Book

Odyssey

Name: Odyssey
Author: Όμηρος

Όμηρος

PublisherBuccaneer Books, Incorporated

Published2026-02-05

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R e v i e w sf r o mO t h e r s

Marcus AureliusCeleb

4/7/2026

In Meditations XI.31, Marcus Aurelius quoted the Odyssey, writing "my heart laughed within me." The line comes from the scene where Odysseus, having outwitted and escaped the Cyclops Polyphemus, expresses an inner joy. When the giant asked his name, Odysseus had lied — "Nobody" — and after blinding the giant and escaping, the giant cried out to his fellows, "Nobody has hurt me!" so naturally no one came to help. At that moment Odysseus laughed within himself. But after leaving the cave, he could not resist; he revealed his true name and taunted the giant, and that became the beginning of disaster. From this long story, Marcus copied not the taunt but a single line — that he laughed within himself. To value quiet inner satisfaction over the display of outward victory, to know how to stop at the silent smile within rather than make a scene outside — that was the one line of survival he drew from the myth of distant seas. Greek-Roman upper classes studied Homer as an essential part of their education from childhood, and he too read the Iliad and the Odyssey alongside Euripides's tragedies and Virgil's Aeneid. He was so well versed in Greek culture that he spoke Greek even in conversation with the court physician Galen.

Source: https://donaldrobertson.name/2021/02/24/marcus-aurelius-favourite-books/

Alexander the GreatCeleb

4/7/2026

Alexander left no record of having read the Odyssey in the way he had the Iliad, no soldier's account, no annotated copy. The only primary trace is a single conditional aside in Plutarch's On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander, where Plutarch writes, "if we are to believe those who record that Alexander carried the Iliad and the Odyssey with him on his campaign as part of his equipment," acknowledging the tradition while marking it as uncertain. Alongside this faint line stands a far more vivid one. In 331 BC, when Alexander set out to found a new city in Egypt, Homer is said to have appeared to him in a dream and recited a passage from the Odyssey, inspiring him to choose the site of Alexandria. He later praised the verse, saying, "Homer's poetry guided me to the perfect site for my city." Even after founding Alexandria, Alexander never stopped. He pressed on beyond Persia all the way to India, driven ever forward without rest. In 326 BC, his exhausted soldiers pleaded to turn back at the Hyphasis River, and Alexander, who had held out to the last, reluctantly ordered the retreat. Unlike Odysseus, who staked his life on returning home to Ithaca, Alexander's Ithaca was never Macedon. The destination he truly sought may have been the unreachable edge of the world itself.

Source: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Fortuna_Alexandri*/1.html

Walt WhitmanCeleb

3/2/2026

월트 휘트먼은 코니 아일랜드 해변에서 호메로스의 오디세이아를 파도에 대고 낭송하는 습관이 있었다. 호메로스의 서사시적 호흡과 목록 나열 기법은 풀잎의 자유시 형식에 구조적으로 계승되었다.

Source: https://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_623.html

AlcibiadesCeleb

3/2/2026

알키비아데스는 호메로스의 서사시를 교양의 기본으로 여겼다. 플루타르코스에 따르면 그는 학교에서 호메로스 작품에 관해 극도로 까다로운 기준을 고수하여, 부정확한 판본을 가진 교사를 질책할 정도였다.

Source: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Alcibiades*.html

SophoclesCeleb

3/2/2026

소포클레스는 오디세이아의 인물들을 여러 비극에 등장시켰다. 특히 오디세우스를 아이아스와 필록테테스에서 핵심 인물로 재해석했다. 호메로스의 영웅 서사를 비극적 갈등의 축으로 전환하는 능력이 소포클레스의 가장 큰 문학적 성취 중 하나였다.

Source: https://www.academia.edu/22937356/Sophocles_and_Homer

EuripidesCeleb

3/2/2026

에우리피데스는 오디세이아의 키클롭스 에피소드를 바탕으로 사티로스극 키클롭스를 집필했다. 현존하는 유일한 완전한 사티로스극으로, 오디세우스와 폴리페모스의 조우를 희극적으로 재구성했다.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euripides

AristotleCeleb

3/1/2026

Aristotle used the Odyssey to explore the unity and plausibility of epic poetry. When developing his comparative analysis of epic and tragedy in the Poetics, the plot structure of the Odyssey served as a central case study.

Source: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/

SocratesCeleb

3/1/2026

In Plato's Ion, Socrates discusses the performance and interpretation of Homeric epic. In the Apology, Socrates says he hopes that in the afterlife he could converse with heroes such as Odysseus and examine their wisdom.

Source: https://chs.harvard.edu/primary-source/plato-the-apology-of-socrates-sb/

Alfred NobelCeleb

3/1/2026

Nobel read Homer's Odyssey in Russian during his years of education in St. Petersburg. For Nobel, who was already proficient in Swedish, Russian, French, English, and German by age 17, classical literature formed the foundation of his broad cultural education.

Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred-nobel/alfred-nobel-and-his-interest-in-literature/

Lucius Annaeus SenecaCeleb

3/1/2026

Lucius Annaeus Seneca quoted scenes from the Odyssey in his Moral Letters, philosophically reinterpreting themes of life's journey, temptation, and the meaning of homecoming. He followed the classical tradition of reading Odysseus's wanderings as an allegory for the soul's wandering.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistulae_Morales_ad_Lucilium