Odyssey
The Odyssey (/ˈɒdɪsi/;[1] Ancient Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, romanized: Odýsseia)[2][3] is one of two major ancient Greek 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 books. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of 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 group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.
This article is about Homer's epic poem. For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation).Odyssey
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 antiquity, Homer's authorship of the poem was not questioned, but contemporary scholarship 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.
Crucial themes in the poem include the ideas of nostos (νόστος; "return"), wandering, 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.
The Odyssey is regarded as one of the most significant works of the Western canon. The first English translation of the Odyssey was in the 16th century. Adaptations and re-imaginings continue to be produced across 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.[4]
The Odyssey is 12,109 lines composed in dactylic hexameter, also called Homeric hexameter.[5][6] It opens in medias res, in the middle of the overall story, with prior events described through flashbacks and storytelling.[7] 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.[8]
In the Classical period, some of the books (individually and in groups) were commonly given their own titles:
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.[12]
Textual history
Composition
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.[47] 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.[48] Inscribed on a clay cup found in Ischia, Italy, are the words "Nestor's cup, good to drink from."[49] Some scholars, such as Calvert Watkins, have tied this cup to a description of King Nestor's golden cup in the Iliad.[50] If the cup is an allusion to the Iliad, that poem's composition can be dated to at least 700–750 BC.[47]
Dating is similarly complicated by the fact that the Homeric poems, or sections of them, were performed regularly by rhapsodes for several hundred years.[47] The Odyssey as it exists today is likely not significantly different.[48] Aside from minor differences, the Homeric poems gained a canonical place in the institutions of ancient Athens by the 6th century.[51] In 566 BC, Peisistratos instituted a civic and religious festival called the Panathenaia, which featured performances of Homeric poems.[52] 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.[53]