One of my literary touchstones is "War Music", a re-telling or re-imagining of the Iliad by the British poet Christopher Logue. I've read a couple of translations, but this is the one that really set my head alight because he takes liberties with the content (including occasionally delicious anachronisms like "the thumping of helicopters overhead") without taking liberties with the story. It feels faithful to the original yet very modern in its expression. He was dedicated to performing poetry, and I think this comes out in the text - I found myself hearing the sounds of the words in my head as I read it.
