The Odyssey | The Odyssey

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

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 Odyssey | The Odyssey

At a glance:

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