The poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus) and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci, who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage. THE English version of The Odyssey is Alexander Pope's 1725 translation. As Dr. Johnson said, it is, "certainly the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen." This is that text, the great Odyssey of Homer, as cast into Engish by Alexander Pope, one of the giants of English poetry. (Jacketless library hardcover.)