Odysseus

Odysseus begins where Homer''s Odyssey leaves off, and recounts the Greek hero''s final quest to settle his debt with the god Poseidon. He must travel to many cities carrying a wooden oar, find a land that knows no salt, and offer a sacrifice to the god on the site where a stranger asks the purpose of the oar. During his perilous journey he becomes involved in the intrigues swirling among the great Trojan War veterans and their heirs, and must also protect his own family and kingdom. Written in a poetic style reminiscent of the Homeric past, Odysseus is Book One of the epic trilogy, On the River of Time, which examines three figures - one mythical, one historical, and one fictional - from different time periods spanning almost three thousand years: Odysseus in Greece; Spenser, the poet, in Ireland; and Archer, a renegade actor/director in Canada.

Carl Hare in his long career has been professor, actor, director, playwright, and poet. Odysseus, the first part of the trilogy On the River of Time, was published in 2017; Spenser, Book Two, in 2018 Other work includes The Eagle and the Tiger and his adaptation of Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman; the setting of six of his children’s poems to music by Canadian composer Malcolm Forsyth; a commissioned poem for Forsyth’s A Ballad of Canada, performed by the National Arts Centre Orchestra; and A Weathering of Years; a collection of poetry published in 2015.