Array ( [0] => {{short description|Epic poem attributed to Homer}} [1] => {{about|Homer's epic poem|other uses|Odyssey (disambiguation)}} [2] => {{redirect|Homer's Odyssey|''The Simpsons'' episode|Homer's Odyssey (The Simpsons)}} [3] => {{Italic title}} [4] => {{Good article}} [5] => {{pp-move-indef}} [6] => {{pp-protect|small=yes}} [7] => {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}} [8] => {{Infobox poem [9] => | name = ''Odyssey'' [10] => | image = Odyssey-crop.jpg [11] => | image_size = [12] => | caption = 15th-century manuscript of Book I written by scribe [[John Rhosos]] ([[British Museum]]) [13] => | subtitle = [14] => | author = Homer [15] => | publication_date_en = 1614 [16] => | original_title = [17] => | original_title_lang = [18] => | translator = [19] => | written = {{circa|8th century BC}} [20] => | first = [21] => | illustrator = [22] => | cover_artist = [23] => | country = [24] => | language = [[Homeric Greek]] [25] => | series = [26] => | subject = [27] => | genre = [[Epic poetry]] [28] => | form = [29] => | metre = [[Dactylic hexameter]] [30] => | rhyme = [31] => | media_type = [32] => | lines = 12,109 [33] => | pages = [34] => | size_weight = [35] => | isbn = [36] => | oclc = [37] => | preceded_by = [38] => | followed_by = [39] => | wikisource = The Odyssey [40] => }} [41] => [42] => The '''''Odyssey''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɒ|d|ɪ|s|i}};"[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/odyssey Odyssey] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216231120/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/odyssey |date=16 February 2021 }}". ''Cambridge Dictionary''. Cambridge University Press, 2023. {{lang-grc|Ὀδύσσεια|Odýsseia}}){{LSJ|*)odu/sseia|Ὀδύσσεια|ref}}.{{OEtymD|odyssey}} is one of two major [[Ancient Greek literature|ancient Greek]] [[Epic poetry|epic poems]] attributed to [[Homer]]. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''[[Iliad]]'', the poem is divided into 24 [[Chapter (books)#Book-like|books]]. It follows the [[Greek hero cult|Greek hero]] [[Odysseus]], king of [[Homer's Ithaca|Ithaca]], and his journey home after the [[Trojan War]]. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey from Troy to Ithaca, via Africa and southern Europe, lasted for ten additional years during which time he encountered many perils and all of his crewmates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife [[Penelope]] and son [[Telemachus]] had to contend with a [[Suitors of Penelope|group of unruly suitors]] who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. [43] => [44] => The ''Odyssey'' was originally composed in [[Homeric Greek]] in around the 8th or 7th century BC and, by the mid-6th century BC, had become part of the Greek literary canon. In [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]], Homer's authorship of the poem was not questioned, but contemporary scholarship [[Homeric Question|predominantly assumes]] that the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' were composed independently and that the stories formed as part of a long [[oral tradition]]. Given widespread illiteracy, the poem was performed by an ''[[aoidos]]'' or [[rhapsode]] and was more likely to be heard than read. [45] => [46] => Crucial themes in the poem include the ideas of ''[[nostos]]'' (νόστος; "return"), wandering, ''[[xenia (Greek)|xenia]]'' (ξενία; "guest-friendship"), testing, and omens. Scholars still reflect on the narrative significance of certain groups in the poem, such as women and slaves, who have a more prominent role in the epic than in many other works of ancient literature. This focus is especially remarkable when contrasted with the ''Iliad'', which centres the exploits of soldiers and kings during the Trojan War. [47] => [48] => The ''Odyssey'' is regarded as one of the most significant works of the [[Western canon]]. The first [[Translation|English translation]] of the ''Odyssey'' was in the 16th century. Adaptations and re-imaginings continue to be produced across [[#Legacy|a wide variety of media]]. In 2018, when ''BBC Culture'' polled experts around the world to find literature's most enduring narrative, the ''Odyssey'' topped the list. [49] => [50] => == Synopsis == [51] => [52] => ===Exposition (books 1–4)=== [53] => [54] => [[File:Villa Romana de La Olmeda Mosaicos romanos 001 Ulises.jpg|thumb|A [[mosaic]] depicting [[Odysseus]], from the villa of [[La Olmeda]], [[Pedrosa de la Vega]], Spain, late 4th–5th centuries AD]] [55] => [56] => The ''Odyssey'' begins after the end of the ten-year [[Trojan War]] (the subject of the ''[[Iliad]]''), from which [[Odysseus]] (also known by the Latin variant Ulysses), king of [[Homer's Ithaca|Ithaca]], has still not returned because he angered [[Poseidon]], the god of the sea. Odysseus' son, [[Telemachus]], is about 20 years old and is sharing his absent father's house on the island of Ithaca with his mother [[Penelope]] and the [[suitors of Penelope]], a crowd of 108 boisterous young men who each aim to persuade Penelope for her hand in marriage, all the while reveling in the king's palace and eating up his wealth. [57] => [58] => Odysseus' protectress, the goddess [[Athena]], asks [[Zeus]], king of the [[Odyssean gods|gods]], to finally allow Odysseus to return home when Poseidon is absent from [[Mount Olympus]]. Disguised as a chieftain named [[Mentes (King of the Taphians)|Mentes]], Athena visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father. He offers her hospitality, and they observe the suitors dining rowdily while [[Phemius]], the [[bard]], performs a narrative poem for them. [59] => [60] => That night, Athena, disguised as Telemachus, finds a ship and crew for the true prince. The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be done with the insolent suitors, who then scoff at Telemachus. Accompanied by Athena (now disguised as [[Mentor (Odyssey)|Mentor]]), the son of Odysseus departs for the Greek mainland to the household of [[Nestor (mythology)|Nestor]], most venerable of the Greek warriors at [[Troy]], who resided in [[Pylos]] after the war. [61] => [62] => From there, Telemachus rides to [[Sparta]], accompanied by [[Peisistratus of Pylos|Nestor's son]]. There he finds [[Menelaus]] and [[Helen of Troy|Helen]], who are now reconciled. Both Helen and Menelaus also say that they returned to Sparta after a long voyage by way of Egypt. There, on the island of [[Lighthouse of Alexandria|Pharos]], Menelaus encounters the old sea-god [[Proteus]], who tells him that Odysseus was a captive of the nymph [[Calypso (mythology)|Calypso]]. Telemachus learns the fate of Menelaus' brother, [[Agamemnon]], king of [[Mycenae]] and leader of the Greeks at Troy: he was murdered on his return home by his wife [[Clytemnestra]] and her lover [[Aegisthus]]. The story briefly shifts to the suitors, who have only just realized that Telemachus is gone. Angry, they formulate a plan to ambush his ship and kill him as he sails back home. Penelope overhears their plot and worries for her son's safety. [63] => [64] => ===Escape to the Phaeacians (books 5–8)=== [65] => [[File:Odysseus_And_Nausicaä_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13725.jpg|left|thumb|[[Charles Gleyre]], ''[[Odysseus]] and [[Nausicaa|Nausicaä]]'']] [66] => In the course of Odysseus' seven years as a captive of Calypso on the island [[Ogygia]], she has fallen deeply in love with him, even though he spurns her offers of immortality as her husband and still mourns for home. She is ordered to release him by the messenger god [[Hermes]], who has been sent by Zeus in response to Athena's plea. Odysseus builds a raft and is given clothing, food, and drink by Calypso. When Poseidon learns that Odysseus has escaped, he wrecks the raft, but helped by a veil given by the sea nymph [[Ino (Greek mythology)|Ino]], Odysseus swims ashore on [[Scheria|Scherie]], the island of the Phaeacians. Naked and exhausted, he hides in a pile of leaves and falls asleep. [67] => [68] => The next morning, awakened by girls' laughter, he sees the young [[Nausicaa|Nausicaä]], who has gone to the seashore with her maids after Athena told her in a dream to do so. He appeals for help. She encourages him to seek the hospitality of her parents, [[Arete (mythology)|Arete]] and [[Alcinous]]. Alcinous promises to provide him a ship to return him home without knowing the identity of Odysseus. He remains for several days. Odysseus asks the blind singer [[Demodocus (Odyssey character)|Demodocus]] to tell the story of the [[Trojan Horse]], a stratagem in which Odysseus had played a leading role. Unable to hide his emotion as he relives this episode, Odysseus at last reveals his identity. He then tells the story of his return from Troy. [69] => [70] => ===Odysseus' account of his adventures (books 9–12)=== [71] => [[File:Francesco_Hayez_028.jpg|thumb|''Odysseus Overcome by [[Demodocus (Odyssey character)|Demodocus]]' Song'', by [[Francesco Hayez]], 1813–15]] [72] => Odysseus recounts his story to the Phaeacians. After a failed raid against the [[Cicones]], Odysseus and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms. Odysseus visited the [[lotus-eaters]] who gave his men their fruit which caused them to forget their homecoming. Odysseus had to drag them back to the ship by force. [73] => [74] => Afterward, Odysseus and his men landed on a lush, uninhabited island near the land of the [[Cyclopes]]. The men entered the cave of [[Polyphemus]], where they found all the cheeses and meat they desired. Upon returning to his cave, Polyphemus sealed the entrance with a massive boulder and proceeded to eat Odysseus' men. Odysseus devised an escape plan in which he, identifying himself as "Nobody," plied Polyphemus with wine and blinded him with a wooden stake. When Polyphemus cried out, his neighbors left after Polyphemus claimed that "Nobody" had attacked him. Odysseus and his men finally escaped the cave by hiding on the underbellies of the sheep as they were let out of the cave. [75] => [76] => As they escaped, however, Odysseus taunted Polyphemus and revealed himself. The Cyclops prayed to his father Poseidon, asking him to curse Odysseus to wander for ten years. After the escape, [[Aeolus (Odyssey)|Aeolus]] gave Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home. Just as Ithaca came into sight, the sailors opened the bag while Odysseus slept, thinking it contained gold. The winds flew out, and the storm drove the ships back the way they had come. Aeolus, recognizing that Odysseus had drawn the ire of the gods, refused to further assist him. [77] => [78] => After the cannibalistic [[Laestrygonians]] destroyed all of his ships except his own, Odysseus sailed on and reached the island of [[Aeaea]], home of witch-goddess [[Circe]]. She turned half of his men into swine with drugged cheese and wine. Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave Odysseus an herb called [[Moly (herb)|moly]], making him resistant to Circe's magic. Odysseus forced Circe to change his men back to their human forms and was seduced by her. They remained with her for one year. Finally, guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew crossed the ocean and reached a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus [[Nekyia|sacrificed to the dead]]. Odysseus summoned the spirit of the prophet [[Tiresias]] and was told that he may return home if he is able to stay himself and his crew from eating the sacred [[Cattle of Helios|livestock of Helios]] on the island of Thrinacia and that failure to do so would result in the loss of his ship and his entire crew. He then meets his dead mother [[Anticlea|Anticleia]] and first learns of the suitors and what happened in Ithaca in his absence. Odysseus also converses with his dead comrades from Troy.[[File:Odysseus_Sirens_BM_E440_n2.jpg|right|thumb|Odysseus and the Sirens, eponymous vase of the [[Siren Painter]], {{Circa|480–470 BC}} ([[British Museum]])]] [79] => Returning to Aeaea, they buried Elpenor and were advised by Circe on the remaining stages of the journey. They skirted the land of the [[Siren (mythology)|Sirens]]. All of the sailors had their ears plugged up with beeswax, except for Odysseus, who was tied to the mast as he wanted to hear the song. He told his sailors not to untie him as it would only make him drown himself. They then passed between the six-headed monster [[Scylla]] and the whirlpool [[Charybdis]]. Scylla claimed six of his men. [80] => [81] => Next, they landed on the island of Thrinacia, with the crew overriding Odysseus's wishes to remain away from the island. Zeus caused a storm that prevented them from leaving, causing them to deplete the food given to them by Circe. While Odysseus was away praying, his men ignored the warnings of Tiresias and Circe and hunted the sacred cattle. [[Helios]] insisted that Zeus punish the men for this sacrilege. They suffered a shipwreck, and all but Odysseus drowned as he clung to a fig tree. Washed ashore on [[Ogygia]], he remained there as Calypso's lover. [82] => [83] => ===Return to Ithaca (books 13–20)=== [84] => [[File:Giuseppe_Bottani_-_Athena_revealing_Ithaca_to_Ulysses.jpg|left|thumb|''Athena Revealing Ithaca to Ulysses'' by [[Giuseppe Bottani]] (18th century)]] [85] => [[File:Penelope and the Suitors - John William Waterhouse - ABDAG003035.jpg|thumb|Odysseus discovers Penelope has devised tricks to delay the suitors whilst he has been away: ''Penelope and the Suitors'' by [[John William Waterhouse]]]] [86] => Having listened to his story, the Phaeacians agree to provide Odysseus with more treasure than he would have received from the spoils of Troy. They deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbour on Ithaca. Odysseus awakens and believes that he has been dropped on a distant land before Athena appears to him and reveals that he is indeed on Ithaca. She hides his treasure in a nearby cave and disguises him as an elderly beggar so he can see how things stand in his household. He finds his way to the hut of one of his own slaves, swineherd [[Eumaeus]], who treats him hospitably and speaks favorably of Odysseus. After dinner, the disguised Odysseus tells the farm laborers a fictitious tale of himself. [87] => [88] => Telemachus sails home from Sparta, evading an ambush set by the suitors. He disembarks on the coast of Ithaca and meets Odysseus. Odysseus identifies himself to Telemachus (but not to Eumaeus), and they decide that the suitors must be killed. Telemachus goes home first. Accompanied by Eumaeus, Odysseus returns to his own house, still pretending to be a beggar. He is ridiculed by the suitors in his own home, especially [[Antinous of Ithaca|Antinous]]. Odysseus meets Penelope and tests her intentions by saying he once met Odysseus in Crete. Closely questioned, he adds that he had recently been in [[Thesprotia]] and had learned something there of Odysseus's recent wanderings. [89] => [90] => Odysseus's identity is discovered by the housekeeper [[Eurycleia of Ithaca|Eurycleia]] when she recognizes an old scar as she is washing his feet. Eurycleia tries to tell Penelope about the beggar's true identity, but Athena makes sure that Penelope cannot hear her. Odysseus swears Eurycleia to secrecy. [91] => [92] => ===Slaying of the Suitors (books 21–24)=== [93] => [[File:Thomas_Degeorge_Ulysse.jpg|thumb|''Ulysses and Telemachus kill Penelope's Suitors'' by [[Thomas Degeorge]] (1812)|alt=]] [94] => The next day, at Athena's prompting, Penelope maneuvers the suitors into competing for her hand with an archery competition using Odysseus' bow. The man who can string the bow and shoot an arrow through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes part in the competition, and he alone is strong enough to string the bow and shoot the arrow through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner. He then throws off his rags and kills Antinous with his next arrow. Odysseus kills the other suitors, first using the rest of the arrows and then, along with Telemachus, Eumaeus and the cowherd Philoetius, with swords and spears. Once the battle is won, Telemachus also hangs twelve of their household maids whom Eurycleia identifies as guilty of betraying Penelope or having sex with the suitors. Odysseus identifies himself to Penelope. She is hesitant but recognizes him when he mentions that he made their bed from an olive tree still rooted to the ground. She embraces him and they sleep. [95] => [96] => The next day, Odysseus goes to his father [[Laertes (father of Odysseus)|Laertes]]'s farm and reveals himself. Following them to the farm is a group of Ithacans, led by [[Eupeithes]], father of Antinous, who are out for revenge for the murder of the suitors. A battle breaks out, but it is quickly stopped by Athena and Zeus. [97] => [98] => ==Structure== [99] => The ''Odyssey'' is 12,109 lines composed in [[dactylic hexameter]], also called Homeric hexameter.{{sfn|Myrsiades|2019|loc=p. 3, "[...] is a long oral narrative poem of 12,109 lines"}}{{sfn|Haslam|1976|p=203}} It opens ''[[in medias res]]'', in the middle of the overall story, with prior events described through [[Flashback (narrative)|flashbacks]] and storytelling.{{sfn|Foley|2007|p=19}} The 24 books correspond to the letters of the [[Greek alphabet]]; the division was likely made after the poem's composition, by someone other than Homer, but is generally accepted.{{sfn|Lattimore|1951|p=14}} [100] => [101] => In the [[Classical Greece|Classical period]], some of the books (individually and in groups) were commonly given their own titles: [102] => [103] => *'''Book 1–4''': ''[[Telemachy]]''—the story focuses on the perspective of Telemachus.{{sfn|Willcock|2007|p=32}} [104] => *'''Books 9–12''': ''Apologoi''—Odysseus recalls his adventures for his Phaeacian hosts.{{Cite journal |last=Most |first=Glenn W. |date=1989 |title=The Structure and Function of Odysseus' Apologoi |journal=Transactions of the American Philological Association |volume=119 |pages=15–30 |doi=10.2307/284257 |jstor=284257}} [105] => *'''Book 22''': ''Mnesterophonia'' ('slaughter of the suitors'; {{Lang-grc|Mnesteres|italic=yes|label=none|lit=suitors}} + {{Lang-grc|{{wikt-lang|en|φόνος|phónos}}|italic=yes|label=none|lit=slaughter}}).{{sfn|Cairns|2014|p=231}} [106] => [107] => Book 22 concludes the Greek [[Epic Cycle]], though fragments remain of the "alternative ending" of sorts known as the ''[[Telegony]]''. The ''Telegony'' aside, the last 548 lines of the ''Odyssey'', corresponding to Book 24, are believed by many scholars to have been added by a slightly later poet.{{sfn|Carne-Ross|1998|p=ixi}} [108] => [109] => ==Geography== [110] => {{Main|Homer's Ithaca|Geography of the Odyssey}} [111] => The events in the main sequence of the ''Odyssey'' (excluding Odysseus' [[Story within a story|embedded narrative]] of his wanderings) have been said to take place in the [[Peloponnese]] and in what are now called the [[Ionian Islands]].[[Strabo]], ''[[Geographica]]'', 1.2.15, cited in {{harvnb|Finley|1976|p=33}} There are difficulties in the apparently simple identification of Ithaca, the homeland of Odysseus, which may or may not be the same island that is now called {{Lang-grc|Ithakē|label=none|italic=yes}} (modern Greek: {{Lang-grc|Ιθάκη|label=none}}). The wanderings of Odysseus as told to the Phaeacians, and the location of the Phaeacians' own island of Scheria, pose more fundamental problems, if geography is to be applied: scholars, both ancient and modern, are divided as to whether any of the places visited by Odysseus (after [[Ismarus (Thrace)|Ismaros]] and before his return to Ithaca) are real.{{sfn|Fox|2008|loc="Finding Neverland."}} Both antiquated and contemporary scholars have attempted to map Odysseus' journey but now largely agree that the landscapes, especially of the Apologia (Books 9 to 11), include too many mythological aspects as features to be unequivocally mappable.{{Cite web |last=Zazzera |first=Elizabeth Della |date=27 February 2019 |title=The Geography of the Odyssey |website=Lapham's Quarterly |access-date=29 July 2022 |url=https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/geography-odyssey |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008231344/https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/geography-odyssey |archive-date=8 October 2020 }} Classicist [[Peter Struck (classicist)|Peter T. Struck]] created an interactive map which plots Odysseus' travels,{{Cite web |last=Struck |first=Peter T. |author-link=Peter Struck (classicist) |title=Map of Odysseus' Journey |website=classics.upenn.edu |access-date=29 July 2022 |url=http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/homer/index.php?page=odymap |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200318120501/http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/homer/index.php?page=odymap |archive-date=18 March 2020 }} including his near homecoming which was thwarted by the bag of wind. [112] => [113] => ==Influences== [114] => [[File:Humbaba deamon-AO 9034-IMG 0655-black.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|Terracotta plaque of the Mesopotamian ogre [[Humbaba]], believed to be a possible inspiration for the figure of Polyphemus]] [115] => [116] => Scholars have seen strong influences from Near Eastern mythology and literature in the ''Odyssey''.{{sfn|West|1997|p=403}} [[Martin Litchfield West|Martin West]] notes substantial parallels between the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'' and the ''Odyssey''.{{sfn|West|1997|pp=402–417}} Both Odysseus and [[Gilgamesh]] are known for traveling to the ends of the earth and on their journeys go to the land of the dead.{{sfn|West|1997|p=405}} On his voyage to the underworld, Odysseus follows instructions given to him by Circe, who is located at the edges of the world and is associated through imagery with the sun.{{sfn|West|1997|p=406}} Like Odysseus, Gilgamesh gets directions on how to reach the land of the dead from a divine helper: the goddess [[Siduri]], who, like Circe, dwells by the sea at the ends of the earth, whose home is also associated with the sun. Gilgamesh reaches Siduri's house by passing through a tunnel underneath Mt. [[Mashu]], the high mountain from which the sun comes into the sky.{{sfn|West|1997|p=410}} West argues that the similarity of Odysseus' and Gilgamesh's journeys to the edges of the earth are the result of the influence of the Gilgamesh epic upon the ''Odyssey''.{{sfn|West|1997|p=417}} [117] => [118] => In 1914, [[Paleontology|paleontologist]] [[Othenio Abel]] surmised the origins of the Cyclops to be the result of ancient Greeks finding an elephant skull.{{sfn|Mayor|2000|p={{page needed|date=July 2022}}}} The enormous nasal passage in the middle of the forehead could have looked like the eye socket of a giant, to those who had never seen a living elephant.{{sfn|Mayor|2000|p={{page needed|date=July 2022}}}} Classical scholars, on the other hand, have long known that the story of the Cyclops was originally a [[fairy tale|folk tale]], which existed independently of the ''Odyssey'' and which became part of it at a later date. Similar stories are found in cultures across Europe and the Middle East.{{sfn|Anderson|2000|pp=127–131}} According to this explanation, the Cyclops was originally simply a giant or ogre, much like [[Humbaba]] in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''.{{sfn|Anderson|2000|pp=127–131}} Graham Anderson suggests that the addition about it having only one eye was invented to explain how the creature was so easily blinded.{{sfn|Anderson|2000|pp=124–125}} [119] => [120] => {{clear}} [121] => [122] => == Themes and patterns == [123] => [124] => === Homecoming === [125] => [[File:Homerus - Odissea, 1794 - 3939651 F.jpg|thumb|''Odyssey'' (1794)]] [126] => [127] => Homecoming (Ancient Greek: ''νόστος, nostos'') is a central theme of the ''Odyssey''.{{sfn|Bonifazi|2009|pp=481, 492}} Anna Bonafazi of the [[University of Cologne]] writes that, in Homer, ''[[nostos]]'' is "return home from Troy, by sea".{{sfn|Bonifazi|2009|p=481}} Agatha Thornton examines ''nostos'' in the context of characters other than Odysseus, in order to provide an alternative for what might happen after the end of the ''Odyssey''.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=1–15}} For instance, one example is that of Agamemnon's homecoming versus Odysseus'. Upon Agamemnon's return, his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, kill Agamemnon. Agamemnon's son, [[Orestes]], out of vengeance for his father's death, kills Aegisthus. This parallel compares the death of the suitors to the death of Aegisthus and sets Orestes up as an example for Telemachus.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=1–15}} Also, because Odysseus knows about Clytemnestra's betrayal, Odysseus returns home in disguise in order to test the loyalty of his own wife, Penelope.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=1–15}} Later, Agamemnon praises Penelope for not killing Odysseus. It is because of Penelope that Odysseus has fame and a successful homecoming. This successful homecoming is unlike [[Achilles]], who has fame but is dead, and Agamemnon, who had an unsuccessful homecoming resulting in his death.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=1–15}} [128] => [129] => === Wandering === [130] => [131] => Only two of Odysseus's adventures are described by the narrator. The rest of Odysseus' adventures are recounted by Odysseus himself. The two scenes described by the narrator are Odysseus on Calypso's island and Odysseus' encounter with the Phaeacians. These scenes are told by the poet to represent an important transition in Odysseus' journey: being concealed to returning home.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=16–37}} [132] => [133] => Calypso's name comes from the Greek word {{Lang-grc|kalúptō|italic=yes|label=none}} ({{Lang-grc|{{wikt-lang|en|καλύπτω}}|label=none}}), meaning 'to cover' or 'conceal', which is apt, as this is exactly what she does with Odysseus.{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=Greek Myths & Greek Mythology |website=greekmyths-greekmythology.com |access-date=5 May 2020 |url=http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/calypso-odysseus-greek-myth/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502235701/http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/calypso-odysseus-greek-myth |archive-date=2 May 2016 }} Calypso keeps Odysseus concealed from the world and unable to return home. After leaving Calypso's island, the poet describes Odysseus' encounters with the Phaeacians—those who "convoy without hurt to all men"{{sfn|Homer|1975|loc=8.566}}—which represents his transition from not returning home to returning home.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=16–37}} [134] => [135] => Also, during Odysseus' journey, he encounters many beings that are close to the gods. These encounters are useful in understanding that Odysseus is in a world beyond man and that influences the fact he cannot return home.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=16–37}} These beings that are close to the gods include the Phaeacians who lived near the Cyclopes,{{sfn|Homer|1975|loc=6.4–5}} whose king, Alcinous, is the great-grandson of the king of the giants, [[Giants (Greek mythology)|Eurymedon]], and the grandson of Poseidon.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=16–37}} Some of the other characters that Odysseus encounters are the cyclops [[Polyphemus]], the son of Poseidon; Circe, a sorceress who turns men into animals; and the cannibalistic giants, the Laestrygonians.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=16–37}} [136] => [137] => === Guest-friendship === [138] => [[File:3115 - Athens - Stoà of Attalus - Allegory of the Odyssey - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 9 2009.jpg|thumb|Statue representing the ''Odyssey'', Museum of the [[Ancient Agora of Athens]].]] [139] => [140] => Throughout the course of the epic, Odysseus encounters several examples of ''[[xenia (Greek)|xenia]]'' ("guest-friendship"), which provide models of how hosts should and should not act.{{sfn|Reece|1993|p={{page needed|date=July 2022}}}}{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=38–46}} The Phaeacians demonstrate exemplary guest-friendship by feeding Odysseus, giving him a place to sleep, and granting him many gifts and a safe voyage home, which are all things a good host should do. Polyphemus demonstrates poor guest-friendship. His only "gift" to Odysseus is that he will eat him last.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=38–46}} Calypso also exemplifies poor guest-friendship because she does not allow Odysseus to leave her island.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=38–46}} Another important factor to guest-friendship is that kingship implies generosity. It is assumed that a king has the means to be a generous host and is more generous with his own property.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=38–46}} This is best seen when Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, begs Antinous, one of the suitors, for food and Antinous denies his request. Odysseus essentially says that while Antinous may look like a king, he is far from a king since he is not generous.{{sfn|Homer|1975|loc=17.415–444}} [141] => [142] => According to J. B. Hainsworth, guest-friendship follows a very specific pattern:{{sfn|Hainsworth|1972|pp=320–321}} [143] => [144] => # The arrival and the reception of the guest. [145] => # Bathing or providing fresh clothes to the guest. [146] => # Providing food and drink to the guest. [147] => # Questions may be asked of the guest and entertainment should be provided by the host. [148] => # The guest should be given a place to sleep, and both the guest and host retire for the night. [149] => # The guest and host exchange gifts, the guest is granted a safe journey home, and the guest departs. [150] => [151] => Another important factor of guest-friendship is not keeping the guest longer than they wish and also promising their safety while they are a guest within the host's home.{{sfn|Reece|1993|p={{page needed|date=July 2022}}}}{{sfn|Edwards|1992|pp=284–330}} [152] => [153] => === Testing === [154] => [[File:Odysseus und Penelope (Tischbein).jpg|thumb|Penelope questions Odysseus to prove his identity.]] [155] => [156] => Another theme throughout the ''Odyssey'' is testing.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=47–51}} This occurs in two distinct ways. Odysseus tests the loyalty of others and others test Odysseus' identity. An example of Odysseus testing the loyalties of others is when he returns home.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=47–51}} Instead of immediately revealing his identity, he arrives disguised as a beggar and then proceeds to determine who in his house has remained loyal to him and who has helped the suitors. After Odysseus reveals his true identity, the characters test Odysseus' identity to see if he really is who he says he is.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=47–51}} For instance, Penelope tests Odysseus' identity by saying that she will move the bed into the other room for him. This is a difficult task since it is made out of a living tree that would require being cut down, a fact that only the real Odysseus would know, thus proving his identity.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=47–51}} [157] => [158] => Testing also has a very specific [[type scene]] that accompanies it. Throughout the epic, the testing of others follows a typical pattern. This pattern is:{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=47–51}}{{sfn|Edwards|1992|pp=284–330}} [159] => [160] => # Odysseus is hesitant to question the loyalties of others. [161] => # Odysseus tests the loyalties of others by questioning them. [162] => # The characters reply to Odysseus' questions. [163] => # Odysseus proceeds to reveal his identity. [164] => # The characters test Odysseus' identity. [165] => # There is a rise of emotions associated with Odysseus' recognition, usually lament or joy. [166] => # Finally, the reconciled characters work together. [167] => [168] => === Omens === [169] => [[File:Odysseus and Euryclea by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein.jpg|thumb|upright|''Odysseus and Eurycleia'' by [[Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein]]]] [170] => [171] => Omens occur frequently throughout the ''Odyssey''. Within the epic poem, they frequently involve birds.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=52–57}} According to Thornton, most crucial is who receives each omen and in what way it manifests. For instance, bird omens are shown to Telemachus, Penelope, Odysseus, and the suitors.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=52–57}} Telemachus and Penelope receive their omens as well in the form of words, sneezes, and dreams.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=52–57}} However, Odysseus is the only character who receives thunder or lightning as an omen.{{sfn|Homer|1975|loc=20.103–104}}{{sfn|Homer|1975|loc=21.414}} She highlights this as crucial because lightning, as a symbol of Zeus, represents the kingship of Odysseus.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=52–57}} Odysseus is associated with Zeus throughout both the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey.''{{sfn|Kundmueller|2013|p=7}} [172] => [173] => Omens are another example of a type scene in the ''Odyssey.'' Two important parts of an omen type scene are the ''recognition'' of the omen, followed by its ''interpretation''.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=52–57}} In the ''Odyssey'', all of the bird omens—with the exception of the first—show large birds attacking smaller birds.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=52–57}}{{sfn|Edwards|1992|pp=284–330}} Accompanying each omen is a wish which can be either explicitly stated or only implied.{{sfn|Thornton|1970|pp=52–57}} For example, Telemachus wishes for vengeance{{sfn|Homer|1975|loc=2.143–145}} and for Odysseus to be home,{{sfn|Homer|1975|loc=15.155–159}} Penelope wishes for Odysseus' return,{{sfn|Homer|1975|loc=19.136}} and the suitors wish for the death of Telemachus.{{sfn|Homer|1975|loc=20.240–243}} [174] => [175] => ==Textual history== [176] => [177] => === Composition === [178] => The date of the poem is a matter of some disagreement among classicists. In the middle of the 8th century BC, the inhabitants of Greece began to adopt a modified version of the [[Phoenician alphabet]] to write down their own language.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=21}} The Homeric poems may have been one of the earliest products of that literacy, and if so, would have been composed some time in the late 8th century BC.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=23}} Inscribed on a [[Nestor's Cup (Pithekoussai)|clay cup]] found in [[Ischia]], Italy, are the words "Nestor's cup, good to drink from."{{Cite news |last=Higgins |first=Charlotte |author-link=Charlotte Higgins |date=13 November 2019 |title=From Carnage to a Camp Beauty Contest: The Endless Allure of Troy |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/13/carnage-camp-beauty-contest-endless-allure-troy-british-museum |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109174814/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/13/carnage-camp-beauty-contest-endless-allure-troy-british-museum |archive-date=9 January 2020 }} Some scholars, such as [[Calvert Watkins]], have tied this cup to a description of King [[Nestor's Cup (mythology)|Nestor's golden cup]] in the ''Iliad.''{{sfn|Watkins|1976|p=28}} If the cup is an allusion to the ''Iliad'', that poem's composition can be dated to at least 700–750 BC.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=21}} [179] => [180] => Dating is similarly complicated by the fact that the Homeric poems, or sections of them, were performed regularly by rhapsodes for several hundred years.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=21}} The ''Odyssey'' as it exists today is likely not significantly different.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=23}} Aside from minor differences, the Homeric poems gained a canonical place in the institutions of ancient Athens by the 6th century.{{sfn|Davison|1955|pp=7–8}} In 566 BC, [[Pisistratus|Peisistratos]] instituted a civic and religious festival called the [[Panathenaic Games|Panathenaia]], which featured performances of Homeric poems.{{sfn|Davison|1955|pp=9–10}} These are significant because a "correct" version of the poems had to be performed, indicating that a particular version of the text had become canonised.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|loc=p. 21, "In 566 BCE, Pisistratus, the tyrant of the city (which was not yet a democracy), instituted a civic and religious festival, the Panathenaia, which included a poetic competition, featuring performances of the Homeric poems. The institution is particularly significant because we are told that the Homeric poems had to be performed "correctly," which implies the canonization of a particular written text of The Iliad and The Odyssey at this date."}} [181] => [182] => === Textual tradition === [183] => [[File:Demetrios Chalkokondyles - Detail of Angel Appearing to Zacharias by Domenico Ghirlandaio.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait by the Italian painter [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]] of the Greek Renaissance scholar [[Demetrios Chalkokondyles]], who produced the first printed edition of the ''Odyssey'' in 1488]] [184] => [185] => The ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' were widely copied and used as [[textbook|school texts]] in lands where the Greek language was spoken throughout antiquity.{{sfn|Lamberton|2010|pp=449–452}}{{sfn|Browning|1992|pp=134–148}} Scholars may have begun to write commentaries on the poems as early as the time of [[Aristotle]] in the 4th century BC.{{sfn|Lamberton|2010|pp=449–452}} In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, scholars affiliated with the [[Library of Alexandria]]—particularly [[Zenodotus]] and [[Aristarchus of Samothrace]]—edited the Homeric poems, wrote commentaries on them, and helped establish the canonical texts.{{Cite book |last=Haslam |first=Michael |title=The Homer Encyclopedia |date=2012 |isbn=978-1-4051-7768-9 |chapter=Text and Transmission |doi=10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1413}} [186] => [187] => The ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' remained widely studied and used as school texts in the [[Byzantine Empire]] during the [[Middle Ages]].{{sfn|Lamberton|2010|pp=449–452}}{{sfn|Browning|1992|pp=134–148}} The Byzantine Greek scholar and archbishop [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathios of Thessalonike]] ({{Circa|1115|1195/6 AD}}) wrote exhaustive commentaries on both of the Homeric epics that became seen by later generations as authoritative;{{sfn|Lamberton|2010|pp=449–452}}{{sfn|Browning|1992|pp=134–148}} his commentary on the ''Odyssey'' alone spans nearly 2,000 oversized pages in a twentieth-century edition.{{sfn|Lamberton|2010|pp=449–452}} The first printed edition of the ''Odyssey'', known as the ''[[editio princeps]]'', was [[List of editiones principes in Greek|produced in 1488]] by the Greek scholar [[Demetrios Chalkokondyles]], who had been born in Athens and had studied in Constantinople.{{sfn|Lamberton|2010|pp=449–452}}{{sfn|Browning|1992|pp=134–148}} His edition was printed in [[Milan]] by a Greek printer named Antonios Damilas.{{sfn|Browning|1992|pp=134–148}} [188] => [189] => Since the late 19th century, many papyri containing fragments of the ''Odyssey'' have been found in Egypt, some with content different from later medieval versions.{{Cite news |last=Daley |first=Jason |date=11 July 2018 |title=Oldest Greek Fragment of Homer Discovered on Clay Tablet |work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |access-date=29 July 2022 |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/oldest-greek-fragment-homer-discovered-clay-tablet-180969602/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223253/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/oldest-greek-fragment-homer-discovered-clay-tablet-180969602/ |archive-date=23 January 2019 }} [190] => In 2018, the [[Ministry of Culture and Sports (Greece)|Greek Cultural Ministry]] revealed the discovery of a clay tablet near the [[Temple of Zeus, Olympia|Temple of Zeus]] at Olympia, containing 13 verses from the ''Odyssey''{{'s}} 14th book. While it was initially reported to date from the 3rd century AD, the date is unconfirmed.{{Cite news |last=Tagaris |first=Karolina |editor-last=Heavens |editor-first=Andrew |date=10 July 2018 |title='Oldest known extract' of Homer's Odyssey discovered in Greece |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-archaeology-odyssey/oldest-known-extract-of-homers-odyssey-discovered-in-greece-idUSKBN1K01QM |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324125157/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-archaeology-odyssey/oldest-known-extract-of-homers-odyssey-discovered-in-greece-idUSKBN1K01QM |archive-date=24 March 2019}}{{Cite news |date=10 July 2018 |title=Homer Odyssey: Oldest extract discovered on clay tablet |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44779492 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200901203416/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44779492 |archive-date=1 September 2020}} [191] => [192] => === English translations === [193] => {{See also|English translations of Homer}} [194] => [195] => [[George Chapman]]'s English translations of the ''Odyssey'' and the ''Iliad'', published together in 1616 but serialised earlier, were the first to enjoy widespread success. The texts had been published in translation before, with some translated not from the original Greek.{{Sfn|Fay|1952|p=104}}{{Cite journal |last1=Myrsiades |first1=Kostas |last2=Pinsker |first2=Sanford |date=1976 |title=A Bibliographical Guide to Teaching the Homeric Epics in College Courses |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25111144 |journal=College Literature |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=237–259 |jstor=25111144 |issn=0093-3139 |access-date=31 December 2022 |archive-date=31 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231005736/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25111144 |url-status=live }} Chapman worked on these for a large part of his life.{{Cite journal |last=Brammall |first=Sheldon |date=2018-07-01 |title=George Chapman: Homer's Iliad, edited by Robert S. Miola; Homer's Odyssey, edited by Gordon Kendal |url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/tal.2018.0339 |journal=Translation and Literature |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=223–231 |doi=10.3366/tal.2018.0339 |s2cid=165293864 |issn=0968-1361 |access-date=31 December 2022 |archive-date=31 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231123237/https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/tal.2018.0339 |url-status=live }} In 1581, Arthur Hall translated the first 10 books of the ''Iliad'' from a French version.{{Cite book |last=Marlborough.) |first=George Spencer Churchill (Duke of |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIO3q3xx7n8C&dq=Arthur+Hall+odyssey&pg=RA3-PA11 |title=Bibliotheca Blandfordiensis. [A Catalogue.] 9 Fasc. (Catalogus Librorum Qui Bibliothecae Blandfordiensis Nuper Additi Sunt. 1814.). |pages=11 |date=1814 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-date=13 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813013148/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIO3q3xx7n8C&dq=Arthur+Hall+odyssey&pg=RA3-PA11 |url-status=live }} Chapman's translations persisted in popularity, and are often remembered today through [[John Keats]]' sonnet "[[On First Looking into Chapman's Homer]]" (1816).{{Cite book |last1=Grafton |first1=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LbqF8z2bq3sC |title=The Classical Tradition |last2=Most |first2=Glenn W. |last3=Settis |first3=Salvatore |date=2010-10-25 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03572-0 |pages=331 |language=en}} Years after completing his translation of the ''Iliad'', [[Alexander Pope]] began to translate the ''Odyssey'' because of his financial situation. His second translation was not received as favourably as the first.{{Cite book |last=Baines |first=Paul |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48139753 |title=The Complete Critical Guide to Alexander Pope |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |isbn=0-203-16993-X |location=London |pages=25 |oclc=48139753 |access-date=31 December 2022 |archive-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524071911/http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48139753 |url-status=live }} [196] => [197] => [[Emily Wilson (classicist)|Emily Wilson]], a professor of [[Classics|classical studies]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], notes that as late as the first decade of the 21st century, almost all of the most prominent translators of Greek and Roman literature had been men.{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Emily |date=7 July 2017 |title=Found in Translation: How Women are Making the Classics Their Own |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/07/women-classics-translation-female-scholars-translators |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729234906/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/07/women-classics-translation-female-scholars-translators |archive-date=29 July 2020 |issn=0261-3077}} She calls her experience of translating Homer one of "intimate alienation." Wilson writes that this has affected the popular conception of characters and events of the ''Odyssey,''{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=86}} inflecting the story with connotations not present in the original text: "For instance, in the scene where Telemachus oversees the hanging of the slaves who have been sleeping with the suitors, most translations introduce derogatory language ("sluts" or "whores") [...] The original Greek does not label these slaves with derogatory language."{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=86}} In the original Greek, the word used is ''hai'', the feminine article, equivalent to "those female people".{{Cite magazine |last=Wilson |first=Emily |date=8 December 2017 |title=A Translator's Reckoning With the Women of The Odyssey |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=29 July 2022 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-translators-reckoning-with-the-women-of-the-odyssey |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806144049/https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-translators-reckoning-with-the-women-of-the-odyssey |archive-date=6 August 2020 }} [198] => [199] => == Legacy == [200] => {{see also|Category:Works based on the Odyssey|label1=Category:Works based on the ''Odyssey''}} [201] => {{see also|Parallels between Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey|label1=Parallels between Virgil's ''Aeneid'' and Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''}} [202] => [[File:JoyceUlysses2.jpg|thumb|Front cover of [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]''|alt=]] [203] => The influence of the Homeric texts can be difficult to summarise because of how greatly they have impacted the popular imagination and cultural values.{{sfn|Kenner|1971|p=50}} The ''Odyssey'' and the ''Iliad'' formed the basis of education for members of ancient Mediterranean society. That curriculum was adopted by Western humanists,{{sfn|Hall|2008|p=25}} meaning the text was so much a part of the cultural fabric that it became irrelevant whether an individual had read it.{{sfn|Ruskin|1868|loc=p. 17, "All Greek gentlemen were educated under Homer. All Roman gentlemen, by Greek literature. All Italian, and French, and English gentlemen, by Roman literature, and by its principles."}} As such, the influence of the ''Odyssey'' has reverberated through over a millennium of writing. The poem topped a poll of experts by ''[[BBC]] Culture'' to find literature's most enduring narrative.{{Cite web |last=Haynes |first=Natalie |author-link=Natalie Haynes |date=22 May 2018 |title=The Greatest Tale Ever Told? |website=[[BBC Culture]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180521-the-greatest-tale-ever-told |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619135051/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180521-the-greatest-tale-ever-told |archive-date=19 June 2020 }} It is widely regarded by western literary critics as a timeless classic{{Cite web |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |date=15 March 2017 |title=Odyssey |publisher=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |url=http://www.worldhistory.org/Odyssey/ |access-date=29 July 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704162738/http://www.ancient.eu/Odyssey/ |archive-date=4 July 2017 }} and remains one of the oldest works of extant literature commonly read by Western audiences.{{Cite news |last=North |first=Anna |date=20 November 2017 |title=Historically, men translated the Odyssey. Here's what happened when a woman took the job |work=[[Vox (website)|Vox]] |access-date=29 July 2022 |url=https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/11/20/16651634/odyssey-emily-wilson-translation-first-woman-english |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627123124/https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/11/20/16651634/odyssey-emily-wilson-translation-first-woman-english |archive-date=27 June 2020 }} [204] => === Literature === [205] => In Canto XXVI of the ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', [[Dante Alighieri]] meets Odysseus in the [[Malebolge|eighth circle of hell]], where Odysseus appends a new ending to the ''Odyssey'' in which he never returns to Ithaca and instead continues his restless adventuring.{{sfn|Mayor|2000|p={{page needed|date=July 2022}}}} [[Edith Hall]] suggests that Dante's depiction of Odysseus became understood as a manifestation of [[Renaissance]] [[colonialism]] and [[Other (philosophy)|othering]], with the cyclops standing in for "accounts of monstrous races on the edge of the world", and his defeat as symbolising "the Roman domination of the western Mediterranean".{{sfn|Reece|1993|p={{page needed|date=July 2022}}}} Some of Ulysses' adventures reappear in the Arabic tales of [[Sinbad the Sailor]].{{cn|date=August 2023}} [206] => [207] => The Irish poet [[James Joyce]]'s [[Literary modernism|modernist]] novel [[Ulysses (novel)|''Ulysses'']] (1922) was significantly influenced by the ''Odyssey''. Joyce had encountered the figure of Odysseus in [[Charles Lamb]]'s ''Adventures of Ulysses'', an adaptation of the epic poem for children, which seems to have established the Latin name in Joyce's mind.{{sfn|Gorman|1939|p=45}}{{sfn|Jaurretche|2005|p=29}} ''Ulysses,'' a re-telling of the ''Odyssey'' set in [[Dublin]], is divided into 18 sections ("episodes") which can be mapped roughly onto the 24 books of the ''Odyssey''.{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Drabble |editor-first=Margaret |year=1995 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to English Literature |entry=Ulysses |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-866221-1 |page=1023 }} Joyce claimed familiarity with the original Homeric Greek, but this has been disputed by some scholars, who cite his poor grasp of the language as evidence to the contrary.{{sfn|Ames|2005|loc=p. 17, "First of all, Joyce did own and read Homer in the original Greek, but his expertise was so minimal that he cannot justly be said to have known Homer in the original. Any typical young classical scholar in the second year of studying Greek would already possess more faculty with Homer than Joyce ever managed to achieve."}} The book, and especially its [[stream of consciousness]] prose, is widely considered foundational to the modernist genre.{{cite book |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=Linda R. |year=1992 |title=The Bloomsbury Guides to English Literature: The Twentieth Century |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |pages=108–109 }} [208] => [209] => [[Nikos Kazantzakis]]'s ''[[The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel]]'' begins where the ''Odyssey'' ends, with Odysseus leaving Ithaca again. [210] => [211] => Modern writers have revisited the ''Odyssey'' to highlight the poem's female characters. Canadian writer [[Margaret Atwood]] adapted parts of the ''Odyssey'' for her novella ''[[The Penelopiad]]'' (2005). The novella focuses on Penelope and the twelve female slaves hanged by Odysseus at the poem's ending,{{Cite news|last=Beard|first=Mary|date=28 October 2005|title=Review: Helen of Troy {{!}} Weight {{!}} The Penelopiad {{!}} Songs on Bronze |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/oct/29/highereducation.classics|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=26 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326055559/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/oct/29/highereducation.classics|url-status=live}} an image which haunted Atwood.{{Cite web|date=28 October 2005|title=Margaret Atwood: A personal odyssey and how she rewrote Homer|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/margaret-atwood-a-personal-odyssey-and-how-she-rewrote-homer-322675.html|website=[[The Independent]] |archive-date=7 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707112443/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/margaret-atwood-a-personal-odyssey-and-how-she-rewrote-homer-322675.html|url-status=live}} Atwood's novella comments on the original text, wherein Odysseus' successful return to Ithaca symbolises the restoration of a [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] system. Similarly, [[Madeline Miller]]'s ''[[Circe (novel)|Circe]]'' (2018) revisits the relationship between Odysseus and Circe on Aeaea.{{Cite web|date=21 April 2018|title=Circe by Madeline Miller review – myth, magic and single motherhood|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/21/circe-by-madeline-miller-review|website=the Guardian|language=en|archive-date=14 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614111203/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/21/circe-by-madeline-miller-review|url-status=live}} As a reader, Miller was frustrated by Circe's lack of motivation in the original poem and sought to explain her capriciousness.{{Cite news|title='Circe' Gets A New Motivation|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/04/15/602605359/circe-gets-a-new-motivation|website=NPR.org|language=en|archive-date=25 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180425180413/https://www.npr.org/2018/04/15/602605359/circe-gets-a-new-motivation|url-status=live}} The novel recontextualises the sorceress' transformations of sailors into pigs from an act of malice into one of self-defence, given that she has no superhuman strength with which to repel attackers.{{Cite news|last=Messud|first=Claire|date=28 May 2018|title=December's Book Club Pick: Turning Circe Into a Good Witch (Published 2018)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/books/review/circe-madeline-miller.html|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=6 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200906104718/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/books/review/circe-madeline-miller.html|url-status=live}} [212] => [213] => ===Film and television=== [214] => * ''[[L'Odissea (1911 film)|L'Odissea]]'' (1911) is an Italian silent film by [[Giuseppe de Liguoro]].{{Cite book|last=Luzzi|first=Joseph|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EKPODwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|title=Italian Cinema from the Silent Screen to the Digital Image|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2020|isbn=9781441195616}} [215] => * ''[[Ulysses (1954 film)|Ulysses]]'' (1954) is a film adaptation starring [[Kirk Douglas]] as Ulysses, [[Silvana Mangano]] as Penelope and Circe, and [[Anthony Quinn]] as Antinous.{{Cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Wendy S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wR1ru604KPYC&pg=PA3 |title=World History On The Screen: Film And Video Resources:grade 10–12 |last2=Herman |first2=Gerald H. |publisher=Walch Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8251-4615-2 |page=3 |archive-date=5 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200105061127/https://books.google.com/books?id=wR1ru604KPYC&pg=PA3 |url-status=live }} [216] => * ''[[The Odyssey (1968 miniseries)|L'Odissea]]'' (1968) is an Italian-French-German-Yugoslavian television miniseries praised for its faithful rendering of the original epic.{{Cite book |last1=Garcia Morcillo |first1=Marta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DaugBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA139 |title=Imagining Ancient Cities in Film: From Babylon to Cinecittà |last2=Hanesworth |first2=Pauline |last3=Lapeña Marchena |first3=Óscar |date=11 February 2015 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-01317-2 |page=139 }} [217] => * ''[[Nostos: The Return]]'' (1989) is an Italian film about Odysseus' homecoming. Directed by [[Franco Piavoli]], it relies on visual storytelling and has a strong focus on nature.{{cite book |last=Lapeña Marchena |first=Óscar |year=2018 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N78-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |chapter=Ulysses in the Cinema: The Example of ''Nostos, il ritorno'' (Franco Piavoli, Italy, 1990) |editor-last=Rovira Guardiola |editor-first=Rosario |title=The Ancient Mediterranean Sea in Modern Visual and Performing Arts: Sailing in Troubled Waters |series=Imagines – Classical Receptions in the Visual and Performing Arts |location=London |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |page=98 |isbn=978-1-4742-9859-9 }} [218] => * ''[[Ulysses' Gaze]]'' (1995), directed by Theo Angelopoulos, has many of the elements of the ''Odyssey'' set against the backdrop of the most recent and previous [[Balkan Wars]].{{Cite book |last1=Grafton |first1=Anthony |title=The Classical Tradition |last2=Most |first2=Glenn W. |last3=Settis |first3=Salvatore |date=2010 |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03572-0 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England |page=653}} [219] => * ''[[The Odyssey (1997 miniseries)|The Odyssey]]'' (1997) is a television miniseries directed by [[Andrei Konchalovsky]] and starring [[Armand Assante]] as Odysseus and [[Greta Scacchi]] as Penelope.{{sfn|Roman|2005|p=267}} [220] => * ''[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?]]'' (2000) is a [[Crime film|crime]] [[comedy drama]] film written, produced, co-edited and directed by the [[Coen brothers]] and is very loosely based on Homer's poem.{{Cite journal |last=Siegel |first=Janice |date=2007 |title=The Coens' O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Homer's Odyssey |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/247584 |url-status=live |journal=Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada |language=en |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=213–245 |doi=10.1353/mou.0.0029 |issn=1913-5416 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806081425/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/247584 |archive-date=6 August 2020 |s2cid=163006295}} [221] => [222] => === Opera and music === [223] => {{see also|Category:Operas based on the Odyssey}} [224] => * ''[[Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria]]'', first performed in 1640, is an opera by [[Claudio Monteverdi]] based on the second half of Homer's ''Odyssey''.{{Cite news |title=Monteverdi's 'The Return of Ulysses' |url=https://www.npr.org/2007/03/23/9078832/monteverdis-the-return-of-ulysses |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224131808/http://www.npr.org/2007/03/23/9078832/monteverdis-the-return-of-ulysses |archive-date=2017-02-24 |newspaper=NPR|date=23 March 2007 }} [225] => * [[Rolf Riehm]] composed an opera based on the myth, ''[[Sirenen|Sirenen – Bilder des Begehrens und des Vernichtens]]'' (''Sirens – Images of Desire and Destruction''), which premiered at the [[Oper Frankfurt]] in 2014.{{Cite book |last=Griffel |first=Margaret Ross |title=Operas in German: A Dictionary |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4422-4797-0 |page=448 |chapter=Sirenen |author-link=Margaret Ross Griffel |entry-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H-xEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA448 |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=13 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813013154/https://books.google.com/books?id=H-xEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA448 |url-status=live }} [226] => * [[Robert W. Smith (musician)|Robert W. Smith]]'s second symphony for concert band, ''The Odyssey'', tells four of the main highlights of the story in the piece's four movements: "The Iliad", "The Winds of Poseidon", "The Isle of Calypso", and "Ithaca".{{Cite web |title=The Iliad (from The Odyssey (Symphony No. 2)) |url=https://www.alfred.com/the-iliad-from-the-odyssey-symphony-no-2/p/00-BDM00052/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808130104/https://www.alfred.com/the-iliad-from-the-odyssey-symphony-no-2/p/00-BDM00052/ |archive-date=8 August 2020 |website=www.alfred.com}} [227] => * Jean-Claude Gallota's ballet ''[[Ulysse (ballet)|Ulysse]]'',[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k12005041/f629 Entrée ''Ulysse''], Philippe Le Moal, ''Dictionnaire de la danse'' (in French), [[éditions Larousse]], 1999 {{ISBN|2035113180}}, {{p.|507}}. based on the ''Odyssey'', but also on the work by [[James Joyce]], ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]''.[http://www.romaeuropa.net/archivio/eventi/ulysse/stile.html ''Esiste uno stile Gallotta ?''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070401213110/http://www.romaeuropa.net/archivio/eventi/ulysse/stile.html |date=1 April 2007 }} by Marinella Guatterini in 1994 on Romaeuropa's website (in Italian). [228] => [229] => ===Sciences=== [230] => * Psychiatrist [[Jonathan Shay]] wrote two books, ''Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character '' (1994)Shay, Jonathan. ''Achilles in Vietnam: Combat trauma and the undoing of character.'' Scribner, 1994. {{ISBN|978-0-684-81321-9}} and ''Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming'' (2002),Shay, Jonathan. ''Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming.'' New York: Scribner, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-7432-1157-4}} which relate the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' to [[posttraumatic stress disorder]] and [[moral injury]] as seen in the rehabilitation histories of combat veteran patients. [231] => [232] => ==References== [233] => === Citations === [234] => {{Reflist}} [235] => [236] => === Bibliography === [237] => {{Refbegin}} [238] => * {{Cite journal |last=Ames |first=Keri Elizabeth |year=2005 |title=Joyce's Aesthetic of the Double Negative and His Encounters with Homer's "Odyssey" |journal=European Joyce Studies |volume=16 |pages=15–48 |jstor=44871207 |issn=0923-9855 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44871207 |access-date=16 October 2020 |archive-date=31 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331013718/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44871207 |url-status=live }} [239] => * {{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=Graham |year=2000 |title=Fairytale in the Ancient World |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-23702-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2DAAlUrbBIC }} [240] => * {{Cite journal |last=Bonifazi |first=Anna |date=Winter 2009 |title=Inquiring into Nostos and Its Cognates |journal=[[The American Journal of Philology]] |volume=130 |issue=4 |pages=481–510 |issn=0002-9475 |jstor=20616206}} [241] => * {{Cite book |last=Browning |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Browning (Byzantinist) |editor-last=Lamberton |editor-first=Robert |editor-last2=Keaney |editor-first2=John J. |year=1992 |title=Homer's Ancient Readers: The Hermeneutics of Greek Epic's Earliest Exegetes |chapter=The Byzantines and Homer |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-6916-5627-4 }} [242] => * {{Cite book |last=Cairns |first=Douglas |year=2014 |title=Defining Greek Narrative |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-8010-8 }} [243] => * {{cite book |last=Carne-Ross |first=D. S. |year=1998 |translator-last=Fitzgerald |translator-first=Robert |translator-link=Robert Fitzgerald |title=The Odyssey |chapter=The Poem of Odysseus |publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-374-52574-3 }} [244] => * {{Cite journal |last=Davison |first=J. A. |date=1955 |title=Peisistratus and Homer |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |volume=86 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.2307/283605 |issn=0065-9711 |jstor=283605}} [245] => * {{Cite journal |last=Edwards |first=Mark W. |date=1992 |title=Homer and the Oral Tradition |journal=[[Oral Tradition (journal)|Oral Tradition]] |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=284–330 }} [246] => * {{Cite journal |last=Fay |first=H. C. |date=1952 |title=George Chapman's Translation of Homer's 'iliad' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/640882 |journal=Greece & Rome |volume=21 |issue=63 |pages=104–111 |doi=10.1017/S0017383500011578 |jstor=640882 |s2cid=161366016 |issn=0017-3835 |access-date=31 December 2022 |archive-date=31 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231005736/https://www.jstor.org/stable/640882 |url-status=live }} [247] => * {{cite book |last=Finley |first=Moses |author-link=Moses Finley |year=1976 |title=The World of Odysseus |publisher=Viking Compass |location=New York |edition=revised }} [248] => * {{Cite journal |last=Foley |first=John Miles |date=Spring 2007 |title="Reading" Homer through Oral Tradition |journal=College Literature |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=1–28 |issn=0093-3139 |jstor=25115419}} [249] => * {{cite book |last=Fox |first=Robin Lane |author-link=Robin Lane Fox |year=2008 |title=Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer |chapter=Finding Neverland |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] |location=New York }} [250] => * {{cite book |last=Gorman |first=Herbert Sherman |year=1939 |title=James Joyce |publisher=Rinehart |url=https://archive.org/details/jamesjoyce00gorm/ |url-access=registration |oclc=1035888158 }} [251] => * {{Cite journal |last=Hainsworth |first=J. B. |date=December 1972 |title=The Odyssey – Agathe Thornton: People and Themes in Homer's Odyssey. Pp. xv+163. London: Methuen, 1970. Cloth, £2·40. |journal=The Classical Review |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=320–321 |doi=10.1017/s0009840x00996720 |s2cid=163047986 |issn=0009-840X}} [252] => * {{Cite book |last=Hall |first=Edith |year=2008 |title=The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer's Odyssey |publisher=I. B. Tauris & Co. |location=New York |isbn=978-1-84511-575-3 |quote=The two Homeric epics formed the basis of the education of every- one in ancient Mediterranean society from at least the seventh century BCE; that curriculum was in turn adopted by Western humanists }} [253] => * {{Cite journal |last=Haslam |first=M. W. |date=1976 |title=Homeric Words and Homeric Metre: Two Doublets Examined (λείβω/εϊβω, γαΐα/αία) |journal=Glotta |volume=54 |issue=3/4 |pages=201–211 |issn=0017-1298 |jstor=40266365 }} [254] => * {{cite book |author=Homer |author-link=Homer |translator-last=Lattimore |translator-first=Richmond |translator-link=Richmond Lattimore |year=1975 |orig-year=8th century BCE |title=The Odyssey of Homer |publisher=[[Harper (publisher)|Harper & Row]] |location=New York }} [255] => * {{cite book |last=Jaurretche |first=Colleen |year=2005 |title=Beckett, Joyce and the art of the negative |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=978-90-420-1617-0 |series=European Joyce studies |volume=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__8cwVnwFEoC&pg=PA29 }} [256] => * {{Cite book |last=Kenner |first=Hugh |year=1971 |title=The Pound Era |publisher=University of California Press }} [257] => * {{Cite journal |last=Kundmueller |first=Michelle |date=2013 |title=Following Odysseus Home: an Exploration of the Politics of Honor and Family in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Plato's Republic |journal=American Political Science |pages=1–39 |ssrn=2301247 }} [258] => * {{Cite book |last=Lamberton |first=Robert |author-link=Robert D. Lamberton |editor-last=Grafton |editor-first=Anthony |editor-link=Anthony Grafton |editor-last2=Most |editor-first2=Glenn W. |editor-link2=Glenn W. Most |editor-last3=Settis |editor-first3=Salvatore |year=2010 |title=The Classical Tradition |chapter=Homer |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England |isbn=978-0-674-03572-0 }} [259] => * {{cite book |last1=Lattimore |first1=Richmond |year=1951 |title=The Iliad of Homer |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago }} [260] => * {{cite book |last=Mayor |first=Adrienne |author-link=Adrienne Mayor |year=2000 |title=The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |location=Princeton }} [261] => * {{Cite book |last=Myrsiades |first=Kostas |year=2019 |title=Reading Homer's Odyssey |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] |location=New Brunswick |isbn=978-1-68448-136-1 }} [262] => * {{cite book |last=Reece |first=Steve |year=1993 |title=The Stranger's Welcome: Oral Theory and the Aesthetics of the Homeric Hospitality Scene |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |location=Ann Arbor }} [263] => * {{Cite book |last=Roman |first=James W. |year=2005 |title=From Daytime to Primetime: The History of American Television Programs |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-31972-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h8AqrjoCueUC&pg=PA267 }} [264] => * {{Cite book |last=Ruskin |first=John |year=1868 |title=The Mystery of Life and its Arts |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge }} [265] => * {{cite book |last=Thornton |first=Agathe |year=1970 |title=People and Themes in Homer's Odyssey |publisher=[[Methuen Publishing|Methuen]] |location=London }} [266] => * {{Cite journal |last=Watkins |first=Calvert |date=1976 |title=Observations on the "Nestor's Cup" Inscription |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |volume=80 |pages=25–40 |doi=10.2307/311231 |issn=0073-0688 |jstor=311231}} [267] => * {{cite book |last=West |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Litchfield West |year=1997 |title=The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |location=Oxford }} [268] => * {{Cite book |last=Willcock |first=Malcolm L. |year=2007 |orig-year=1976 |title=A Companion to The Iliad: Based on the Translation by Richard Lattimore |publisher=Phoenix Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-226-89855-1 }} [269] => * {{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Emily |year=2018 |title=The Odyssey |chapter=Introduction: When Was The Odyssey Composed? |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-08905-9 }} [270] => {{Refend}} [271] => [272] => ==Further reading== [273] => {{Refbegin}} [274] => * Austin, N. 1975. ''Archery at the Dark of the Moon: Poetic Problems in Homer's Odyssey.'' Berkeley: [[University of California Press]]. [275] => * Clayton, B. 2004. ''A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the Feminine in Homer's Odyssey.'' Lanham: [[Lexington Books]]. [276] => * — 2011. "Polyphemus and Odysseus in the Nursery: Mother's Milk in the Cyclopeia." ''[[Arethusa (journal)|Arethusa]]'' 44(3):255–77. [277] => * Bakker, E. J. 2013. ''The Meaning of Meat and the Structure of the Odyssey.'' Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. [278] => * Barnouw, J. 2004. ''Odysseus, Hero of Practical Intelligence. Deliberation and Signs in Homer's Odyssey.'' Lanham, MD: [[University Press of America]]. [279] => * Dougherty, C. 2001. ''The Raft of Odysseus: The Ethnographic Imagination of Homer's Odyssey.'' New York: [[Oxford University Press]]. [280] => * Fenik, B. 1974. ''Studies in the Odyssey.'' ''Hermes: Einzelschriften'' 30. Wiesbaden, West Germany: F. Steiner. [281] => * Griffin, J. 1987. ''Homer: The Odyssey. Landmarks in World Literature''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [282] => * Louden, B. 2011. ''Homer's Odyssey and the Near East.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [283] => * — 1999. ''The Odyssey: Structure, Narration and Meaning.'' Baltimore: [[Johns Hopkins University Press]]. [284] => * Müller, W. G. 2015. "From Homer's Odyssey to Joyce's Ulysses: Theory and Practice of an Ethical Narratology." ''[[Arcadia (magazine)|Arcadia]]'' 50(1):9–36. [285] => * [[Núria Perpinyà|Perpinyà, Núria]]. 2008. ''Las criptas de la crítica. Veinte lecturas de la Odisea'' [The Crypts of Criticism: Twenty Interpretations of the 'Odyssey']. Madrid: Gredos. [https://elcultural.com/Las-criptas-de-la-critica-20-interpretaciones-de-la-Odisea Lay summary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618222558/https://elcultural.com/Las-criptas-de-la-critica-20-interpretaciones-de-la-Odisea |date=18 June 2020 }} via El Cultural (in Spanish). [286] => * Reece, Steve. 2011. "[https://www.academia.edu/30640650/Toward_an_Ethnopoetically_Grounded_Edition_of_Homers_Odyssey Toward an Ethnopoetically Grounded Edition of Homer's Odyssey] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101220802/https://www.academia.edu/30640650/Toward_an_Ethnopoetically_Grounded_Edition_of_Homers_Odyssey |date=1 January 2020 }}." ''[[Oral Tradition (journal)|Oral Tradition]]'' 26:299–326. [287] => * Saïd, S. 2011 [1998].. ''Homer and the Odyssey''. New York: Oxford University Press. [288] => * [[Judith Thurman|Thurman, Judith]], "Mother Tongue: Emily Wilson makes Homer modern", ''[[The New Yorker]]'', 18 September 2023, pp. 46–53. A biography, and presentation of the [[translation]] theories and practices, of [[Emily Wilson (classicist)|Emily Wilson]]. "'As a translator, I was determined to make the whole human experience of the poems accessible,' Wilson said." (p. 47.) [289] => {{Refend}} [290] => [291] => ==External links== [292] => [293] => {{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=The ''Odyssey'' }} [294] => ===The Odyssey in ancient Greek=== [295] => * ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135:book=1:card=1 The Odyssey]'' (in Ancient Greek) on [[Perseus Project]] [296] => * [https://bitbucket.org/ben-crowell/ransom/src/master/README.md ''Odyssey'']: the Greek text presented with the translation by Butler and vocabulary, notes, and analysis of difficult grammatical forms [297] => ===English translations=== [298] => * {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/homer/the-odyssey/william-cullen-bryant|Display Name=''The Odyssey'', translated by William Cullen Bryant|noitalics=true}} [299] => * {{Gutenberg book|title=The Odysseys of Homer, together with the shorter poems by Homer|no=48895|others=trans. by [[George Chapman]]}} [300] => * {{Gutenberg book|no=3160|others=trans. by [[Alexander Pope]]|title=The Odyssey}} [301] => * {{Gutenberg book|title=The Odyssey|no=24269|others=trans. by [[William Cowper]]}} [302] => * {{Gutenberg book|no=1728|title=The Odyssey|others=trans. by [[Samuel Butcher (classicist)|Samuel H. Butcher]] and [[Andrew Lang]]}} [303] => * {{Gutenberg book|no=1727|title=The Odyssey|others=trans. by [[Samuel Butler (novelist)|Samuel Butler]]}} [304] => * ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136:book=1:card=1 The Odyssey]'', trans. by A. T. Murray (1919) on [[Perseus Project]] [305] => ===Other resources=== [306] => * {{librivox book | title=The Odyssey | author=HOMER}} [307] => * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y297 BBC audio file] — ''In our time'' [[BBC Radio 4]] [discussion programme, 45 mins] [308] => * [http://greekmythcomix.com/odyssey-comix/ ''The Odyssey Comix''] — A detailed retelling and explanation of Homer's ''Odyssey'' in comic-strip format by [http://greekmythcomix.com/ Greek Myth Comix] [309] => * ''[https://www.owleyes.org/text/odyssey The Odyssey]'' — Annotated text and analyses aligned to [[Common Core State Standards Initiative|Common Core Standards]] [310] => * "[[gutenberg:26275|Homer's ''Odyssey'': A Commentary]]" by Denton Jaques Snider on [[Project Gutenberg]] [311] => [312] => {{Subject bar [313] => | portal1 = Ancient Greece [314] => | portal2 = Religion [315] => | commons = y [316] => | q = y [317] => | wikt = y [318] => | v = y [319] => | v-search = The Odyssey [320] => | s = y [321] => | s-search = The Odyssey [322] => }} [323] => {{Odyssey navbox}} [324] => {{Places visited by Odysseus in the Odyssey}} [325] => {{Navboxes [326] => |title=Links to related articles [327] => |list1= [328] => {{Homer}} [329] => {{National epic poems}} [330] => {{Epic Cycle}} [331] => {{Greek religion}} [332] => }} [333] => {{Authority control}} [334] => [335] => [[Category:Odyssey| ]] [336] => [[Category:8th-century BC books]] [337] => [[Category:8th-century BC poems]] [338] => [[Category:Ancient Greek religion]] [339] => [[Category:Epic Cycle]] [340] => [[Category:Nautical fiction]] [341] => [[Category:Poems adapted into films]] [342] => [[Category:Public domain books]] [343] => [[Category:Pigs in literature]] [344] => [[Category:Sequels]] [345] => [[Category:Trojan War literature]] [] => )
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Odyssey

The Wikipedia page for "Odyssey" provides a comprehensive overview of the ancient Greek epic poem attributed to the legendary poet Homer. The "Odyssey" is considered one of the greatest works of Western literature and has had a profound influence on subsequent storytelling.

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The "Odyssey" is considered one of the greatest works of Western literature and has had a profound influence on subsequent storytelling. The page begins by introducing the background and context of the poem, highlighting its authorship uncertainty and its placement as the second of Homer's epic poems, following the "Iliad. " The "Odyssey" is believed to have been composed around the 8th century BCE and is set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, following the protagonist Odysseus on his journey back home to Ithaca. The summary then delves into the plot of the "Odyssey," providing a detailed summary of the different books or chapters that make up the epic. It highlights Odysseus' encounters with mythological creatures, gods and goddesses, and the challenges he faces in his attempt to return to his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus. The summary also touches on the role of Odysseus' epic heroism, his struggle to regain his identity, and themes of hospitality and divine intervention throughout the narrative. Next, the page explores the poem's historical and cultural significance. The "Odyssey" has had a lasting impact on literature, art, and popular culture, influencing works from Virgil's "Aeneid" to James Joyce's "Ulysses. " It discusses the poem's exploration of human nature, the concept of heroism, and its portrayal of ancient Greek society and values. The page further delves into the analysis and interpretation of the poem. It discusses the varied interpretations of Odysseus' character, the symbolism of various episodes and characters, and the recurring motifs found in the "Odyssey. " The thematic significance of loyalty, perseverance, and the consequences of arrogance are also explored. Finally, the Wikipedia page concludes with a section on the reception and legacy of the "Odyssey. " It highlights its influence on subsequent literature, its adaptation into various forms of media including film and theater, and its continued relevance in contemporary culture. Overall, the Wikipedia page on "Odyssey" provides a comprehensive and detailed summary of Homer's epic poem, exploring its plot, themes, historical context, and cultural impact.

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