Publisher's Synopsis
This is the story of two legendary sailors - one from the ancient world, the other from today. Set against the backdrop of Homer's great tale, Hal Roth tells the fascinating story of sailing a small boat in the wake of Odysseus. Crossing oceans and seas in pursuit of his goal, Roth, with the help of his wife, Margaret, re-traces the voyages of Odysseus along the Turkish coast and the storybook isles of Greece. Then, he sails to a desert island in Tunisia, visits Sicily and Corsica, and finally goes to Italy and Malta before returning to Greece. While writing this book back in the US, Roth talked to hundreds of people and discovered that though most have heard about Odysseus and the Trojan horse, they have never read "The Iliad" or "The Odyssey"... These are books 'they are planning to read some day'. To deal with this quandary, Roth has expertly summarised each of the chapters of "The Odyssey". Thus, the book has two stories: the ancient voyage of Odysseus, and Roth's modern voyage to each of the nineteen legendary locations that Odysseus visited during his ten-year trial to return to Ithaca. Some of these places are widely agreed upon; others are controversial.;The Roths go to each site on their famous boat and speculate which parts of the epic are factual and which have been romanticised. His frank and candid discussion of what things may have been like in the days of Odysseus, and what they are like today, is as refreshing as it is entertaining.
