FOR FURTHER READING

The Context of the Homeric Epics

Drews, Robert. The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. An absorbing, balanced account of the evidence surrounding the questions of who the Myceneans and Dorians were, where they came from, and when they arrived in Greece.

Finley, M. I. The World of Odysseus. 1954. Revised second edition. New York: Viking Press, 1965. Now somewhat dated, but still a comprehensive introduction to Homer’s world for general readers.

Freeman, Charles. Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Mediterranean . Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. A comprehensive history of the ancient Mediterranean that puts Greek civilization firmly into the context of neighboring cultures.

Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. 1975. Reprinted with a new preface by the author. New York: Schocken Books, 1995. An excellent survey of the roles of and attitudes toward women in the ancient Mediterranean.

Steiner, George, ed. Homer in English. Edited with the assistance of Aminadav Dykman. London and New York: Penguin, 1996. A history of how Homer has been translated into English, with representative excerpts from all the major translations.

Older Criticism of Continuing Interest

Auerbach, Erich. “Odysseus’ Scar.” In his Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Translated by Willard R. Trask. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953. The classic statement of the ancient Greek aesthetic, especially as it contrasts with the Bible’s method of narration.

Kirk, G. S. Homer and the Oral Tradition. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977. A look at the oral context by one of the leading critics of mythological texts.

Lord, Albert B. The Singer of Tales. 1960. Second edition, edited by Stephen Mitchell and Gregory Nagy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. Based on the research of the late Milman Parry, this book explains the oral-formulaic principle of the poem’s composition. Recent edition includes an audio and video CD Parry made of Balkan tale-singers.

General Current Criticism

Clay, Jenny Strauss. The Wrath of Athena: Gods and Men in the Odyssey. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1997. An adept, detailed reading of the poem.

Griffin, Jasper. Homer, the Odyssey. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. A good, brief introduction to the poem’s themes and background.

Latacz, Joachim. Homer: His Art and His World. Translated by James P. Holoka. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. Probably the best general guide to the poem for the nonexpert.

Schein, Seth L., ed. Reading the Odyssey: Selective Interpretive Essays . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Essays that offer an advanced introduction to themes of current critical interest in the poem.

Topics in Current Criticism

Cohen, Beth, ed. The Distaff Side: Representing the Female in Homer’s Odyssey. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. A collection of essays dealing with female characters in the poem from the perspectives of a variety of disciplines.

Dimock, George E. The Unity of the Odyssey. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. A recent contribution to the debate about the authorship of the work.

Doherty, Lillian Eileen. Siren Songs: Gender, Audiences, and Narrators in the Odyssey. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. Combines narrative-based, audience-oriented, and feminist approaches to illuminate the gender dynamics of storytelling in the poem.

Haubold, Johannes. Homer’s People: Epic Poetry and Social Formation . Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. An examination of the interrelation of Homeric epic and the production of social norms.

Louden, Bruce. The Odyssey: Structure, Narration, and Meaning. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. An analysis of the “ring structure” used to organize many levels of the poem’s narrative.

Malkin, Irad. The Return of Odysseus: Colonization and Ethnicity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. An attempt to understand the mindset of early Greek colonizers by drawing on a variety of evidence, notably the Odyssey.

Nagy, Gregory. Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. A discussion of the epic emphasizing its qualities as performance.

Snodgrass, Anthony M. Homer and the Artists: Text and Picture in Early Greek Art. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Revealing look at how early Greek pottery painting does not merely illustrate Homer, but preserves many variants of his stories that once circulated in oral tradition.