The Odyssey (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Nikos Kazantzakis
- First Published: 1938
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Type of Plot: Epic
- Time of Work: Antiquity
- Setting: Ithaca, Sparta, Crete, Egypt, southern Africa, and Antarctica
- Genres: Poetry, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Husbands, Wives, Traveling or travelers, Mythology or myths, War, Legends, Folklore, Gods or goddesses, Adventure, Heroes or heroism, Greek or Roman times, Greece or Greek people, Fables, Trojan War
- Locales: Africa, Egypt, Greece, Sparta, ancient, Egypt, ancient, Antarctica, Africa, ancient, Crete, ancient, Ithaca, ancient
Characters Discussed
Odysseus (oh-DIH-see-uhs), a Greek mythological hero who fought for ten years in the Trojan War and then spent ten more years returning home to Ithaca. In The Odyssey, written by Homer in about 800 b.c.e., Odysseus is first and foremost a family man; in this modern version, which begins after Odysseus’ murder of the suitors in book 22 of Homer’s version, Odysseus resembles more the Ulysses of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno (The Divine Comedy, c. 1320) and of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses” (1842): a bold sailor with a...
[The entire page is 1064 words long]
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