with The Odyssey movie coming up, it's got me thinking about back in grade school when my English teacher told everyone in the class to each do a report on the 'original' (translated) version
but only a single chapter of it, chosen at random.
I'd gotten Chapter 18, which meant that my report ended up being the story of Odysseus, disguised as an old man, running into a random beggar that's worried his best begging spot is gonna get taken. Odysseus gets challenged to a fight, he starts stripping, and his old man bod is so shredded that the beggar guy immediately tries to surrender. Everyone around forces them to fight still, then the beggar guy (still terrified) gets his jaw instantly shattered, and the rest of the story presumably continues after that.
I still have no idea what lesson my teacher was trying to teach, though it did drive me to go back and read the whole thing from the beginning.
yknow, like how books usually do.