Book excerpt: The Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of every man's journey though life. The poem centers on the Greek hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. Odysseus survives storm and shipwreck, the cave of the Cyclops and the isle of Circe, the lure of the Sirens' song, and a trip to the Underworld, only to find his most difficult challenge at home, where treacherous suitors seek to steal his kingdom and his loyal wife, Penelope. The Odyssey is Homers' sequel to the Iliad.