The Odyssey | Overview of the Odyssey
In the following excerpt, Peter V. Jones offers a general overview of the Odyssey, encouraging the modern reader to explore this work in order to discover its "enduring hold on our imagination."
The Odyssey is the second work of Western literature (the Iliad is the first). The ancient world agreed almost unanimously that both epics were the work of Homer. The Odyssey—the return of Odysseus from Troy to reclaim his threatened home on Ithaca—is a superb story, rich in character, adventure and incident, reconciling reality with fantasy, the heroic with the humble, the intimate with the divine, and making the household, rather than the battlefield, the centre of its world.
What stands out . . . is the brilliant ingenuity with which Homer has...
[The entire page is 1237 words long]
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See Also:
- - For teachers, the The Odyssey Lesson Plan.
- - Read the The Odyssey text online.
- - The Odyssey summary and study guide in the eNotes.
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