Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays

This wide-ranging collection makes available to specialists and nonspecialists alike important critical work on the Odyssey produced during the last half century. 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.


In the introduction, Seth L. Schein describes the poetic background to the work and suggests a variety of interpretive approaches, some of which are developed in the essays that follow. These essays include previously published work by Jean-Pierre Vernant, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Pietro Pucci, and Charles P. Segal. There also are a new essay by Laura M. Slatkin, two revised and expanded ones by Nancy Felson-Rubin and Michael N. Nagler, and three appearing in English for the first time by Uvo Hlscher, Karl Reinhardt, and Vernant. The result is a collection that juxtaposes older, often hard-to-find articles with significant newer pieces in a way that allows for a fruitful dialogue among them.

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Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays

This wide-ranging collection makes available to specialists and nonspecialists alike important critical work on the Odyssey produced during the last half century. 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.


In the introduction, Seth L. Schein describes the poetic background to the work and suggests a variety of interpretive approaches, some of which are developed in the essays that follow. These essays include previously published work by Jean-Pierre Vernant, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Pietro Pucci, and Charles P. Segal. There also are a new essay by Laura M. Slatkin, two revised and expanded ones by Nancy Felson-Rubin and Michael N. Nagler, and three appearing in English for the first time by Uvo Hlscher, Karl Reinhardt, and Vernant. The result is a collection that juxtaposes older, often hard-to-find articles with significant newer pieces in a way that allows for a fruitful dialogue among them.

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Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays

Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays

Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays

Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays

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Overview

This wide-ranging collection makes available to specialists and nonspecialists alike important critical work on the Odyssey produced during the last half century. 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.


In the introduction, Seth L. Schein describes the poetic background to the work and suggests a variety of interpretive approaches, some of which are developed in the essays that follow. These essays include previously published work by Jean-Pierre Vernant, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Pietro Pucci, and Charles P. Segal. There also are a new essay by Laura M. Slatkin, two revised and expanded ones by Nancy Felson-Rubin and Michael N. Nagler, and three appearing in English for the first time by Uvo Hlscher, Karl Reinhardt, and Vernant. The result is a collection that juxtaposes older, often hard-to-find articles with significant newer pieces in a way that allows for a fruitful dialogue among them.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691214146
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 06/16/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 296
File size: 751 KB

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction3
Land and Sacrifice in the Odyssey: A Study of Religious and Mythical Meanings33
Death with Two Faces55
The Adventures in the Odyssey63
Penelope and the Suitors133
Dread Goddess Revisited141
Penelope's Perspective: Character from Plot163
The Refusal of Odysseus185
The Song of the Sirens191
Kleos and Its Ironies in the Odyssey201
Composition by Theme and the Metis of the Odyssey223
Bibliography239
Contributors253
Index of Passages Discussed and Cited257
General Index271
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