Read the excerpt from The Odyssey.This was an army, trained to fight on horseback or, where the ground required, on foot. They came with dawn over that terrain like the leavesand blades of spring. So doom appeared to us, dark word of Zeus for us, our evil days.My men stood up and made a fight of it— backed on the ships, with lances kept in play, from bright morning through the blaze of noonso holding our beach, although so far outnumbered; but when the sun passed toward unyoking time, then the Achaeans, one by one, gave way.
The passage describes Odysseus and his men facing a dangerous battle, fighting through the day, and eventually being forced to retreat. This is part of the “road of trials,” the series of challenges the hero encounters on the journey. It is not the call to adventure, which begins the journey, or the return home, which comes after the adventures.
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