The Raft of Odysseus

The Ethnographic Imagination of Homer’s Odyssey

Bibliographic Data

ID9401899
AuthorsCarol Dougherty (corresponding author)
Year2001
Pages243
Publication date2001-04-05
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueThe raft of Odysseus (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressNew York, NY (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780195130362.001.0001
OpenAlexW2896979685
Open LibraryOL6785500M
ISBN9780195130362
LanguageEN
Citations received51

The Raft of Odysseus looks 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. In the course of her argument, Dougherty makes liberal use of what we know about Mycenean and archaic artifacts, comparing the realities of historical shipbuilding or weaving, for example, with the often magnificently inflated account of the epics

Geography · Raft · Byzantine Studies and History · Chemistry · Classical Antiquity Studies · Commerce in literature · Epic poetry · Epic poetry, history and criticism · Ethnic groups in literature · Ethnology · Ethnology in literature · Geography, Ancient, in literature · Greek · Greek Epic poetry · History and criticism · Homer · in literature · Knowledge · Knowledge and learning · Literature and the war · Ocean travel in literature · Odysseus (Greek mythology) in literature · Trojan War · Trojan war, literature and the war

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