Download or read book The Oar of Odysseus written by Richard M Bank and published by Histria Books. This book was released on 2022-10-11 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Penelope Bauer sips on a margarita, celebrating her acceptance into the graduate Classics program at Boston University, unaware that she will soon become the central player in a bold scheme to save Western Civilization from itself. Of course, like any intelligent young woman in the dark days of 2018, she sees the symptoms of decay all around her, and the waning of the original values of ancient Greece. The good life for most Americans has become synonymous with the individual drive for wealth and status, acquisitiveness displacing the quest for the classical virtues of wisdom, courage, justice, and the like. Indeed, the small liberal arts college from which she will graduate in a week has fallen victim to the money-grubbing paws of a shady for-profit educational corporation.Penny's decision to pursue the Classics reflects her growing realization that liberal education may be human kind's last best hope. She and her fellow students at the College of St. Francis had the opportunity to experience, many for the first time, the pleasures of a genuinely good life, a moral or ethical life, liberated from the need to acquire the material symbols of success. Her passionate commitment to live such a life made her the unwitting subject of an ancient prophecy. She has been watched, studied without her knowledge. Fate has groomed her to participate in a grand adventure, a wild ride of Homeric proportions, with help along the way from an Irish Setter mix named Sappho, and a bevy of strong, intelligent women--Black and brown, Irish and Greek, gay and straight. And like her ancient namesake, the wife of Odysseus, she will have to depend on an abiding love and her courage, the courage of a woman warrior, to see her through the perils of her own Odyssey.

Download or read book The Oar of Odysseus written by János Makkay and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The winnowing oar New Perspectives in Homeric Studies written by Christos Tsagalis and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of recent advances in the treatment of longstanding problems pertaining to the interpretation of Homeric poetry, this volume brings together cutting-edge research from a cohort of acclaimed scholars on Homer and the Homeric Hymns. The variety of topics covered spans the entire field of Homeric philology: the methods and solutions provided for a new edition of the Odyssey, the puzzle of the relation between the festival of the Panathenaea and the Homeric text, the disclosure of the meaning of notorious cruces pertaining to arcane formulas, the two emblematic heroes of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Achilles and Odysseus, Homeric poetics, the range and use of repetition in a traditional medium, the composition of the Homeric epics, the Apologoi and 'Cyclic' Narrative, as well as the Homeric Hymns to Hermes and Aphrodite.

Download or read book The Story of the Odyssey written by Stephen V. Tracy and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here Stephen Tracy offers a vivid, fast-paced narrative that serves as a reading guide to Homer's monumental epic. He not only provides translations of key passages and traces the evolution of major themes in the Odyssey, but also helps new readers to understand the artistry of one of the best tales ever told. Aimed at advanced readers as well, this book stresses an appreciation of how Homer has ordered his narrative, covering such topics as character interaction, family relationships, elements of poetic language, and the symbolic treatment of death, rebirth, growth, and knowledge. Given the controversy over the way the Odyssey was composed and handed down, Tracy concentrates on presenting the poem as a highly unified work. His analysis of the narrative structure reveals the epic to be arranged as a series of parallel journeys. The journey, seen here as a symbol of growth and self-knowledge, is among the major themes discussed in detail, along with the importance of women as overseers of life's journeys and the need for the sons of heroes to grow up worthy of their fathers.

Download or read book Approaches to Greek Myth written by Lowell Edmunds and published by Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 659 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A handy introduction to some of the more useful methodological approaches to and the previous scholarship on the subject of Greek myths.” —Phoenix Since the first edition of Approaches to Greek Myth was published in 1990, interest in Greek mythology has surged. There was no simple agreement on the subject of “myth” in classical antiquity, and there remains none today. Is myth a narrative or a performance? Can myth be separated from its context? What did myths mean to ancient Greeks and what do they mean today? Here, Lowell Edmunds brings together practitioners of eight of the most important contemporary approaches to the subject. Whether exploring myth from a historical, comparative, or theoretical perspective, each contributor lucidly describes a particular approach, applies it to one or more myths, and reflects on what the approach yields that others do not. Edmunds’s new general and chapter-level introductions recontextualize these essays and also touch on recent developments in scholarship in the interpretation of Greek myth. Contributors are Jordi Pàmias, on the reception of Greek myth through history; H. S. Versnel, on the intersections of myth and ritual; Carolina López-Ruiz, on the near Eastern contexts; Joseph Falaky Nagy, on Indo-European structure in Greek myth; William Hansen, on myth and folklore; Claude Calame, on the application of semiotic theory of narrative; Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, on reading visual sources such as vase paintings; and Robert A. Segal, on psychoanalytic interpretations. “A valuable collection of eight essays . . . Edmunds’s book provides a convenient opportunity to grapple with the current methodologies used in the analysis of literature and myth.” —New England Classical Newsletter and Journal

Download or read book Muhammad and the Golden Bough written by Jaroslav Stetkevych and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2000-06-22 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: His articles on classical and modern Arabic literature have appeared in Spanish, English, Arabic, and Ukrainian.ContentsIntroduction: Reclaiming Arabian MythThe Textual PuzzleThe Thamudic Backdrop to the PuzzleThe First Answer to the Puzzle: The Raid on TabukThe Totem and the TabooPoeticizing the ThamudDemythologizing the ThamudThe ScreamThe Arabian Golden Bough and Kindred Branches: Frazer, Vergil, Homer, and GilgameshConclusion

Download or read book The Odyssey written by Harold Bloom and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the characters, plot and writing of the Odyssey by Homer. Includes critical essays on the poem and a brief biography of the author.

Download or read book No Man s Lands written by Scott Huler and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-01-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When NPR contributor Scott Huler made one more attempt to get through James Joyce’s Ulysses, he had no idea it would launch an obsession with the book’s inspiration: the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey and the lonely homebound journey of its Everyman hero, Odysseus. No-Man’s Lands is Huler’s funny and touching exploration of the life lessons embedded within The Odyssey, a legendary tale of wandering and longing that could be read as a veritable guidebook for middle-aged men everywhere. At age forty-four, with his first child on the way, Huler felt an instant bond with Odysseus, who fought for some twenty years against formidable difficulties to return home to his beloved wife and son. In reading The Odyssey, Huler saw the chance to experience a great vicarious adventure as well as the opportunity to assess the man he had become and embrace the imminent arrival of both middle age and parenthood. But Huler realized that it wasn’t enough to simply read the words on the page—he needed to live Odysseus’s odyssey, to visit the exotic destinations that make Homer’s story so timeless. And so an ambitious pilgrimage was born . . . traveling the entire length of Odysseus’s two-decade journey. In six months. Huler doggedly retraced Odysseus’s every step, from the ancient ruins of Troy to his ultimate destination in Ithaca. On the way, he discovers the Cyclops’s Sicilian cave, visits the land of the dead in Italy, ponders the lotus from a Tunisian resort, and paddles a rented kayak between Scylla and Charybdis and lives to tell the tale. He writes of how and why the lessons of The Odyssey—the perils of ambition, the emptiness of glory, the value of love and family—continue to resonate so deeply with readers thousands of years later. And as he finally closes in on Odysseus’s final destination, he learns to fully appreciate what Homer has been saying all along: the greatest adventures of all are the ones that bring us home to those we love. Part travelogue, part memoir, and part critical reading of the greatest adventure epic ever written, No-Man’s Lands is an extraordinary description of two journeys—one ancient, one contemporary—and reveals what The Odyssey can teach us about being better bosses, better teachers, better parents, and better people.

Download or read book The Human Odyssey written by Thomas Armstrong, PhD and published by Courier Dover Publications. This book was released on 2019-03-20 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is truly a major contribution — brilliant, beguiling, and as broad in concept as it is deep." — Jean Houston, PhD, author of The Possible Human Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., an award-winning educator and expert on human development, offers a cross-cultural view of life's entire journey, from before birth to death to the possibilities of an afterlife. Dr. Armstrong cites both clinical research and anecdotal evidence in a comprehensive view of the challenges and opportunities we face at every stage of our development. His accessible narrative incorporates elements of history, literature, psychology, spirituality, and science in a fascinating guide to understanding our past as well as our future. "I loved the tone, the pacing, the sense of audience, and especially the richness of the associations . . . It's a book that one would like to keep around — a guidebook even." — John Kotre Ph.D., co-author of Seasons of Life: The Dramatic Journey from Birth to Death "The Human Odyssey is superb, magnificent, astonishing, unique, engrossing, eminently readable, informative, enjoyable, entertaining, profound. What else? I could go on. I hadn't expected anything like so remarkable a book." — Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg and Magical Child "I have read through The Human Odyssey. It is in many ways impressive. I also think that it has great commercial potential. Many people will find attractive your dual focus on the scientific and the soul/spiritual dimensions." — Howard Gardner, Ph.D., The John H. and Elizabeth A. Hobbs Professor in Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, author of Frames of Mind "I extend my congratulations to you for this monumental undertaking and wish you the very best for your impressive efforts." — Marian Diamond, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley; co-author of Magic Trees of the Mind; pioneer researcher into the effect of the environment on brain development; dissected Einstein's brain "I very much enjoyed The Human Odyssey. Your breadth of sources is remarkable, and you have put them all together in a smooth and integrative way. I think it will be informative for people, and also inspiring for them to make their stages of life more meaningful. Overall, this is an impressive tour de force." — Arthur Hastings, Ph.D., Professor and Director, William James Center for Consciousness Studies, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology; Past President, Association of Transpersonal Psychology "Extraordinary. I hope that it is read by many people." — Laura Huxley, widow of Aldous Huxley, founder of Children: Our Ultimate Investment, and author of This Timeless Moment, and The Child of Your Dreams "A wonderful and encyclopedic summary of human development." — Allan B. Chinen, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; author of Once Upon a Mid-Life: Classic Stories and Mythic Tales to Illuminate the Middle Years and In the Ever After: Fairy Tales and the Second Half of Life "Absolutely remarkable. The Human Odyssey is written with lively scholarship and contains great depth and breadth, a wide range of fascinating materials, and many useful resources. It's a kind of 'everything book.'" — George Leonard, "the granddaddy of the consciousness movement" (Newsweek) and author of The Transformation and The Ultimate Athlete "The Human Odyssey provides readers with a fresh approach to developmental psychology. Dr. Armstrong has included a spiritual dimension of human growth that is lacking from most accounts but which is essential for a complete understanding of the human condition. It is a splendid, brilliant work." — Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., former president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, author of Personal Mythology: The Psychology of Your Evolving Self, and co-editor of The Psychological Impact of War Trauma on Civilians: An International Perspective "An integral approach to human development, from birth to death, that provides practical information for all who see spirit interpenetrating all of life." — Michael Murphy, co-founder of the Esalen Institute and author of The Future of the Body, The Life We Are Given, and God and the Evolving Universe "This is a thoroughly researched and beautifully written account of the story of human development. Drawing on the most recent scientific studies, as well as literature and films, mythology and major spiritual traditions, Armstrong shows the way to a truly integrated understanding of the complexities of the human life cycle." — Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., author of Maps of Consciousness and The Unfolding Self, co-author (with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert) of The Psychedelic Experience, which was the inspiration for the Beatles' song "Tomorrow Never Knows" "I loved this book. What a vast terrain it covers! I enjoyed the way it wove into each developmental stage a rich array of materials from Greek myths, Martin Buber, psychology, rituals, spirituality, and so many wonderful stories. As people read this book, they will be much more aware of the different stages of life and how they impact all of us personally and collectively." — Barbara Findeisen, President, The Association for Pre- & Perinatal Psychology and Health and creator of the documentary film, The Journey to Be Born, featured on Oprah - "I'm awestruck! This looks like the most important book of the century." — Jan Hunt, author of The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart; member of the board of directors of the Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children "The Human Odyssey is just that: a tour de force by one of the leading experts in whole person development. I've never before seen such a comprehensive and readable work on the many stages that we humans go through on our journey through this life." — John W. Travis, M.D., founder of the first wellness center in the United States in 1975, co-author of Wellness Workbook, and co-founder of Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children. - "Thomas Armstrong's The Human Odyssey is an extraordinary book; an intellectual feast. Armstrong has amassed and integrated an amazing amount of information from developmental and transpersonal psychology, modern consciousness research, biology, anthropology, mythology, and art, and created an extraordinary guide through all the stages of the adventure of human life. While the rich content of this book will impress professional audiences, it's clear and easy style makes it quite accessible to the general public." — Stanislav Grof, M.D., former Chief of Psychiatric Research, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center; author of Realms of the Human Unconscious, Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy and Adventures in Self-Discovery "Thomas Armstrong has written a brilliant, caring and beautiful book on the human lifecycle. Such an all-inclusive book is rare and adds a sense of the wholeness of life, into and beyond death, in the mere reading of it." — Stuart Sovatsky, Ph.D., author of Words From the Soul, Your Perfect Lips and Eros, Consciousness and Kundalini, and co-President of the Association of Transpersonal Psychology. "I cannot imagine anyone who will not benefit from this wise, beautifully written description of life's journey. If you are looking for encouragement, understanding, and strength, this is your book." — Larry Dossey, M.D., author of The Extraordinary Power of Ordinary Things and Healing Words "A beautiful compilation of world wisdom. Well written and inspiring." — James Fadiman, Ph.D., co-Founder, Institute for Transpersonal Psychology and author of The Other Side of Haight "Armstrong synthesizes an enormous amount of material from many fields and wisdom traditions to create a book that is fresh, provocative, and important. His holistic approach presents us with the largest possible map as we navigate across our own lives. Bravo, captain." — Mary Pipher, author of Writing to Change the World and Reviving Ophelia "Thomas Armstrong is an original thinker whose perceptions broaden our understanding of children, education and society. In The Human Odyssey, Armstrong provides a comprehensive framework for human development with characteristic depth and optimism." — Peggy O'Mara, Editor and Publisher of Mothering Magazine "This is truly a major contribution — brilliant, beguiling, and as broad in concept as it is deep." — Jean Houston, Ph.D. author of The Possible Human

Download or read book Singers Heroes and Gods in the Odyssey written by Charles Segal and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the special charms of the Odyssey, according to Charles Segal, is the way it transports readers to fascinating places. Yet despite the appeal of its narrative, the Odyssey is fully understood only when its style, design, and mythical patterns are taken into account as well. Bringing a new richness to interpretation of this epic, Segal looks closely at key forms of social and personal organization which Odysseus encounters in his voyages. Segal also considers such topics as the relationship between bard and audience, the implications of the Odyssey's self-consciousness about its own poetics, and Homer's treatment of the nature of poetry.

Download or read book The Lost Books of the Odyssey written by Zachary Mason and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A BRILLIANT AND BEGUILING REIMAGINING OF ONE OF OUR GREATEST MYTHS BY A GIFTED YOUNG WRITER Zachary Mason's brilliant and beguiling debut novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, reimagines Homer's classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer's original that taken together open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations. The Lost Books of the Odyssey is punctuated with great wit, beauty, and playfulness; it is a daring literary page-turner that marks the emergence of an extraordinary new talent.

Download or read book The Raft of Odysseus written by Carol Dougherty and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2001 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Raft of Odysseus looks at the fascinating intersection of traditional myth with an enthnographically-viewed Homeric world. Carol Dougherty argues that the resourcefulness of Odysseus as an adventurer on perilous seas served as an example to Homer's society which also had to adjust in inventive ways to turbulent conditions. The fantastic adventures of Odysseus act as a prism for the experiences of Homer's own listeners--traders, seafarers, storytellers, soldiers--and give us a glimpse into their own world of hopes and fears, 500 years after the Iliadic events were supposed to have happened.

Download or read book The Odyssey in Athens written by Erwin F. Cook and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study in poetic interaction, The Odyssey in Athens explores the ways in which narrative structure and parallels within and between epic poems create or disclose meaning. Erwin F. Cook also broadens the scope of this intertextual approach to include the relationship of Homeric epic to ritual. Specifically he argues that the Odyssey achieved its form as a written text within the context of Athenian civic cults during the reign of Peisistratos. Focusing on the prologue and the Apologoi (Books 9–12), Cook shows how the traditional Greek polarity between force and intelligence informs the Odyssean narrative at all levels of composition. He then uses this polarity to explain instances of Odyssean self-reference, allusions to other epic traditions—in particular the Iliad—and interaction between the poem and its performance context in Athenian civic ritual. This detailed structural analysis, with its insights into the circumstances and meaning of the Odyssey's composition, will lead to a new understanding of the Homeric epics and the tradition they evoked.

Download or read book The Odyssey Re formed written by Frederick Ahl and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick Ahl and Hanna M. Roisman believe that contemporary readers who do not know ancient Greek can gain a sophisticated grasp of the Odyssey if they are aware of some of the issues that intrigue and puzzle the experts. They offer a challenging new reading of the epic that is directed to the general student of literature as well as to the classicist.Ahl and Roisman suggest that, while translators have served the Odyssey and its English-speaking readers remarkably well, the nonspecialist wishing to do a more detailed, critical reading of the epic faces a dilemma. The enormous scholarly literature makes few concessions to the nonspecialist, and those studies designed for general readers tend to offer variations on the overly simple, idealized readings of the epic common in high school and college survey courses.The Odyssey Re-Formed offers a lively and detailed reading of the Odyssey, episode by episode, with particular attention paid to the manipulative power of its language and Homer's skill in using that power. The authors explore how myth is shaped for specific, rhetorical reasons and suggest ways in which the epic uses its audience's awareness of the varied pool of mythic traditions to give the Odyssey remarkable and subtle resonances that have profound poetic power.

Download or read book Derek Walcott s Encounter with Homer written by Rachel D. Friedman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-23 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Derek Walcott's Encounter with Homer puts Derek Walcott's epic poem Omeros in conversation with Homer, especially the Odyssey, to show how reading them against each other changes our understanding of the poems of both poets. It explores Walcott's conscious use of the Odyssey and the Homeric persona of Omeros to explore his own deepening relationship with his craft and his identity as a Caribbean poet. Walcott's ability to serve as the vessel of history for his people and their landscapes rests on his transformation into (and self-perception as) Homer's contemporary and equal. Central to the project of Omeros is thus an account of his shift from a diachronic to synchronic relationship with Homer: over the course of the poem his poetic persona, the "Poet", and Homer come to occupy the same temporality and creative space. By locating the poems of Walcott and Homer in a zone of vibrant and unexpected encounter, Rachel Friedman demonstrates how they can be seen as mutually informing texts, each made richer in the presence of the other. The argument follows two intertwined thematic threads. The first focuses on the poems' landscapes and seascapes and the ways in which Omeros reworks the Odyssey's affective geography. While the Odyssey represents the sea as a dangerous space and valorizes life on land, Walcott reverses this trajectory from sea to land, bearing witness to the painful histories carried in the St Lucian soil and relocating homecoming to the space of the Caribbean Sea, a space which accommodates diasporic histories and the imagining of fluid forms of emplacement. The second thread focuses on Walcott's poetic persona: his journey in and out of the poem and his positioning of himself as a "tribal poet" like Homer. Central to the project of Omeros is the Poet's account of the processes by which he becomes the poet who can adequately give voice to the histories of his people and the archipelago they inhabit.

Download or read book Reading the Odyssey written by Seth L. Schein and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This wide-ranging collection makes available to specialists and nonspecialists alike important critical work on the Odyssey produced during the last half century. The ten essays address five major concerns: the poem's programmatic representation of social and religious institutions and values; its transformation of folktales and traditional stories into epic adventures; its representation of gender roles and, in particular, of Penelope; its narrative strategies and form; and its relation to the Iliad, especially to that epic's distinctive conception of heroism. In the introduction, Seth L. Schein describes the poetic background to the work and suggests a variety of interpretive approaches, some of which are developed in the essays that follow. These essays include previously published work by Jean-Pierre Vernant, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Pietro Pucci, and Charles P. Segal. There also are a new essay by Laura M. Slatkin, two revised and expanded ones by Nancy Felson-Rubin and Michael N. Nagler, and three appearing in English for the first time by Uvo Hlscher, Karl Reinhardt, and Vernant. The result is a collection that juxtaposes older, often hard-to-find articles with significant newer pieces in a way that allows for a fruitful dialogue among them.

Download or read book Christianizing Homer written by Dennis R. MacDonald and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1994-04-21 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study focuses on the apocryphal Acts of Andrew (c. 200 CE), which purports to tell the story of the travels, miracles, and martyrdom of the apostle Andrew. Traditional scholarship has looked for the background of such writings in Jewish and Christian scriptures. MacDonald, however, breaks with that model and looks to classic literature for the sources of this story. Specifically, he argues that the Acts represent an attempt to transform Greco-Roman myth into Christian narrative categories by telling the story of Andrew in terms of Homeric epic, in particular the Odyssey. MacDonald presents a point-by-point comparison of the two works, finding the resemblances so strong, numerous, and tendentious that they virtually compel the reader to consider the Acts a transformative "rewriting" of the epic. This discovery not only sheds valuable light on the uses of Homer in the early church but also significantly contributes to our understanding of the reception of Homer in the empire as a whole.