Dr George Kassimeris, a Greek academic based in the U.K., is the author/editor of five books including Europe’s Last Red Terrorists: The Revolutionary Organization 17 November; The Barbarization of Warfare; and, Playing Politics with Terrorism: A User’s Guide which The Independent called “brilliant, mind-opening stuff” in its Best Books of 2007.

Where do you consider home?
Twenty years and three countries after leaving the land of the Gods, home for me is the place that makes me wanna stay.

What would cause you to stay away from home for 10 years?
Ambition.

How do you define fidelity?
Fidelity is ephemeral.

Which idea are you most faithful to?
Next question.

Which modern figure, male or female, would you identify with Penelope?
Amy Winehouse.

If you were casting The Odyssey today, which real-life or literary figure would you choose for the role of Antinous?
A difficult choice between Rupert Murdoch and Martin McGuiness (Northern Ireland minister and IRA commander).

Is beauty like Calypso’s a trap?
Beauty is both a strength and a weakness.

What’s a modern-day equivalent of Circe’s mesmerizing powers?
Pippa Middleton’s über-plastic world.

‘Arete’ is Greek for virtue. Which do you value most? Which is overrated?
Loyalty. Overrated? It has got to be Sympathy.

Odysseus is both cunning and strong. Which trait would you choose?
In this time and age you need both.

What’s your biggest temptation?
Trying to run 10 kilometers under 45 minutes–and not get a foot injury.

What disguise would you adopt if you wished to pass unnoticed?
A Greek parliamentarian.

If eating a Lotus could make you forget just one thing, what would you want to forget?
That George W. Bush was U.S. President for two consecutive terms.

Greed prompts Odysseus’ men to unleash the strong winds that blow their ship off course. If Homer were writing today, what would these winds be a metaphor for?
For the neo-Bonapartist financial system that we all live in.

Who are the Laestrygonians today?
The Troika, of course, if you’re Greek. Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, if you’re Russian. And, the Americans, for the rest of the world.

What were the Sirens singing?
“What Hurts the Most” by Rascall Flats.

Which would you try to avoid, Scylla or Charybdis?
Neither. Bring them on!

What’s The Odyssey’s lesson for today?
A clichéd question that fails to do justice to the sheer brilliance and complexity of the poem itself.

What is your Ithaca?
A tiny spot called Marmari, near Cape Tenaro, the most southern point of Greece.

Which do you think is most important, the journey or the destination?
What did the late Steve Jobs say in his 2005 Stanford University commencement address? “Your time is limited so don’t waste it living somebody
else’s life.”