The Oxford Critical Guide to Homer’s Odyssey

The Oxford Critical Guide to Homer’s Odyssey brings together internationally recognized experts to provide commentary style essays for non-specialists on each book of the Homeric epic. The introduction provides a broad overview of the historical and mythographical backgrounds to the Odyssey along with brief discussions of the major thematic and scholarly concerns of the poem. The introduction can stand alone as a guide to reading the Odyssey, while it also prepares readers for the deeper discussions of the individual books. Twenty-four scholars, selected for their expertise and earlier publications, contributed essays aimed at guiding readers through different approaches to the poem. Each essay offers a summary of the plot of an individual book followed by a discussion of interpretive issues and its relationship with the epic as a whole. The essays were written and edited with a view towards providing accessibility to epic and epic scholarship to audiences from all backgrounds. While each chapter follows basic guidelines, their authors also add new insights and analyses to classic Homeric controversies. This collection provides an essential resource to engaging with Homer’s epic from beginning to end or on a book-by-book basis for readers who have limited access to the original language and for researchers looking to learn more about scholarly approaches to Homer. New interpretations of the Odyssey offered by established scholars, moreover, make this collection a must-read for current researchers as well.

Joel P. Christensen, Professor of Classical and Early Mediterranean Studies, Brandeis University

Joel Christensen (he/his) is Professor of Classical and early Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis University where he also serves as Senior Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs. Previously Joel served as Chair of Classical Studies and Chair of the Brandeis Faculty Senate. Joel previously taught for nine years at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His research interests include early Greek poetry, myth, and literary theory. With Elton Barker, Joel has published Homer’s a Beginner’s Guide (2013) and Homer’s Thebes (2020). He has also recently published The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic (2020) and Storylife: On Epic, Language, and Living Things (2025).