Critical Essay | Critical Essay by H. D. F. Kitto

Critical Essay by H. D. F. Kitto

SOURCE: "The Odyssey" in Poiesis: Structure and Thought, University of California Press, 1966, pp. 116-52.

A British critic, translator, and specialist on Hellenic drama, Kitto has written extensively on ancient Greek literature, theater, and history. In this excerpt, he defends the structure and theme of the Odyssey.

There are two Homeric questions. There is the one first asked by Lachmann and eagerly debated ever since: one Homer, or two, or a multitude? The other is: What are the poems about? How did Homer think? We can consider the poems either as historic monuments (which they are), or as poems (which they are). I admit that the two questions are not entirely separable. It is indeed possible to examine some purely archaeological, philological, or historical aspects of the poems without considering their poetic qualities at all, but, ideally, one cannot do the converse. If this [study] takes very little notice of...
(read more)