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Full catalogue / The Odyssey / Dutch – English
The Odyssey

Homer

The Odyssey

Original publication
800 BC
Bilingual edition
June 12, 2026
Pages
658
Difficulty
★★★
Genres
Adventure, History, Travel Writing
Translated from
English

Book summary

Odysseus, king of Ithaca, tries to return home after the Trojan War, but his journey turns into a long wandering full of trials. He faces mythical creatures, capricious gods, and temptations that slow his return. Meanwhile, Penelope, his wife, resists the suitors invading their home. Each stage tests Odysseus’s intelligence, patience, and determination. This foundational tale mixes adventure, cunning, and fate, offering a reflection on journey, identity, and perseverance.

The plot

A passage between two dangers. Odysseus and his sailors reach a narrow passage between two rocks. Under one, a whirlpool swallows the sea three times a day. In the other hides Scylla, a long-necked monster that…

The world of the book

A world of sea, islands and gods. The book is set in the Greece of legend. People travel from island to island in long ships with oars and sails. The gods meddle in human lives: Poseidon, god of the sea, bears a grudge…

The author

Legend says he researched Odysseus’s life. Homer lived in Greece about 2,700 years ago. Little is known about his life, and the Greeks turned it into a legend. They pictured him as a poet who went from town to town…

The benefits of the bilingual method with Line-by-line synced layout

Every line of the original has its translation directly beneath it, at the same height. You never lose your place: your eye drops one line and lands on exactly the sentence it just read. This is the layout that lets you open a book in a language you barely know without ever giving up, and compare the two texts almost word for word.

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