The Odyssey

This Norton Critical Edition includes:- Emily Wilson's authoritative translation of Homer's masterpiece, accompanied by her informative introduction, explanatory footnotes and book-by-book summaries.- Four maps, created especially for this translation.- Contextual materials including sources and analogues by Homer, Sappho, Pindar and others. Also included are carefully chosen passages from (mainly) ancient texts that provide insight into The Odyssey and its reception by Plato, Aristotle, Ovid, Pseudo-Longinus, Lucian, Apollodorus, Heraclitus, Porphyry, Proclus, Hyginus, Dante Alighieri, Alfred Lord Tennyson, C. P. Cavafy, Derek Walcott and Margaret Atwood.- Nine critical essays addressing key topics-composition; representation of religion and the gods; class and slavery; gender; colonisation and the meaning of home; trickery, intelligence and lying; and more- essential to the study of The Odyssey. Essays by Robert Fowler, Laurel Fulkerson, Barbara Graziosi, Laura M. Slatkin, Sheila Murnaghan, Patrice Rankine, Helene P. Foley, Egbert J. Bakker and Lillian Eileen Doherty are included.- A glossary and a list of suggested further readings. About the Series Read by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format-annotated text, contexts and criticism-helps students to better understand, analyse and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.

HOMER's identity is shrouded in mystery. Most scholars agree that an epic poet named Homer likely existed anywhere between 900 to 700 B.C.E. Legend, originating in antiquity, says that Homer was a blind bard from Ionia, but no account of Homer's life can be verified. The Iliad and The Odyssey, the two epic poems attributed to Homer, which take place during the Trojan War and its aftermath, were derived from the oral storytelling tradition. Their method of composition-either by a single author or several bards working in tandem-remains unknown. The Homeric Poems are among the most significant narratives in the Greek and Western literary canon.