Jonathan S. Burgess – författare

The Travels of Odysseus employs the theme of travel to explore the Odyssey and its contexts. After an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 provides analysis of the “wanderings” or Apologos of Odysseus, Chapter 3 explores the “lying tales” told by Odysseus in disguise upon his return to Ithaca, and Chapter 44 discusses a variety of stories about Odysseus leaving Ithaca again (including Teiresias' prediction of an “inland journey” and the Telegony of the Epic Cycle). The introductory chapter explores various contexts of Odysseus' travels: the Epic Cycle (notably the Nostoi (“Returns”) and the Telegony), comparable travelers of myth (Gilgamesh, Heracles, Perseus), the genre of travel writing, ancient and modern, and the characterization of Odysseus within Homer and outside of Homer. Chapter 2 explores the hero's account of his wanderings to the Phaeacians in Books 9-12 by exploring the poem's explanation of the hero's nostos (“return”) in the proem, the spatial and temporal aspects of the wanderings, the Phaeacian context of the Odysseus' stories, the implications of the ancient term apologos for Odysseus' “wanderings,” the patterns, causality, and plot of the Apologos, and the socio-economic aspects of the “wanderings.” Chapter 3 explores the actions of Odysseus upon his return to Ithaca. Topics include the Homeric and non-Homeric aspects of Ithaca, the motif of “lying travelers at Ithaca,” the themes of the false travel tales that Odysseus tells while in disguise, the function of these “lying tales” to “test” suitors, slaves, and family, and an extensive comparison of the “lying tales” to the “wanderings.” Chapter 4 first discusses issues arising at the end of the Odyssey, which are described as indicative of existing or potential further adventures of Odysseus. These post-nostos travels include Teiresias' prediction of the need to take an “inland journey,” Odysseus' travel to Thesprotia in the Telegony, and other lost tales about Odysseus traveling to northwest Greece or the Italian world. Many tales involve locations linking themselves to the hero through genealogy or burial place.

Although the Iliad and Odyssey narrate only relatively small portions of the Trojan War and its aftermath, for centuries these works have overshadowed other, more comprehensive narratives of the conflict, particularly the poems known as the Epic Cycle. In The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle, Jonathan Burgess challenges Homer's authority on the war's history and the legends surrounding it, placing the Iliad and Odyssey in the larger, often overlooked context of the entire body of Greek epic poetry of the Archaic Age. He traces the development and transmission of the Cyclic poems in ancient Greek culture, comparing them to later Homeric poems and finding that they were far more influential than has previously been thought.

What reader could fail to be enthralled by the Iliad and the Odyssey, those greatest heroic epics of antiquity? Yet the author of those immortal text remains, in the end, an enigma. The central paradox of 'Homer' is that- while recognized as producing poetry of incomparable genius- even in the ancien world nobody knew who he was. As a result, the myth-maker became the subject of myth. For the satirist Lucian (c.125-180 CE) he ws a captive Babylonian. Other traditions have Homer born in Smyrna, or on the island of Chios, or portray him as a blind and wandering minstrel. In his new and authoritative introduction, Jonathan S. Burgess addresses fundamental questions of provenance and authorship. Besides conveying why these epics have been cherished down the ages, he discusses their historical sources and the possible impact on the Iliad and Odyssey of Indo-European, Near Eastern and folktale influences. Tracing their transmission through the ancient, medieval and modern periods, the author further examines questions of theory and reception.