荷马史诗描述了一个怎样的社会？奥德修斯、阿喀琉斯和赫克托耳怎么看待阶级、社群和宗教？ 《奥德修斯的世界》对孕育了《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》这两部伟大史诗的古代社会图景进行了精确而深刻的描绘，是一部生动刻画希腊“黑暗时代”及其家庭与亲族社群、道德与价值观念的作品。它首次出版于1954年，是研究古代世界社会史的拓荒之作。 本书不仅全景展现了早期希腊社会，还提供了丰富的参考文献，无论是对专业学者还是对普通读者而言，都极富参考价值。

Written four hundred years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling the author's ambitious claim that the work "was done to last forever." The conflicts between the two empires over shipping, trade, and colonial expansion came to a head in 431 b.c. in Northern Greece, and the entire Greek world was plunged into 27 years of war. Thucydides applied a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling this exhaustively factual record of the disastrous conflict that eventually ended the Athenian empire.