The oldest works of Western literature are to be rediscovered by each generation and are always exciting to read. If any works of world literature can be called immortal, it is the poems of Homer created in the 8th century BC: "Iliad" and "Odyssey." In 24 songs, the "Iliad" depicts the final phase of the ten-year struggle for Troy. At the center of the broadly conceived dramatic action is Achilles, who is dishonored by Agamemnon. Although Homer drew from the rich reservoir of oral tradition, he concentrated all compositional and stylistic means on a central motif, the wrath of Achilles, making the "Iliad" a work of surprising individuality. Homer sings of the adventurous wanderings and the happy return of King Odysseus in his second epic. Compared to the dark...