The Raft of Odysseus The Ethnographic Imagination of Homer's Odyssey [Hardcover]

The Raft of Odysseuslooks at the fascinating intersection of traditional myth with an enthnographically-viewed Homeric world. Carol Dougherty argues that the resourcefulness of Odysseus as an adventurer on perilous seas served as an example to Homer's society which also had to adjust in inventive ways to turbulent conditions. The fantastic adventures of Odysseus act as a prism for the experiences of Homer's own listeners--traders, seafarers, storytellers, soldiers--and give us a glimpse into their own world of hopes and fears, 500 years after the Iliadic events were supposed to have happened.

This is a sparkling study of theOdyssey. It offers insightful interpretations of a series of passages from the poem (embracing at times Hesiod, Ibycus and more), while presenting also a much larger argument about the interplay of poetic discourse and archaic notions of the world around. --BrynMawr Classical Review

This is an excellent book, giving us a better sense than ever before of the Greek sense of wonderment and adventure as they came to know the entire Mediterranean Sea in the eighth century BC. It will be required reading for literary critics, comparativists, historians, and archaeologists alike. --Ian Morris, Stanford University

Carol Dougherty'sThe Raft of Odysseus: The Ethnographic Imagination of Homer's Odysseymoves beyond the work of the French classicists Pierre Vidal-Naquet and Fran?ois Hartog to locate the synchronic structural oppositions that organize the Homeric imagination in an evolving historical reality. Odysseus' linked roles as traveler, craftsman, and poet permit him to negotiate issues central to the world of Archaic Greece concerning exchange (both gift-exchange and commerce), the foundation of new colonies, and the revitalization of a traditional society through foreign contacts. --Helene P. Foley, Barnard College, Columbia University