ALL this talk about relevancy has undoubtedly caused a great deal of soul searching on the part of many English teachers as to whether established literary classics such as The Odyssey can be made meaningful for our high school students. True, The Odyssey and other classics are important parts of our Western cultural heritage, but is this a sufficient reason for including them in the high school English curriculum? I would say that it is not, but would like to suggest what I do consider to be a significant and compelling reason for teaching The Odyssey in high school. Perhaps more than any other work, The Odyssey is a powerful and simple expression of two fundamental archetypal themes: initiation and man's search for