Homer's The Odyssey

Get everything you can out of your time reading the classics with the Christian Guides to the Classics Series!

Leland Ryken provides a clear pathway to understanding the "Great Works" through this engaging series of short guidebooks. Beginning with "why the classics matter" and "the nature and function of literature," readers will find a helpful path to reading and analyzing influential works in the Western canon.

Each book:

Includes an introduction to the author and work Explains the cultural context Incorporates published criticism Defines key literary terms Contains discussion questions at the end of each unit of the text Lists resources for further study Evaluates the classic text from a Christian worldview. This guide opens up Homer’s The Odyssey and highlights the universal themes of endurance and longing for rest as displayed in this epic tale of a man trying to find his way home.

1. Opening Credits
2. The Nature and Function of Literature
3. Why the Classics Matter
4. How to Read A Story
5. The Odyssey: The Book at a Glance
6. The Author and His Faith
7. The Odyssey as Epic
8. Book 1: What Went on in the House of Odysseus
9. Book 2: How the Council Met in the Market-Place of Ithaca, and What Came of It
10. Book 3: What Happened in Sandy Pylos
11. Book 4: What Happened in Lacedeimon [Sparta]
12. Book 5: Odysseus Leaves Calypso’s Island
13. Book 6: How Odysseus Appealed to Nausicaa, and How She Brought Him to Her Father’s House
14. Book 7: What Happened to Odysseus in the Palace of Alcinoos
15. Book 8: How They Held Games and Sports in Phaiacia
16. Book 9: How Odysseus Visited the Lotus-Eaters and the Cyclops
17. Book 10: The Island of the Winds; the Land of the Midnight Sun; Circe
18. Book 11: How Odysseus Visited the Kingdom of the Dead
19. Book 12: The Singing Sirens, the Terrors of Scylla and Charybdis, and the Cattle of Helios
20. Book 13: How Odysseus Came to Ithaca
21. Book 14: Odysseus and the Swineherd
22. Book 15: How Telemachos Sailed Back to Ithaca
23. Book 16: How Telemachos Met His Father
24. Book 17: How Odysseus Returned to His Own Home
25. Book 18: How Odysseus Fought the Sturdy Beggar
26. Book 19: How the Old Nurse Knew Her Master
27. Book 20: How God Sent Omens of the Wrath to Come
28. Book 21: The Contest with the Great Bow
29. Book 22: The Battle in the Hall
30. Book 23: How Odysseus Found His Wife Again
31. Book 24: How Odysseus Found His Old Father and How the Story Ended
32. The Odyssey in Bliblical Perspective
33. Tie-Ins with the Book of Proverbs
34. Closing Credits