Research Guides: WRPR 131: In the Wake of War (HC): Essay Collections & Background Sources

Background Sources

The Cambridge companion to Homer
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This is a guide to the essential aspects of Homeric criticism and scholarship, including the reception of the poems in ancient and modern times. It is intended as a useful starter for students at all levels, with introductions to important subjects and suggestions for further exploration.
Homer and the Odyssey
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A new overview that presents multiple aspects of the epic including chapters on the human world, the gods, women, ideology, and history. Each chapter is broken down into sections on more specific issues. This is a good place to find articles and books cited as important resources.
The Homer encyclopedia
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Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece & Rome
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Offers a comprehensive overview of the literature, history, archaeology, art, philosophy, science, and religion of the Greek and Roman world from the Bronze Age to the fifth century CE. It also covers the legacy of the classical world and its interpretation and influence in subsequent centuries. Offers a comprehensive overview of the literature, history, archaeology, art, philosophy, science, and religion of the Greek and Roman world from the Bronze Age to the fifth century CE. It also covers the legacy of the classical world and its interpretation and influence in subsequent centuries. Offers a comprehensive overview of the literature, history, archaeology, art, philosophy, science, and religion of the Greek and Roman world from the Bronze Age to the fifth century CE. It also covers the legacy of the classical world and its interpretation and influence in subsequent centuries.

Essay Collections

The Distaff Side by Beth Cohen (Editor)
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ISBN: 0195086821
Publication Date: 1995-05-11

These recent volumes collect essay-length articles analyzing themes in the Odyssey.

Homer's Odyssey by Lillian E. Doherty (Editor)
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ISBN: 0199233330
Publication Date: 2009-03-25
This volume assembles sixteen authoritative articles on Homer'sOdysseythat have appeared over the last thirty years. A wide variety of interpretative strategies are represented, including, in addition to traditional close readings, the approaches of comparative anthropology, narratology, feminism, and audience-oriented criticism. Papers have been selected for their clarity and accessibility, and each is informed by close attention to philological and textual detail. A full glossary and list of abbreviations have been included, and a specially written introduction puts the selections in a wider context by giving an overview of major strands in the interpretation of Homer in the second half of the twentieth century.
Homer Encyclopedia by Margalit Finkelberg (Editor)
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ISBN: 1405177683
Publication Date: 2011-03-08
The Homer Encyclopedia represents the first comprehensive reference work encompassing the world and artistry of Homer, the historical and cultural background of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homeric scholarship, and Homeric reception from antiquity to the present.
- Represents the first encyclopedia on Homer ever published
- Features contributions from 130 recent and established Homeric scholars
- Covers Homeric scholarship and reception from antiquity to the present
- 1360 entries supplying information on every aspect of the Homeric poems
Reading the Odyssey by Seth L. Schein (Editor)
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ISBN: 0691044392
Publication Date: 1995-11-28
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.