Bruce Louden's bold re-reading of the Odyssey--the first attempt in years to map in detail the poem's overall structure--offers new insights into the artistry of Odysseus' mythic voyage and enriches our understanding of Homer's masterful craftsmanship. Louden's groundbreaking work uncovers an extended narrative pattern, repeated in full three times, which reveals the poem's underlying skeletal structure. This organizational analysis helps to explain the existence of several characters or episodes sometimes dismissed as extraneous, as late additions, or even as corruptions to Homer's...
Bruce Louden's bold re-reading of the Odyssey--the first attempt in years to map in detail the poem's overall structure--offers new insights...
The Odyssey's larger plot is composed of a number of distinct genres of myth, all of which are extant in various Near Eastern cultures (Mesopotamian, West Semitic, Egyptian). Unexpectedly, the Near Eastern culture with which the Odyssey has the most parallels is the Old Testament. Consideration of how much of the Odyssey focuses on non-heroic episodes hosts receiving guests, a king disguised as a beggar, recognition scenes between long-separated family members reaffirms the Odyssey's parallels with the Bible. In particular the book argues that the Odyssey is in a dialogic relationship with...
The Odyssey's larger plot is composed of a number of distinct genres of myth, all of which are extant in various Near Eastern cultures (Mesopotamian, ...
