Odyssea Batrachomyomachia, Hymni & epigrammata græce et latine - Homeros 9th Century BC-8th Century BC; Clarke, Samuel 1675-1729 (Amsterdam Wettstein, 1743)
The Odyssey follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey lasted for ten additional years, during which time he encountered many perils and all his crew mates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.
The Odyssey is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the Iliad, the poem is divided into 24 books.
The epic poem was, as the Odyssey, likely written down in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects, probably around the late 8th or early 7th century BC. By the mid-6th century BCE, had become part of the Greek literary canon.
Crucial themes in the poem include the ideas of nostos ("return"), wandering, xenia ("guest-friendship"), testing, and omens. Scholars still reflect on the narrative significance of certain groups in the poem, such as women and slaves, who have a more prominent role in the epic than in many other works of ancient literature. This focus is especially remarkable when contrasted with the Iliad, which centres the exploits of soldiers and kings during the Trojan War.
Samuel Clarke (1675-1729) was an English philosopher and Anglican cleric. He is considered the major British figure in philosophy between John Locke and George Berkeley.
Originally published in 1740
Keywords: Classical Antiquity (8th Century BC-6th Century AD); 18th Century (1701-1800); Poetry; Literature; Mythology