The epic that inspired the road trip genre, the Odyssey is often remembered as the story of a man who took ten years to return home to his wife, fighting off sirens, nymphs, and his and his companions’ bad decisions along the way. But beneath the apparent vice and folly lies an exploration of the nature of storytelling, the limits of perseverance, the contours of faith, the inscrutability of death, and a quest to define and safeguard home.
Winter/Spring 2023: Homer’s Odyssey (Professor Eirene Allen)
Open to all.
When: Mondays January 23 to April 17 (no class March 6) , 7-9 p.m ET.
Forum: Live classes on Zoom. (Link will be emailed shortly before the first class.)
Syllabus: see below.
Required texts: Homer’s Odyssey
I will be using the edition translated by Anthony Verity.
Samuel Butler translation free to download here: http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.mb.txt
Course requirements: Attend all live sessions. Participants will receive a certificate of completion for 35 course hours.
Course Description/Syllabus
Winter/Spring 2023: Odyssey Seminar
The epic that inspired the road trip genre, the Odyssey is often remembered as the story of a man who took ten years to return home to his wife, fighting off sirens, nymphs, and his and his companions’ bad decisions along the way. But beneath the apparent vice and folly lies an exploration of the nature of storytelling, the limits of perseverance, the contours of faith, the inscrutability of death, and a quest to define and safeguard home.
Like the Iliad, the Odyssey is a paradox: a text of a poem composed orally in performance, an end product of a centuries-old tradition, and the beginning of a new kind of storytelling. Reading 2-3 books per week in Anthony Verity’s translation, we will explore the poem’s meanings and messages within a Homeric context and their appeal across time.
Week 1 (Jan. 23): Introducing the Odyssey
Read: William Allan’s introduction to Verity’s Odyssey
Week 2 (Jan. 30): Memory and Return
Read: Books 1 – 4
Week 3 (Feb. 6): Memory and Narrative
Read: Books 5 & 6
Week 4 (Feb. 13): Memory, Narrative, and Identity
Read: Books 7 & 8
Week 5 (Feb. 20): Wandering and the Communal Self
Read: Books 9 & 10
Week 6 (Feb. 27): Discussion of Teaching Implications
*No class March 6*
Week 7 (March 13): Liminality, Narrative, and the Communal Self
Read: Books 11 & 12
Week 8 (March 20): Return to Life and Light
Read: Books 13, 14, & 15
Week 9 (March 27): Penelope’s Fame
Read: Books 16, 17, & 18
Week 10 (April 3): The Complementarity of Penelope and Odyssey
Read: Books 19, 20, & 21
Week 11 (April 10): The ambiguity of Odysseus
Read: Books 22, 23, & 24
Week 12 (April 17): What is the Odyssey about?