A Critical Guide to The Odyssey

As a fan of Homer's heroic epic, I eagerly fired up A Critical Guide to The Odyssey and settled back in my cozy, dry Barcalounger for some vicarious adventures by land and by sea with seductive sirens, one-eyed giants, and slimy suitors for the already wed hand of Penelope, wife of long-wandering Trojan War vet Odysseus. Excepting a handful of low-budget re-enactments of vaguely Roman-clad Greek warriors shuffling about, however, the majority of the program takes place smack dab in the offices and dens of various stuffy-sounding British professors. Hosted by Robert Whelan, whose introduction on Homer and the oral tradition sets the stage for his colleagues (whose commentary flits all over the map, so to speak), the program looks at the use of formulaic phraseology used in epic poems, the artificial (though logical) break-up of The Odyssey into 24 books, the brilliant decision on Homer's part to begin the story in media res and then serve up the most dramatic portions of Odysseus' perilous journey as a flashback, and the differences between The Odyssey and Homer's other perennial best-seller The Iliad. While there are some valuable insights in this scattershot approach to dissecting (pardon the cross-formatting) the "original road movie," the presentation itself is a bit dull and therefore unlikely to win converts amongst already squirming-in-their-seats students. Optional. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)