"The stories of the Trojan war, of Helen of Troy - the face that launched a thousand ships, Achilles' heel, Jason and the Argonauts and Odysseus' quest are embedded stories in our culture, yet we often fail to recognise that they all spring from two sources: The Iliad and The Odyssey, and one blind poet: Homer. In this ground-breaking book Alberto Manguel explains how these epic works came into existence and how they were received, and discusses how they have managed to sustain their place at the heart of western culture over the last two thousand seven hundred years." -- Provided by publisher.