Philologist Irene Vallejo: ‘Alexander the Great’s library was the first step towards the internet’
The Spanish writer on how Papyrus, her bestselling history of literature in the ancient world, changed her life at a difficult moment, and why it’s a mistake to undervalue books
April 2022
National Theatre to stage The Odyssey in ‘epic’ retelling around England
Parts to be staged in Stoke, Doncaster, Trowbridge and Sunderland using local writers and amateur casts before finale in London
March 2022
I lost my underwear on the trail of Odysseus in Ithaca, Greece
Research for a new guide book meant climbing a rock face on the Greek island crucial in Homer’s story, then crawling through spiky undergrowth. An epic in itself
November 2021
Rutland’s Roman mosaics bring the Trojan Wars to life in the East Midlands
Natalie Haynes
Recently discovered scenes from Homer’s Iliad show how the influence of the epic poem spread far and wide
September 2021
The Guardian view on a hidden history of poetry: it depends where you look
Fruits of the loom: why Greek myths are relevant for all time
September 2020
Top 10s
Top 10 verse novels
From Homer’s classical epic to Kae Tempest’s mythic struggles in modern London, these books show that poetry can be more immediate than prose
April 2020
Lockdown culture
New Movement Collective review – eerie journeys into Auster and Homer
There are striking moments in the films of this dance group’s performances, inspired by New York Trilogy and The Odyssey
March 2020
Lockdown culture
Got 150 hours? Great audiobooks to listen to on lockdown
Top 10s
Top 10 mentors in fiction
January 2020
Top 10s
From Homer to Alexievich: top 10 books about the human cost of war
