The Odyssey: a Norton Critical Edition

“A revelation. Never have I been so aware at once of the beauty of the poetry, the physicality of Homer’s world, and the moral ambiguity of those who inhabit it.” —Susan Chira, The New York Times Book Review, “New & Noteworthy"

This Norton Critical Edition includes:

Emily Wilson’s authoritative translation of Homer’s masterpiece, accompanied by her informative introduction, explanatory footnotes and book-by-book summaries.

Four maps, created especially for this translation.

Contextual materials including sources and analogues by Homer, Sappho, Pindar and others. Also included are carefully chosen passages from (mainly) ancient texts that provide insight into The Odyssey and its reception by Plato, Aristotle, Ovid, Pseudo-Longinus, Lucian, Apollodorus, Heraclitus, Porphyry, Proclus, Hyginus, Dante Alighieri, Alfred Lord Tennyson, C. P. Cavafy, Derek Walcott and Margaret Atwood.

Nine critical essays addressing key topics—composition; representation of religion and the gods; class and slavery; gender; colonisation and the meaning of home; trickery, intelligence and lying; and more— essential to the study of The Odyssey. Essays by Robert Fowler, Laurel Fulkerson, Barbara Graziosi, Laura M. Slatkin, Sheila Murnaghan, Patrice Rankine, Helene P. Foley, Egbert J. Bakker and Lillian Eileen Doherty are included.

A glossary and a list of suggested further readings.