History of the Odyssey

The Odyssey is the tale of Odysseus after he and the Achaeans have sacked the city of Troy.  It is essentially the sequel to the Iliad.  As I discussed last Monday, there has been debate as to whether or not Homer was a single author or multiple.  I won't go over that again because you can easily go back and examine the brief discussion of the Homeric Question.  As far as the Odyssey, much like the Iliad, scholars debate on when it was written.  Some place Homer in the late Mycenaean period, making the Trojan War recent history.  Others argue that it was written later in the Archaic period.  Modern scholarship shows that the details of the poem are between 750 to 700 BCE.  Although scholars may debate on the date of authorship and the authorship itself, none argue that it is a text which had great influence on literature, especially in the West. 

Before diving into the story, there are a few points that should be explained.  First, the setting of the poem takes place in the Mycenaean period.  It is 10 years after the Achaeans have defeated the Trojans in the Trojan War.  The Mycenaean period ended approximately between 1200 and 1100 BCE. 

Second, although the tale takes place in the Mycenaean period, there are details such as character, plot, and places which continued to develop a period of oral transmission that proceeded into the "Dark Age" of Greece, which was between 1100 and 800 BCE.  During this time, there was an outside group of peoples who conquered most of the Mycenaean city-states.  Their system of writing became lost.

Third, the Odyssey (along with the Iliad), were amongst the first pieces of literature written down when the Greeks established another system of writing.  The Odyssey was written probably 20 to 30 years after the Iliad. 

It is important to note that during the time period of the "Dark Ages," the texts had to be told orally by a bard.  The bard would use language to become signifiers in the poem, which would remind him of his place in the story.  Phrases such as "early, rosy-fingered dawn" and "earth-shaking Poseidon" are commonly used, as well as characters repeating word-for-word any message or description given them to repeat.  One must remember that oral tradition, by nature, is fluid and ever-changing.  We cannot assume that the text we have now is the exact same as the original tale of the Odyssey. 

This week, I'm going to try a comprehension strategy to go along with it that should be pretty cool.

Get excited,

Cassy