Odyssey has a better claim than most. Twenty-four books long, it runs to more than 12,000 lines of hexameter verse (the poetic form used in Greek epic and Latin epic after it)
and the terrifying Scylla and Charybdis
keep tabs on Penelope (Odysseus’ long-suffering wife) and trace the smaller-scale wanderings of Telemachos (their rather immature son).
Perhaps the most famous of Odysseus’ adventures appears in Book 9, when he and his men arrive on the island of the Cyclopes. Polyphemos – a one-eyed giant with an appetite for human flesh
most recent series of Prison Break was clearly written by Odyssey fans: Michael Schofield has been held for seven years in a prison named Ogygia (the name of Calypso’s island and the same duration of imprisonment, though Odysseus has a rather nicer time of things than Schofield)