The ancient epic poem, born in an age of (0) ORALITY (ORAL) rather than print, has proved strikingly 1ENDURE. Works composed for public 2RECITE more than two thousand years ago continue to be read, reinterpreted and reimagined today, and the 3HERO figures of Homer and Virgil remain touchstones of Western culture. Each successive generation has projected its own preoccupations onto these 4MYTH narratives, finding in them parables of identity, warfare and homecoming. Classical 5SCHOLAR has moved on considerably since the nineteenth century, yet the texts themselves seem almost immune to becoming 6DATE: however often critical fashions shift, the poems retain their purchase on readers in search of a broadly 7HUMAN conception of heroism and failure. Modern film and theatre continue to produce striking new 8ADAPT, and each of them, for better or worse, sends viewers back to the original with renewed curiosity.