Rediscovering Homer

The Human Experience in the Odyssey and the Iliad
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-047-75616-7
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 250 Seiten

A timeless tale of a heroic character's journey through life, Homer's Odyssey has captured the imagination of readers from antiquity to the present day. Michael Cosmopoulos approaches this epic, together with the Iliad, not as remote works of literature, but as a living record of human experience shaped by war, loss, memory, and survival. He offers a poignant exploration of the aspects and consequences of war as captured in the Odyssey, including trauma, leadership and politics, human relations, religion and fate, and the struggle to return home and rebuild after upheaval. Cosmopoulos also situates both the Iliad and the Odyssey within the social conditions and the material realities of Greek society during the Aegean Bronze Age. Based on decades of archaeological field work and study of classical antiquity, and written in an accessible style, his book powerfully demonstrates how the poetry of ancient Greece preserves collective memory across the generations – and why these poems still speak to modern readers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cosmopoulos, Michael B.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of illustrations; Chronological timeline of early Greece; Note on Greek names and translations and a note on Homer; Acknowledgments; Prologue; 1. Two poems, one hero; 2. History, heroes, and monuments; 3. The vanishing poet; 4. War and violence; 5. The ties that bind us; 6. Might makes right?; 7. Making a living; 8. Gods, fate, and free will; 9. The afterlife of the Odyssey; 10. The past is not the past; Further reading; Index; Photos.

Über Autor(innen)

Cosmopoulos, Michael B.
Michael B. Cosmopoulos is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada, he is the author of numerous books on the archaeology and history of ancient Greece, most recently the award-winning  The World of Homer: Archaeology, Social Memory, and the Emergence of Greek Epic Poetry.