Research: WR 150: Siren Song: Nostalgia, Storytelling, and Lies in the Odyssey: About This Guide

How Greek vase painters imagined Odysseus & the Sirens, ca. 525 to ca. 480 BCE

Click images for source and enlargement.

Researching & the Library

This guide is designed to help you find sources of background information, exhibits, arguments, and research methods related to the topic of the course and your own interests.

For individual help -- no question is too big or too small -- contact me via the profile box on the right, or see the Get Help page.

Image: What would a writer do with this source? by Kristin M. Woodward/Kate L. Ganski is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Class Bibliography

Translations

The Odyssey by Homer; Emily Wilson (Translator) The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home.In this fresh, authoritative version--the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman--this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, this engrossing translation matches the number of lines in the Greek original, thus striding at Homer's sprightly pace and singing with a voice that echoes Homer's music.Wilson's Odyssey captures the beauty and enchantment of this ancient poem as well as the suspense and drama of its narrative. Its characters are unforgettable, from the cunning goddess Athena, whose interventions guide and protect the hero, to the awkward teenage son, Telemachus, who struggles to achieve adulthood and find his father; from the cautious, clever, and miserable Penelope, who somehow keeps clamoring suitors at bay during her husband's long absence, to the "complicated" hero himself, a man of many disguises, many tricks, and many moods, who emerges in this translation as a more fully rounded human being than ever before.A fascinating introduction provides an informative overview of the Bronze Age milieu that produced the epic, the major themes of the poem, the controversies about its origins, and the unparalleled scope of its impact and influence. Maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, and extensive notes and summaries of each book make this an Odyssey that will be treasured by a new generation of scholars, students, and general readers alike.
Publication Date: 2017 -- online via HathiTrust

Classics Books

Blood and Iron : stories and storytelling in Homer's Odyssey by S. Douglas Olson Blood and Iron is an exploration of the role of gossip, rumor and storytelling in the society depicted in the Odyssey and in the real world in which the poem was performed. It includes extensive analysis of Homeric narrative technique, with particular attention to the way the singer creates tension in a largely traditional tale.Individual chapters treat discrete, generally very traditional literary and historical problems, including the significance of the term kleos, the presentation of Telemachos, the internal chronology of the poem, the nature of Homeric kingship, and the role of violence in the ancient Greek family.The book will be of importance for anyone interested in the literary content or storytelling technique of Homeric epic, as well for historians of the late Dark Ages.
Publication Date: 1995 -- online via HathiTrust
Lying and Poetry from Homer to Pindar : falsehood and deception in archaic Greek poetics by Louise H. Pratt A suggestive study of an elemental aspect of fiction
Publication Date: 1993 -- online via HathiTrust
Lies and Fiction in the Ancient World by Christopher Gill (Editor); T. P. Wiseman (Editor) Where the boundary lies between falsehood and fiction, between an actual untruth and an admitted invention, has set off many debates in intellectual circles. In classical studies, this issue has gained prominence through the upsurge of interest in the ancient novel and through recent work on the rhetorical character of ancient historiography.This pathfinding collection of essays charts the borderland between falsehood and fiction in the ancient world, especially by considering how far "lying" was distinguished from "fiction" at different periods and in different genres. The areas covered are early Greek poetry (E. L. Bowie), Plato (Christopher Gill), Greek and Roman historiography (J. L. Moles and T. P. Wiseman), and the Greek and Roman novel (J. R. Morgan and Andrew Laird). Michael Wood and D. C. Feeney discuss the literary critical questions involved and draw connections with contemporary debate. All Greek and Latin passages are translated into English, and the collection is designed to be accessible to students of literature and history generally, as well as to Classicists.
Publication Date: 1993 -- online via HathiTrust

Writing Books

Picaros, Madmen, Naifs, and Clowns : the unreliable first-person narrator by William Riggan
Publication Date: 1981 -- online via HathiTrust
A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey by Irene J. F. de Jong Whereas traditional commentaries tend to be comprehensive and micro-textual, this narratological commentary, first published in 2001, focuses on one aspect of the Odyssey, its narrativity, and pays lavish attention to the meso- and macro-levels. Drawing on the concepts of modern narratology as well as the insights of Homeric scholarship, it discusses the role of narrator and narratees, methods of characterization and description, plot-development, focalization, and the narrative exploitation of type-scenes. Full attention is also given to the structure, characterizing function, and relation to the narrative context of the abundantly present speeches. Finally, the numerous themes and motifs, which so subtly contribute to the unity of this long text, are traced and evaluated. Although Homer's brilliant narrative art has always been admired, this commentary aims to lay bare the techniques responsible for this brilliance. All Greek is translated and all technical terms explained in a glossary.
Publication Date: 2001 -- online
The Craft of Research by Wayne C. Booth; Gregory G. Colomb; Joseph M. Williams; Joseph Bizup; William T. FitzGerald With more than three-quarters of a million copies sold since its first publication, The Craft of Research has helped generations of researchers at every level--from first-year undergraduates to advanced graduate students to research reporters in business and government--learn how to conduct effective and meaningful research. Conceived by seasoned researchers and educators Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, this fundamental work explains how to find and evaluate sources, anticipate and respond to reader reservations, and integrate these pieces into an argument that stands up to reader critique. The fourth edition has been thoroughly but respectfully revised by Joseph Bizup and William T. FitzGerald. It retains the original five-part structure, as well as the sound advice of earlier editions, but reflects the way research and writing are taught and practiced today. Its chapters on finding and engaging sources now incorporate recent developments in library and Internet research, emphasizing new techniques made possible by online databases and search engines. Bizup and FitzGerald provide fresh examples and standardized terminology to clarify concepts like argument, warrant, and problem. Following the same guiding principle as earlier editions--that the skills of doing and reporting research are not just for elite students but for everyone--this new edition retains the accessible voice and direct approach that have made The Craft of Research a leader in the field of research reference. With updated examples and information on evaluation and using contemporary sources, this beloved classic is ready for the next generation of researchers.
Publication Date: 2016 -- online

Textual Reception

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood "Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than the Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope's parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous rumors circulating about her. I've chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus, which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of the Odyssey: What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in the Odyssey doesn't hold water: there are too many inconsistencies. I've always been haunted by the hanged maids and, in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself." -- from Margaret Atwood's Foreword to The Penelopiad
Location: Mugar Stacks PR9199.3.A8 P46 2005