An Odyssey Seen Through Ancient Myth

Homer's Odyssey, whose protagonist endures years of peril on his way home after the Trojan War, is seen as another metaphor for the ordeal of a nation in its fifth year of recession.

Scylla and Charybdis, the sea monsters flanking a strait that forced ships to brave one side or the other, are associated today with the expression, "between a rock and a hard place," the predicament of modern Greeks left with no good options.

Turning to allegories infused with one-eyed giants and other fantastical creatures to explain the Greek crisis, which threatens to morph into a financial crisis worldwide, seems like an indulgence at a time when the state, and ordinary citizens, can't pay their bills.