The Odyssey by Homer Retold as One Story

You have always meant to know the Odyssey properly. Then you open a translation, the names pile up, and the story slips away before the ship even leaves Troy.

This retelling starts in the action and carries you through Odysseus's ten-year voyage home as one continuous story. You meet the Cyclops in his cave and Circe on her island. You hear the Sirens singing and pass between Scylla and Charybdis, then go down among the dead. Back on Ithaca, Penelope holds off the suitors for years. The gods quarrel and scheme over every step of it, and that drives much of the drama. The story follows the best-known Homeric telling with full scenes and dialogue, and it keeps the cast small so you can follow it by ear. A warm human narrator voices it, with every Greek name checked for pronunciation.

By the time Odysseus strings his bow in his own hall, you will know this epic from start to finish. Press play and set sail.