May 18, 2023

[Proem] from the Odyssey
By: Homer

Tell me about a complicated man. Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy, and where he went, and who he met, the pain he suffered in the storms at sea, and how he worked to save his life and bring his men back home. He failed to keep them safe; poor fools, they ate the Sun God’s cattle, and the god kept them from home. Now goddess, child of Zeus, tell the old story for our modern times. 10 Find the beginning.

Notes & Comentary

Works Cited

• De Jong, Irene J. F. (2004). A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey. Cambridge, UK. pp. Cambridge University Press.
• Heubeck, Alfred; Hoekstra, Arie (1990). A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey. II, Books IX–XVI. Oxford: Claredon Press.
• Hexter, Ralph (1993). A Guide to the Odyssey. New York: Vintage.
• Homer (1990). The Odyssey. Translated by Fitzgerald, Robert. New York: Vintage.
• — (2017). The Odyssey. Translated by Wilson, Emily. New York: W. W. Norton.
• Romm, James (2011). "Lotophagi". In Finkelberg, Margalit. The Homer Encyclopedia. II. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 479.