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yeah that would be cool. are some translations more highly respected than others?
this would be fine i guess? :
http://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Robert.../dp/0140268863
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I minored in Classics, a couple profs always used his translations, others Lattimore.
anyways, I'm not sure where I would starts. wikipedia seems like a good place for just basic facts/stories.
if you want to get more serious, the Iliad and Odyssey are both fantastic but dense and can be difficult to get through. I recommend reading Cliffs Notes for a chapter, then reading the actual translation once you already know what happens.
The Iliad is mainly the story of Achilles at the time of the sack of Troy (the famous war ended by the "Trojan Horse" ruse). the Iliad is largely about war, pretty badass.
The Odyssey tells of the travels of Odysseus as he attempts to get home from Troy. this is much more mystical/magical than the Iliad and tells lots of stories you might have heard of.
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My ex-girlfriend is a classicist. Once, when asked who in the entire world she would most like to have dinner with, she picked Robert Fagles.
[/ QUOTE ]What can you do being a classicist other than a professor? An author? Anything else?
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Teach at an all girls catholic high school!!!!
Also, the "Clash of the Titans" suggestion above is actually pretty good, a lot of those old sword and sandal myth movies are solid.
Fagles is a polarizing figure for classicists. His new Aeneid translation is total crap, and his Odyssey is barely tenable (and only tolerated because it's good for high school students and people not in the field). He is, however, very charismatic, so I probably wouldn't mind having dinner with him.