The Iliad which has just published Adesiara, one of the young publishing houses that has persistently bet on new translations of Greek and Latin classics -Hesiod, Lucian of Samosata, Euripides, Sallust, Plautus, Ovid and a long etcetera- is special for many reasons.

"Sing to me, Muse, of the man of many wiles who wandered far and wide, / after he sacked the holy city of Troy." This is how the new Catalan version of the begins.

The elevator that goes up to the headquarters of Combel, a seal of children's literature from the Casals publishing house, is a gateway to another dimension. Upon reaching the corresponding floor, the visitor comes face to face with the cardboard version of the characters that delight the youngest readers at home: Agus Pianola, protagonist of the series Agus and the Monsters, the robot Bitmax, the endearing cat Mixifú, and the mysterious Ticniks. Inside a small room are the creators of the seal's latest and tempting proposal, the adaptation of the Iliad prepared by translator Pau Sabaté (Barcelona, 1989) and illustrator Arnal Ballester (Barcelona, 1955). The volume condenses, in just under 200 pages, all the magic and darkness of one of the literary classics par excellence. The epic poem attributed to Homer and dating from the 8th century BC aims to win over new generations of fans as it did, in 2008, with the adaptation for Combel of the Odyssey by Albert Jané and illustrated by Pep Montserrat.