Confucius, The Analects. Raymond Dawson, tr. (Oxford& N.Y.: Oxford University Pr., 1993), with introduction and notes. The introduction sketches the historical background and explains some basic elements of the text. The section on key words is helpful in following the text.

Lattimore, Richmond. The Odyssey of Homer (N.Y. et al: Harper & Row, 1965) with introduction. This is an excellent translation in a reasonably priced paperback. The introduction discusses some of the major events in the story and puts it into its historical context.

Narayan, R.K. The Ramayana, A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (London: Penguin, 1972). This is based on an eleventh century Tamil version. It provides a short introduction on the place of the Ramayana in Indian literature and culture.

On-Line Texts
The Perseus Project : http://medusa.perseus.tufts.edu/Texts.html
Perseus provides a text of the Odyssey plus many more ancient Greek and Roman authors The Perseus site also offers access to art and archaeological materials from several museum collections.

M.I.T Classics: http://classics.mit.edu/
This site offers mainly Greek and Latin authors, but has a few Chinese works, including the Analects, and a few Persian sources. The translation of the Analects has no commentary.