A specialist in Slavic studies and contemporary literature, Lord has written extensively on folklore and folk epics. In this essay, he analyzes the structure of the Odyssey as oral epic, emphasizing its place within the context of other narrative oral poetry.

Van Doren was one of the most prolific men of letters in twentieth-century American writing. He wrote accomplished studies of Shakespeare, John Dryden, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau, and served as the literary editor and film critic for the Nation during the 1920s and 1930s. Van Doren's criticism is aimed at the general reader, rather than the scholar or specialist, and is noted for its lively perception and wide interest. Like his fiction and poetry (for which he won the Pulitzer Pri...

Here, Murnaghan explores the theme of disclosure and recognition as it relates to Odysseus and Laertes, Telemachos, Eumaeus, and Penelope, as well as discussing Odysseus's need to re-establish his past relationships with these characters.

Auerbach was a German-born American philologist and critic. He is best known for his Mimesis: Dargestellte Wirklichkeit in der Abendländischen Literature (1946; Mimesis, The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, 1953), a landmark study in which the critic explores the interpretation of reality through literary representation. In the following excerpt from that work, Auerbach compares the discourse, perspective, detail, and historical development of the Odyssey with that of several Old Testa...

In the essay below, Felson-Rubin examines the husband-wife relationship of Odysseus and Penelope and details "the formal pattern of their second courtship."

Bowra, an English critic and literary historian, was considered among the foremost classical scholars of the first half of the twentieth century. He also wrote extensively on modern literature, particularly modern European poetry, in studies noted for their erudition, lucidity, and straightforward style. In this post-humously published essay, Bowra examines the characters, structure, and sources of the Odyssey. Textual references to the Iliad have been rendered in roman numerals, while references to the Od...

In the following essay, first published in the American Journal of Philology in 1963, Clarke discusses the first four books of the Odyssey, known collectively as the Telemacheia, which deal with Telemachus' journey and his gradual coming of age.

Bassett was an influential Greek scholar and one of the foremost Homeric specialists of his time. In this excerpt from a posthumously published collection of lectures, he analyzes Homer's use of dialogue to create the "illusion of personality" in the characters of the Odyssey and the Iliad.

Stanford was a writer on Greek literature, politics, and ecclesiastical affairs. In this essay, first published in 1954, he explores Odysseus's unconventionality as a hero, noting that Homer "skilfully succeeded in distinguishing Odysseus by slight deviations from the norm in almost every heroic feature."

An English professor of Greek, Kirk is the author of numerous critical works on classical authors, including several books on Homer. In this essay, Kirk assesses the flaws of the Odyssey, contending that while "the poem is a marvellous accomplishment" it "fails to achieve the profound monumental effect of the Iliad."

In the following essay, Griffin addresses the issue of inconsistent characterization in the Odyssey, contending that the complexity of the characters gives them "depth and significance."

In the following essay, Cook assesses the themes, settings, and tone of the Odyssey, maintaining that the poem is lighter in tone but equally as profound as the Iliad

An American classics scholar specializing in Greek literature, Whitman is highly esteemed as a Homer critic. In the following essay, he explores some societal and artistic changes that took place between the time of the Iliad and that of the Odyssey, and notes how these changes are reflected in the latter work.

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.

Pope has been called the greatest English poet of his time and one of the most important in the history of world literature. As a critic and satirical commentator on eighteenth-century England, he was the author of work that represents the epitome of Neoclassicist thought. His greatness lies in his cultivation of style and wit, rather than sublimity and pathos, and this inclination shaped his criticism of other writers. In the following excerpt from the postscript to his 1725 translation of the Odyssey, Po...

Jaeger was a German educator and classics scholar whose works include Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of His Development(1934) and Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture(1939-44). In the following excerpt from the latter work, originally published in German in 1934 under the title Paideia: Die Formung des Griechischen Menschen,Jaeger examines the Iliad and the Odyssey as examples of the early Greek aristocratic culture, noting the embodiment of those ideals in the poems'heroes.

Lang was one of England's most powerful men of letters during the closing decades of the nineteenth century. A romantic vision of the past imbued Lang's writings, coloring his work as a translator, poet, and revisionist historian. Among the chief proponents of Romanticism in a critical battle that pitted late-nineteenth-century revivalist Romanticists against the defenders of Naturalism and Realism, Lang espoused his strong preference for romantic adventure novels throughout his literary crit...

An English novelist, satirist, essayist, and translator, Butler is best known for his The Way of All Flesh (1903), an autobiographical novel that satirizes Victo-rian church and family life. As a Homeric scholar, Butler achieved notoriety for his The Authoress of the Odyssey, in which he propounded the theory that the Odyssey was written by a woman. In the following excerpt from that work, he contends that the Odyssey was written by Nausicaa, a young woman from Trapani and a member of King Alcinous'...

Page is a classics scholar and the author of the highly regarded Sappho and Alcaeus (1955). In the following excerpt from a lecture delivered in 1972, he speculates on the historical basis of the tale of the Lotus-Eaters.

An English critic and essayist, De Quincey used his own life as the subject of his best-known work, Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1822), in which he chronicled his addiction to opium. He contributed reviews to a number of London journals and earned a reputation as an insightful if occasionally long-winded literary critic. At the time of his death, De Quincey's critical expertise was underestimated, though his talent as a prose writer had long been acknowledged. In the following excerpt from...

Tillyard was an English scholar of Renaissance literature who remains highly reputed for his studies of John Milton, William Shakespeare, and the epic form. In the essay below, Tillyard details similarities between the Iliad and the Odyssey, maintaining that they are different but equally brilliant poems.

Hobbes is best known for such philosophical writings as Human Nature (1650), Elements of Law (1650), Leviathan; or, the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil (1651), and Elements of Philosophy (1655). As a young man he knew Francis Bacon and assisted the great Lord Chancellor in translating several of his essays into Latin. Hobbes was greatly influenced by the works of Galileo and his contemporary, Descartes. In his 1675 preface to the Odyssey, Hobbes examines the seven virtue...

A successful English dramatist and poet, Chapman is chiefly remembered as a scholar and translator of Homer's works. While his merits as a translator are often debated by scholars, his Iliad and Odyssey remain landmarks in Homer studies. In his 1614 dedication of the Odyssey to Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, Chapman deems Homer "the most wise and most divine Poet."

Le Bossu was a French critic best known for his Treatise on Epic Poetry, written in 1675. Much discussed in England even before it was translated into English, the Treatise was severely criticized by Samuel Johnson and, in France, by Voltaire for its rigid rules concerning epic poetry. In the following excerpt from that work, Le Bossu analyzes Homer's crafting of the hero of the Odyssey, Ulysses.

Regarded as a major figure in twentieth-century liter-ature, Kafka was an original, profoundly moral writer whose central concern was with the essential loneliness of modern man struggling to comprehend an incomprehensible world. His literary reputation rests largely upon the posthumous publication of Der Prozess (1925; The Trial, 1935), Das Schloss (1926; The Castle, 1930), and Amerika (1927; America, 1938), which relate surreal, nightmarish stories of alienation. In the following essay, originally writte...