The Odyssey

Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem recounting the hero Odysseus’s ten-year journey home after the Trojan War, known for its non-chronological structure and its treatment of women’s roles relative to the Iliad.

Claims that use this term

• The Odyssey abandons epic convention by starting mid-story instead of chronologically
• The Odyssey gives women speaking roles far more often than the Iliad does.
• The Odyssey excursus chiefly shows enlightenment reverting to myth, not myth being enlightenment