On November 6, 2026, the Haymon Bookstore in Innsbruck hosted the official presentation of a new two-volume edition of Jan Křesadlo’s infamous Astronautilia – a 6,575-line sci-fi epic written entirely in Homeric Greek hexameter.

The plot sets off when a universal translator confuses the 20th century with the 16th, launching a cosmic voyage centered around the recovery of a stolen sheep. Posthumously published in 1995, the work has now received its first German verse translation by Ondřej Cikán, alongside a transcribed and revised Greek text by Georg Danek, an expert in Homeric language and oral tradition.

Both Cikán and Danek were present to discuss the complex layers of Křesadlo’s masterpiece. The discussion ranged from the mechanics of ancient oral epics and modern science fiction tropes to contemporary topics like large language models and the battle of the sexes in Czech folklore.

With plenty of shared laughter, the event celebrated one of the most eccentric works in modern classical literature.