The Long Way Home: Homer's Odyssey

My first encounter with Homer's Odyssey was through Wishbone.

Look at that wily dog.

Ever since, I found that stories from the Odyssey were prevalent in my school and daily life. When introduced to Greek literature in middle school, we read about Odysseus and his antics/adventures. Again, in high school, our reliable textbook of international and timeless tales included the cunning of the lost Ithacan king.

Perhaps these stories, with intriguing monsters and action-packed scenes, were used to appeal to a younger crowd bombarded with the equally young Internet, and the Disney-fied fairy tales of heroes and legends.

Doesn't that video cover scream action and adventure?

Even in modern kid's tales involving Greek myth, the Odyssey shows up. Take the Percy Jackson series, for instance. There is a scene where Percy (like Perseus? Get it?) stumbles upon...

Oh yes. Where else to lose track of time and purpose than a casino?

Much of my point, though, is that I feel I seldom encounter the Odyssey as a whole. Modern adaptations pick it apart, choose their favorite scenes, and wedge them into an overarching adventure sequence. The few I can think of that are not explicit adaptations (such as movies and mini-series) are James Joyce's Ulysses, the source for O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Much to my shame as an English/Classics major, I have not read Joyce's Ulysses. But OBWAT certainly triggers the memory of anyone who has read the Odyssey.

There's a cyclops.

There are sirens.


Ulysses has a kind of hubris, in a more American level of vanity.

And, overall, there are adventures. After all, what else are you supposed to do when you struggle to get home?