Kohlmeier's novel weaves together in highly original fashion two different literary traditions: Homeric epic and the German Bildungsroman or developmental novel. Its action rests on a framework suggested by Books One to Four of the Odyssey, the section called the Telemachy. This is the basis for a novel of universal proportions, spanning Western history from its origins as described in Greek creation myth to the present day.Modern Telemachos, son of Odysseus, is here a normal, intelligent, sensitive youth with a girlfriend, an uneasy relationship with his mother Penelope, and the uncomfortable burden of responsibility to the inheritance of a heroic father. The goddess Athene has little success in her efforts to transform him into a warrior hero. They founder on his modern, very human sensibility.We are dealing with a stable, luxuriant fabric composed of stories and history, with a matted flying carpet over time and space.

An innovative new analysis of the Odyssey's most influential female character

The second of the two great epic poems attributed to Homer, The Odyssey takes place after the Trojan War and tells the story of Odysseus's voyage home to Ithaca and his wife, Penelope. Odysseus's journey is a perilous one, filled with precarious adventures and strange mythical creatures. Supported by numerous full-length essays, this updated volume offers various critical approaches to exploring this powerful tale of magic and heroism.

Most translations of The Odyssey are in the kind of standard verse form believed typical of high-serious composition in the ancient world. Yet some scholars believe the epic was originally composed in a less formal, phrase-by-phrase prosody. Charles Stein employs the latter approach in this dramatic, and in some ways truer, version. Famous episodes such as the sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, and the Cyclops, are rendered with previously unseen energy and empathy. The poem’s second half—where Odysseus, returned home to take revenge on his wife’s suitors—has extraordinarily subtle, “novelistic” features that are made more transparent in this version. There is also a special feel for the archaic dimensions of Homer—the world of gods and their complex relations to Fate and Being that other translators tend to deemphasize in order to make the poem feel “modern.” Most versions exclude or minimize the magical aspects of the poem, but Stein gives these elements full play, so that the spirit of a universe predating the classical era shines through. This vibrant version of The Odyssey shows readers not only what the Greeks thought about their gods but the gods themselves. Summaries preceding each chapter and a list of recommended websites help expand the experience.

This volume is concerned with aspects of orality and literacy in the ancient world. It arises from the tremendous contemporary interest among scholars in questions of how literacy and orality co-exist and interact in the ancient world. The contents of the book are refereed papers originally presented at the fifth biennial 'Orality and Literacy in ancient Greece' held at The University of Melbourne in 2002. Papers are offered by scholars from Britain, the USA, Canada and Australia which deal with a range of periods and genres in antiquity, from Homer through to Roman literature. The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the ancient world.

Homeric Voices is a study, from a compositional point of view, of the substantial speeches and exchanges of speech that Homer depicts in his songs. Drawing on research in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and cognitive psychology, Elizabeth Minchin considers the words that Homer attributes to his characters from two perspectives, as cognitive and as social phenomena. She asks how the poet worked with memory to generate the speech forms that he represents; and how Homeric speech constructs and reveals the social hierarchies that are bound up with age, status, and gender - with particular interest in gender - in the world of the poems.