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What happened to Helen after the Trojan War? Mary and Charlotte pick up the trail of mythology’s most famous femme fatale as she makes the long journey home from Troy. The big question at the end of the previous episode was whether her husband Menelaus would kill her as revenge for betraying him with Paris.  Needless to say, her charms win out and, after a long stop in Egypt, where she acquires some amazing accessories, they return home to Sparta. Just in time for Telemachus, son of Odysseus, to arrive and ask them if he knows where his father is? The Helen of The Odyssey Book 4 takes us by surprise. She and Menelaus have settled into a rather humdrum domestic companionship. And it raises the question: was all that fighting and bloodshed worth it? For this?  Just as fascinating as Homer’s surprise depiction is a theory embedded in Greek texts that Helen never actually went to Troy, but sat out the whole affair in relative safety in Egypt. The Helen people saw on the ramparts of Troy was simply an eidolon - an image.  Mary and Charlotte show how the true nature of Helen - villain, victim or double agent? - provided an endless source of debate, and opportunities for creative flights of fancy, in the ancient world. Finally, they look at a few of the different accounts of her final years.  @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: In addition to the reading recommended for the earlier episodes: The whole tradition of the phantom of Helen is discussed in detail by Norman Austin in Helen of Troy and her Shameless Phantom (Cornell UP, 2018) Helen and Menelaus in Sparta feature in Book 4 of the Odyssey (with a detailed recent discussion by J Burgess in The Oxford Critical Guide to Homer’s Odyssey, ed Christensen (Oxford UP, pb, 2025)) Herodotus’ account is at his Histories 2, 112 ff Euripides’ play Helen is available online here https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0100 though it is a rather old-fashioned translation (be warned!)  and there is a full performance (by students) on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MVyAZbRaK0 Emily Wilson translated Euripides’ Helen as part of a recommended (if you want to go for it) fat selection of Greek plays in recent translation: The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (Modern Library Classics, pbck, 2017) edited by Mary Lefkowitz and James Romm Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey is set to be the blockbuster event of the summer. With the first trailers now coming online, Mary and Charlotte take a look to get a sense if the hype is worth it.  Have your say at… @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mary and Charlotte launch into Book 8 to find Odysseus still at the Phaeacian palace. King Alcinous has promised to help Odysseus get home, but first - there’s going to be another feast. A bard is brought out who massively fails to read the room by singing about a huge row Odysseus once had with Achilles - which causes Odysseus to burst into tears (to be fair: Odysseus still hasn’t revealed his name, so the bard wasn’t to know!) Alcinous comes to the rescue by shutting the bard up and proposes a sporting competition instead. Odysseus asks to abstain - he just wants to go home - but a local noble called Euryalus taunts him, saying he’s making excuses because he’s hopeless at sports. Justifiably riled, Odysseus grabs a discus and… slays all Phaeacian records. He goes on to proclaim his talent in any number of sporting and fighting techniques. Alcinous, worrying that his party is going awry again, decides to bring the bard back to have another go. And on the cliffhanger of a bard’s song, Mary and Charlotte park the second half of Book 8 until next time. Please have your say in the Book Club channel on our discourse site Or send your thoughts to [email protected] Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford DOP - Ben Warburton Camera Operator - Dan Sturgess Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson

When Paris, a Trojan prince, abducted Helen of Sparta, the Greeks came in hot pursuit and besieged Troy for ten years. But what was Helen’s role in all this? Was she really kidnapped, or did she elope? And whose side was she really on during the ensuing war? Mary and Charlotte turn to a variety of ancient texts to explore these questions.  In Homer’s The Iliad - the longest and greatest account of the war - Helen isn’t even one of the main characters. She watches Paris and Menelaus fight a duel in her name, draws the admiration of old men, and spends some sexy time with Paris. In The Odyssey, we find out about her role in the final episode of the war - the Trojan Horse. Here she appears more of a double agent: secretly communicating with Odysseus, but also tormenting his soldiers.   In Virgil’s Aeneid, she is a hate figure and a focus of murderous fantasies for the hero Aeneas. Finally, Mary and Charlotte look at The Trojan Women by Euripides, where Helen defends herself as a victim of the gods and her own beauty. Menelaus plans to slaughter her, but we know by the end of this play that is unlikely. What happens next is the focus of the next episode! @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: The key sections of the Iliad that feature Helen are Book 3 (where she appears 4 times), Book 6, 342 ff and towards the very end of Book 24. Helen herself and Menelaus tell her story of the war in Odyssey Book 4, esp. 220ff. Aeneas’s outburst against Helen is in Virgil Aeneid Book 2,  567 ff.  Key modern works on Helen and her role in myth and literature are: Ruby Blondell, Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation (Oxford UP, pb, 2015) Bettany Hughes, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore (Pimlico, pb, 2013) Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sex goddess. Whore. Temptress. Adulteress. Victim. Helen of Troy has been called many things. In the run-up to Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey later this year, amidst swirling rumours about who is playing Helen, Mary and Charlotte look beyond the labels and ask: who was Helen really and what role does she play in myth?  This isn’t an easy question to answer. Accounts of Helen’s character and life come from myriad sources - many of which contradict one another. In the first episode of our four-part series, Mary and Charlotte look at Helen’s early years. She was born of a rape, when Zeus, disguised as a swan, forced himself upon Leda, Queen of Sparta. The young Helen was married to Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, and became queen of Sparta. The trouble began hundreds of miles away and the so-called Judgement of Paris.  Paris was the son of King Priam of Troy. In a high-stakes wedding game (think opening scene of The Godfather), he was asked to choose which of the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite was most beautiful. Aphrodite bribed him by promising he could have the most beautiful mortal woman in the world, conveniently forgetting that Helen was already married. Paris went to Sparta to collect his prize. He waited for Menelaus to depart the scene, then took Helen to Troy. Whether she eloped or was abducted has been debated ever since. And so… the Trojan War. @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: There are many ancient accounts of the Judgement of Paris and the events leading up to it. You can find the parody of Lucian here (it’s the last of his Dialogues of the Gods): https://www.theoi.com/Text/LucianDialoguesGods1.html A more standard ancient account of Helen’s back story, her marriage and the judgement of Paris is given by Apollodorus (or Pseudo-Apollodorus!), writing during the Roman empire, see esp. 3. 10. 7 ff and Epitome 3: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus3.html#10 and https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html#3  For modern discussions of Helen (relevant to this and our later episodes): Ruby Blondell, Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation (Oxford UP, pb, 2015) Bettany Hughes, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore (Pimlico, pb, 2013) Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nausicaa takes Odysseus to her parents’ palace on the island of Phaeacia. The palace is awash with gold and silver. Odysseus is overawed, yet there is something slightly unsettling and odd about this kingdom… Odysseus throws himself at the feet of Queen Arete and King Alcinous and asks for her help returning home. He gives a brief recap of his story, focusing on the recent imprisonment on Calypso’s island, but selectively leaving out episodes that might show him in a dishonourable light. The ever polytropos Odysseus is also careful to compliment the king and queen on their delightful daughter Nausicaa. Alcinous misreads the situation and offers his daughter’s hand in marriage, despite not even knowing Odysseus’ name. He also offers to help Odysseus return home. Book 7 ends with Arete and Alcinous going to sleep in their bed, while Odysseus beds down on the porch - thinking, hoping, for his own reunion with his wife. T Van Nortwick’s The Unknown Odysseus (Michigan UP, pb, 2020) is a specialised study of the different versions of Odysseus we find in the poem; but he has quite a lot to say about the encounter with Nausicaa, esp. Chap 2. Just out is The Oxford Critical Guide to Homer’s Odyssey, edited by Joel Christensen (Oxford UP, pb, 2025). It includes useful chapters on Books 6 and 7 (and the other books of the poem that we have discussed) Please have your say in the Book Club channel on our discourse site Or send your thoughts to [email protected] Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford DOP - Ben Warburton Camera Operator - Dan Sturgess Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson

We may think of Ancient Greek warfare as scantily dressed musclemen thrashing it out on the desert plain (and there may have been an element of that), but there was a whole other side of spy work too. Much of this was the result of its fraught relationship with the vast Persian empire to the east - a centuries long rivalry which makes the Cold War look like a hot skirmish. Mary and Charlotte share some of the surviving stories of Ancient Greek espionage, including secret messages concealed in women’s earrings and even tattooed onto an enslaved person’s head. Most of these stories focus on writing and it’s a reminder that in the Ancient World, writing was as innovative and inherently suspicious as drones are to us today. Societies with advanced written culture had the technological upperhand on their rivals, so it’s little surprise that the surviving stories about spies reveal an anxiety about this new form of communication.  @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: The story of Bellerophon is told in Book 6 of the Iliad (the “dangerous signs” line 165) The stories of Gorgo can be found in Herodotus, Histories Book 5, 49 and Book 7, 239 (she is described as one of the first cryptanalysts by David Kahn in The Codebreakers (Scribners, 1996)). She is one of the women who features in Sarah B Pomeroy, Spartan Women (OUP, pb, 2002). Herodotus Histories Book 5 (chaps 35 ff) describes the message tattooed into the slaves head. Aeneas Tacticus: the relevant passage is at section 31.20 The revolutionary effects in general of early literacy (and different technologies of writing) are discussed by Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy (Routledge pb, new ed. 2012). For Greece, in particular, Oswyn Murray’s Early Greece (Fontana pb, 2nd ed, 2010) stresses the importance of the beginnings of writing.  Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Naomi Alderman is an author and games designer. Her books include Disobedience (adapted into a film starring Rachel Weisz), The Power (also an Amazon Prime series) and most recently The Future. She’s also an emerging classicist and reached out to Instant Classics after our episode on the toga came happily close to her MA thesis on the same subject.  In this episode, Naomi sets the record straight about when and why women in Ancient Rome may have worn the toga, talks about her interest in the classical world and why studying it gives her solace. Finally, she asks the big question - which Mary and Charlotte answer too - if you could rescue one lost work of literature from the past, what would it be?  This episode was recorded in a moment of immense jeopardy as Naomi waited to discover if she had passed her Classics MA or not. The next day we had our answer. Yes - and with distinction. Which is not surprising based on the evidence of her conversation in this episode.  Content warning: this episode contains mildly explicit comments about sex in the ancient world. @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: all Naomi’s books, games, broadcasts and myriad other activities can be found on her website, naomialderman.com The question of Roman women (and which Roman women) wearing the toga has been discussed in intricate detail for decades. Naomi’s dissertation clearly disposes of the idea that adulteresses were forced to wear it. But if you want a flavour of the arguments, one of the clearest discussions, yes clearest (!), try Thomas A J McGinn,  Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome (OUP pb, 1998), esp chap 5. Mary chose the autobiography of Nero’s mother, Agrippina, as her favourite “lost work” of the ancient world. There is more on this in A. A. Barrett’s Agrippina, Mother of Nero (Routledge pb, 1999). Charlotte made a reference to a 19th century science fiction novel whose name she couldn’t remember – it was After London by Richard Jefferies Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We left Odysseus on a deserted shore, naked, battered, exhausted and sleeping on a bed of leaves. And on that cliffhanger, Mary and Charlotte pick him up for Book 6. This book is one of the most beguiling passages of The Odyssey. Our hero is found by Nausicaa, the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians (on Scheria, the island on which Odysseus has washed up). In terms of action, all that happens is Nausicaa gives Odysseus some clothes and takes him to her parents’ palace, but a great deal goes on at a psychological level. Odysseus and Nausicaa seem to be attracted to one another but, in sharp contrast to his experience on Calypso’s island, their interaction is chaste and respectful. It’s one of the great romantic ‘what ifs’ of literature. So much so that the great Victorian novelist Samuel Butler even wrote a novel entitled The Authoress of the Odyssey (1897), in which he imagines that Homer was not only a woman, but based the character of Nausicaa on herself. Please have your say in the Book Club channel on our discourse site Or send your thoughts to [email protected] Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford DOP - Ben Warburton Camera Operator - Dan Sturgess Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson

Since Instant Classics launched, we’ve loved getting your questions and ideas for topics. So for our New Year’s Day episode, Mary and Charlotte respond to some of those which have tickled their curiosity too.  Where did the Romans stash their cash? What was a trip to the doctor like for women? Why do some people still try to speak (rather than just read) Latin? Was there a Jewish community in Roman Britain? And are there any feminist role models in the pantheon of ancient gods?  While it is easier to answer some of these questions than others, each gives an insight to an area of the classical world we haven’t yet examined - and reminds us that however close we think we are to the ancient Romans or Greeks, huge parts of their lives and the way they thought about the world are lost to us. Just when we think we have a handle on them, they elude our grasp once again.  Charlotte and Mary’s reading suggestions Jean Andreau, Banking and Business in the Roman World (Cambridge UP, 1999) is a short guide to what Roman “bankers” got up to. For valuables stored in the Temple of Castor, see Juvenal, Satires 14, 260ff  The Mildenhall Treasure, now in the British Museum:  For a translation of Soranus’ On Gynecology (the qualities of a midwife are discussed near the start of Book1) Hippocrates’ words of wisdom on midwives Hippocrates on the medical dangers of being a virgin For a good online article of Roman midwives, with images of their tombstones:  An article on learning to speak Latin via the Oxford Latinitas Project For teaching Latin in the 1920s by the so-call “Direct Method” Article on a possible Jewish tombstone in Roman Scotland (Warren, M., 2023, Invisibility, erasure, and a Jewish tombstone in Roman Britain. Journal for Ancient Judaism, 14 (1). pp. 1-20.) Plus – the tombstone in question with its decoration of palm fronds (or menorahs?) Mary discusses kosher garum in her book Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (Profile, 2009) @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube@insta_classics for Xemail: [email protected] Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every December, the Ancient Romans took part in a festival of feasting, drinking, gift-giving and awkward office parties. So far, so Christmas. But, in this episode, Mary and Charlotte ask what really went on during the Roman festival of Saturnalia and whether the comparisons to Christmas really hold?  As is so often the case, we discover a people and culture similar to us in some ways, yet also completely alien. The records show that socks were sometimes Saturnalia presents – but, disturbingly, so too were enslaved people. Jokes about the boss were acceptable at Christmas parties, unless - as we discover in one macabre story - the boss happens to be the emperor Nero.  The brutal side of Saturnalia becomes really apparent when you consider the differences between Santa and Saturn. One likes to spoil children, the other has a horrid habit of eating them. So if you do decide to celebrate Saturnalia, no laughing at the boss, and keep those chimneys blocked!  Charlotte and Mary’s reading suggestions The best guides to the Saturnalia are the ancient sources themselves. Martial’s “gift tags” are Books 13 and 14 of his Epigrams (rather stilted translations here: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/martial_epigrams_book13.htm and https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/martial_epigrams_book14.htm The Saturnalia of Nero and Britannicus is described at Tacitus Annals 13, 15. Macrobius’ Saturnalia  (c 400 CE) is a long, multi-book, learned discussion (set at a Saturnalian festival), which speculates on the origins of the festival among much else. Mary discusses the chilling Roman practice of giving enslaved people as presents in her Emperor of Rome (Profile, pb, 2024) @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can you believe we’ve reached episode 9 of our Odyssey book club and the hero of the story has yet to appear? In this episode, the gods - like some of our listeners - decide they have waited long enough and dispatch their messenger Hermes to get things moving. Mary and Charlotte find Odysseus on shore of Calypso’s island, where he has been imprisoned for several years by the divine nymph Calypso herself. In keeping with the men of this story, he’s having a good cry. Hermes arrives and tells Calypso it’s time to release her captive. Reluctantly, she helps Odysseus build a raft and he sets sail - only to find himself in a terrifying storm sent by Poseidon, who is furious with him for reasons we will shortly discover. With Athena’s help, Odysseus survives and washes up - battered and naked - on a foreign shore. What new perils await? Tune in next time to find out. Please have your say in the Book Club channel on our discourse site Or send your thoughts to [email protected] Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford DOP - Ben Warburton Camera Operator - Dan Sturgess Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson

The Ancient Greeks, it’s often said, invented theatre - and the plays they wrote are still big box office today, particularly when you have a Hollywood star in the main part. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte wonder what a day at the theatre in Ancient Athens was actually like. Did it bear any resemblance to theatre-going experience in the West End or Broadway today?  The more one gets into the nitty-gritty of Greek theatre festivals - the military parades, hymn singing, displays of war booty, processions of unmarried girls, orphans, and large phalluses - the more alien it seems. The fact that it took place in the open air and the actors wore masks is the least of it.  So what was really going on when the Athenians got together to watch a play? Why was the state so involved? And would Mary and Charlotte, as women, have even been allowed in?  @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] On Greek theatre, the context and the practicalities… Good accessible introductions are:  The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theatre, ed. McDonald and Walton (Cambridge UP pb, 2011) The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, ed. Easterling (Cambridge UP pb, 1997) There is a crucial academic article on the pre-performance ceremonies by Simon Goldhill: 'The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology', reprinted in Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in Its Social Context, ed. Winkler and Zeitlin (Princeton UP, pb 1992) Greek Tragedy: Suffering Under the Sun by Edith Hall Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Asterix to Up Pompeii to Life of Brian, there are lots of modern comedies about the Romans, but what did the Romans themselves find funny? In this episode, Mary and Charlotte share their favourite Roman jokes and ask the bigger questions: what can Roman humour tell us about the world of ancient Rome itself? Can we still ‘get’ Roman jokes and do any of them still have the power to make us laugh now?  Fortunately, there’s a surprising number of Roman jokes that survive today - whether graffiti, on papyrus and an actual joke book called Philogelos. Despite the contemporary image of Rome as an autocratic, relentlessly bloodthirsty society, their jokes tell a different story. Works like Apocolocyntosis (The Pumpkinification of the divine Claudius) by Seneca show a huge irreverence to imperial grandeur, while the surviving jokes we have very rarely exhibit the cruelty we associate with a society hooked on slavery and gladiatorial games. They also suggest a widespread anxiety around self-identity - jokes about people who don’t know who they are really or how they fit into society.  Finally, Mary reveals her favourite Roman joke of all time. But will Charlotte laugh? The stakes are high. Listen to find out.  @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: Charlotte recommends Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up (UCal press pb, new ed. 2024) by one Mary Beard as ‘the’ book on Roman humour.  Mary got a lot out of: J, Bremmer and H. Roodenburg, A cultural history of humour (Polity pb, 1997)  J. Clarke, Looking at Laughter: Humour, Power and Transgression in Roman visual culture (UCal press, 2007). It includes the wonderful images of the philosophers on the lavatory. S Critchley, On Humour (Routledge pb, 2002) Though she warns that books on laughter are often quite serious!  Available online – a translation of Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis …and of the Philogelos And there are other selections from that collection, usually omitting the ones we don’t get! Try https://diotima-doctafemina.org/translations/greek/45-jokes-from-the-laughter-lover/ The jokes of the Emperor Augustus are collected in Macrobius, Saturnalia Book 2 (you can find a translation in the Loeb Classical Library, Harvard UP) Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mary and Charlotte cover the second half of The Odyssey Book 4. The morning after his royal welcome in Sparta, Telemachus talks business with his host King Menelaus. Telemachus asks for news of his father. Menelaus tells a long story about his own return from Troy and his encounter with a sea-god with Proteus. Proteus told Menelaus he had last seen Odysseus held captive on Calypso’s island. He was crying because he missed his family and home so much. That’s all Menelaus knows, but promises Telemachus some great feasting and gifts before he goes home. The action cuts back to Ithaca, where the suitors are hatching a plot to kill Telemachus when he returns to the island. Book 4 ends with the suitors lying in wait to ambush Telemachus. Will their dastardly plan succeed? Tune in to the next episode of IC Book Club to find out! Please have your say in the Book Club channel on our discourse site Or send your thoughts to [email protected] Mary and Charlotte’s recommended reads: If you want to explore the figure of Proteus more, there is a detailed chapter on him in Mark Buchan’s Limits of Heroism (vastly expensive, but the chapter is reprinted in Homer’s The Odyssey ed. By H Bloom, Chelsea House Pub, 2007). The Bloom volume also has an essay by F. Ahl and H Roismann, ‘Rival Homecomings’ comparing the return home of Agamemnon and Odysseus, a theme we have touched on several times. Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson