Coming Home to Story

Hello Fans.

Captain Midnight, super-dog and literary critic here.

Himself has been getting a bit classical recently, writing stories based on Homer’s Odyssey. He tells me that it’s one of the great stories: a foundational narrative of the Western canon. But what does he know? He doesn’t even understand Ancient Greek. I ask you!

Of course, I’ve read the Odyssey in the original Dactylic Hexameter. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a tragic tale about a dog named Argos. When he was a puppy, he had a human called Odysseus who went away to war and didn’t come back for 20 years. Argos was a hunting dog and when he grew up there wasn’t a wild beast in the forest who could get away from him once he was on its tracks. He fell on hard times when the household servants believed his human was dead. They kicked him out of the palace to live on the dung-heap. When Odysseus returned, Argos recognised him, wagged his tail in greeting, and then died on the spot.

That’s the whole story. Well all the important stuff, anyway.

There are hundreds more pages about Gods and Goddesses, monsters, and sea journeys etc. but who cares about those? Himself is a bit obsessed with it, but from a canine perspective, I’d say that the Odyssey is considerably overrated.

Watch this space for more insightful literary reviews.

Captain Midnight, PhD