Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays

Description

This collection makes available critical work on the "Odyssey" produced since the 1940s. The ten essays address five major concerns: the poem's programmatic representation of social and religious institutions and values; its transformation of folktales and traditional stories into epic adventures; its representation of gender roles and, in particular, of Penelope; its narrative strategies and form; and its relation to the "Iliad", especially to that epic's distinctive conception of heroism.

Seth L. Schein is Professor of Comparative Literature and Classics at the University of California, Davis. His books include The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's "Iliad" and The Iambic Trimeter in Aeschylus and Sophocles: A Study in Metrical Form.