Homer's the Iliad and the Odyssey: A BiographyWhile it is unknown if there ever was a man named Homer, there is no doubt that the epic poems assembled under his name form the cornerstone of Western literature, feeding our imagination for over two and a half millennia. The Iliad and The Odyssey, with their tales of the Trojan War, Achilles, Ulysses and Penelope, the Sirens, the Cyclops, Helen of Troy, and the petulant gods, are familiar to most readers because they are so pervasive. From Plato to Virgil, Pope to Joyce, the poems have been told and retold, interpreted and embellished. In this graceful and sweeping book, Alberto Manguel traces the lineage of the poems from their inception and first recording. He considers the original purpose of the poems--either as allegory of philosophical truth or as a record of historical truth--surveys the challenges the pagan Homer presented to the early Christian world, and maps the spread of the works around the world and through the centuries. Manguel follows Homer through the greatest literature ever created and, above all, delights in the poems themselves. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Summaries of the Books | 9 |
A Life of Homer? | 24 |
Among the Philosophers | 38 |
Virgil | 46 |
Christian Homer | 60 |
Other Homers | 68 |
Dante | 89 |
Homer as Idea | 150 |
The Eternal Feminine | 159 |
Homer as Symbol | 168 |
Homer as History | 177 |
Madame Homer | 183 |
Ulysses Travels | 193 |
Homer Through the LookingGlass | 205 |
The Neverending War | 218 |
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Common terms and phrases
A. E. Housman Achilles adventures Aeneas Aeneid Agamemnon ancient Andromache argued Aristotle Athena Augustine bard Baricco battle beauty became Butler Byron called century BC Chapter Christian classics Commedia contemporary culture Dante Dante Alighieri Dante's dead death divine edited epic Faust fight Freud Giraudoux goddess gods Goethe Greece Greek Hector Helen hero Homer Homer's poems Ibid Iliad imagination immortal invented Ithaca J. W. von Goethe Jean Racine Jerome Joyce killed King later Latin learned literary literature lived London Menelaus moral Muse never Nietzsche Odyssey Oeuvres Omeros Oxford University Press pagan Paris Patroclus Penelope Penguin Books philosopher Plato poet poetry Pope Pope's Priam quoted Racine readers Roman Rome says Schliemann scholars sing soul story suitors T. E. Lawrence Telemachus tells tion told translated tribune Trojan Trojan War Troy Ulysses Virgil William Blake words writing wrote York Zeus