A01=Martin Litchfield West
Author_Martin Litchfield West
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DSBB
Category=DSC
Category=NL-DS
COP=United Kingdom
Discount=15%
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Format=BC
HMM=216
IMPN=Oxford University Press
ISBN13=9780198810193
Language_English
PA=Available
PD=20171102
POP=Oxford
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
PUB=Oxford University Press
SMM=18
Subject=Literature: History & Criticism
WG=412
WMM=139
Product details
- ISBN 9780198810193
- Weight: 412g
- Dimensions: 139 x 216 x 18mm
- Publication Date: 19 Oct 2017
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication City/Country: Oxford, GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
The poet of the Odyssey was a seriously flawed genius. He had a wonderfully inventive imagination, a gift for pictorial detail and for introducing naturalistic elements into epic dialogue, and a grand architectural plan for the poem. He was also a slapdash artist, often copying verses from the Iliad or from himself without close attention to their suitability. With various possible ways of telling the story bubbling up in his mind, he creates a narrative marked by constant inconsistency of detail. He is a fluent composer who delights in prolonging his tale with subsidiary episodes, yet his deployment of the epic language is often inept and sometimes simply unintelligible.
The Making of the Odyssey is a penetrating study of the background, composition, and artistry of the Homeric Odyssey. Martin West places the poem in its late seventh-century context in relation to the Iliad and other poetry of the time. He also investigates the traditions that lie behind it: the origins of the figure of Odysseus, and folk tales such as those of the One-eyed Ogre and the Husband's Return.
The late Martin Litchfield West was a Fellow and Praelector in Classics at University College, Oxford from 1963 to 1974, before taking up a post as Professor of Greek at the University of London where he remained until 1991, then becoming a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. After his retirement in 2004 he became an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls. HM The Queen appointed him a Member of the Order of Merit (OM) in the 2014 New Year Honours.
