The Odyssey

In this third episode of the 13-part Invitation to World Literature, 10 experts read passages from Homer's epic poem The Odyssey—adding lively and informative commentary while cutaways to drawings, paintings, statues, film clips, and stage adaptations bring the ancient story to life. As Harvard comparative literature professor David Damrosch notes, The Odyssey is a sequel of sorts to Homer's Trojan War classic The Iliad, while actor Tim Blake Nelson reminds us that the central tale of a father who simply wants to return home to his wife and child continues to be retold and adapted (such as George Clooney's character in Joel and Ethan Coen's O Brother, Where Art Thou?). Yale classics professor Emily Greenwood mentions two of the poem's most famous admirers: Alexander the Great and T.E. Lawrence; she also believes that Christopher Columbus may have drawn inspiration from Odysseus' travels. In addition, Damrosch cites Dante Alighieri, Alfred Tennyson, Franz Kafka, and Margaret Atwood as being heavily influenced by the timeless story. Other commentators include playwright-director Mary Zimmerman, psychiatrist Jonathan Shay (Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming), comic book writer Roy Thomas (Marvel's The Odyssey), critic Daniel Mendelsohn, and Harvard classics professor Gregory Nagy. As several point out, The Odyssey boasts plenty of action and adventure, but also history, mythology, psychology, and humor, while Thomas concludes, “It's a good story.” Other volumes in the series include: The Bhagavad Gita, Candide, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The God of Small Things, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Things Fall Apart. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (K. Fennessy)