Image licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, is required reading in many high schools and colleges around the country. But in a new take on how to view the poem, an author, translator, and Homer scholar took his father on a cruise that retraced the route of the Greek hero Odysseus from Troy to Ithaca as laid out in Homer’s epic. Prior to this adventure, the son had taught The Odyssey in a course at Bard College, which his father had attended. Listen to hear the author discuss the trip he made with his father and what it meant to them.
Story Length: 7:01
© 2012 National Public Radio, Inc. Used with the permission of NPR. All rights reserved.
04/15/2012
https://app.listenwise.com/students/lessons/562-a-father-and-son-go-on-their-last-odyssey-together
How did Jay Mendelsohn, the author and translator being interviewed, characterize Odysseus?
Where is Troy?
What evidence of the early “cultural power and authority of the Homeric epic poems” does Mendelsohn point to?
Mendelsohn describes Ithaca as “the infinitely receding horizon.” What does he mean?
Why does Mendelsohn consider it fitting that the cruise never got to Ithaca?
What consolation does Mendelsohn take following the loss of his father?