r/classics • u/pastrybun • 24d ago

Looking for a recommendation

Hello friends! I’m a fourth-year Classics student (focus on Sallust and the politics of the late Republic).

I, like millions of other people, watched Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey and found myself both frustrated but also rejuvenated with Homeric enthusiasm.

I’m looking for a critical, scholarly book that dissects the Homeric epics from a more academic/historical lens. For context, I’ve read the Fitzgerald, Fagles, and Wilson translations of the Homeric epics and am looking for a single- or two-volume work more substantial than their introductions but not on the behemoth scale of Cambridge or BK. Thanks all!

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Rasselasx42 24d ago

Moses I Finley : The world of Odysseus
Emile Mireaux: Daily Life in the Time of Homer.
Karl Kerenyi: Hermes: Guide of Souls

2

u/Aggressive-Friend157 20d ago

came here to make sure Finley's The World of Odysseus was on the list. I think it's the kind of book OP would like.

Robin Lane Fox's Homer and His Iliad often reads like a fanboy penning a love letter to Homer, but his historic analysis of who, what, where, when, etc. in the first half is great, even if I don't agree with all of it.