Resources for the Study of the Odyssey

by Lynne Schalman and Steve Bergen
(you can e-mail us both at )
Last revised 12/23/07

An Odyssey Webquest This webquest has students (who have finished the epic) divide into teams to create an Odyssey theme park. The Task states that the epic will be divided into four parts and there will be four groups working on individual parts of the park. Each area of the park must have a flag, a slogan, attractions and rides, a food court and a menu, and a list of the characters that will be "live" in your area. The four divisions of the park will follow the chronological order of the epic and so will the presentations. The most valuable part of the quest might well be the terrific background links to each part of the epic.

An Interactive Odyssey In this Web game you can choose to be either Odysseus himself or his young son Telemachus or his beautiful wife, Penelope. If you choose Odysseus, you begin your adventure as you are about to leave Troy on your voyage home to Ithaca.(Unknown to you this will take you ten whole years, because of something you did to upset the god Poseidon.) Where will you head for first ...?

Greek Life and the oral tradition

The Ancient Greek World from U Penn provides links to short articles on all aspects of Greek life including the land, daily life, religion and death, the economy, women and goddesses, etc.

Odyssey Online: Greece from Emory University provides links to short articles on daily life, people, mythology, death and burial, writing and archaeology.

Homer's Greece is a short article presenting the historical background of the Homeric era.

Homeric Links provides links to all things Homer.

 

The world of the gods

Bullfinch's mythology provides hypertext to all the Greek myths including a retelling of the Odyssey complete with glossary links, annotations and relevant allusions to Tennyson, Byron, Milton, and others who have retold the Odyssey in poetic form.

Greek Mythology Link provides a vast resource to background mythology and to the Odyssey, including hypertext glossary, links to art, family trees of the gods and more. Be sure to scroll down the page to find the most helpful links.

Mythweb provides short articles about the most important gods and heroes and heroines.

Odyssey Webquest is a very straightforward webquest-no grand agenda. It just poses a series of questions, mostly about the historic background of the Trojan War but it provides valuable links.

 

Relationships in the Odyssey/Women in the Odyssey

The Conflicting Views of Helen is an essay on Tufts University's Perseus site that analyzes Helen's role in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Ancient Greece: Women is the about.com site with links to many essays and other sites discussing the role of women in Ancient Greece.

The Loom and the Weaver is a fairly complex essay discussing Penelope's role in the Odyssey.

Homer's Odyssey presents short pieces on a variety of themes and characters.

 

Modern reworkings of the Odyssey

The Internet Ulysses details the book by book allusions to the Odyssey used by James Joyce

Ulysses by Tennyson is a wonderful Victorian slant on the Homeric epic.

Here is an essay comparing Ulysses to The Odyssey

 

The hero's journey

The Hero's Journey and Character Arc for Odysseus compares Odysseus' journey to the stages of the archetypal hero's journey. The site presents several different interpretations of the character arc.

Greek Mythology link: Odysseus provides hypertext summaries of each stage of the journey, family trees, images and wealth of information.

Odysseus, the hero is a short essay analyzing Odysseus' character.

Travels of Odysseus is a slideshow presenting a map tracking the different stops along Odysseus' return home.

Homeric Geography is a map listing some of the more important sites and a few of the heroes and heroines who were associated with them. Names of Greek sites and people are in purple, Trojan in red.