Why Odysseus‪?‬

"In a particularly Odyssean moment in time, with reworkings, translations and films of Homer’s epic across the horizon, we could ask for no better helmsman to the Odyssey’s manifold adaptations.” 

–Emily Hauser, author of Penelope's Bones

"Ingenious, comprehensive, and detailed, Why Odysseus? has urgent resonance for our own – indeed for any and every – political and cultural moment.”

–Emily Katz Anhalt, author of Ancient Wisdom for Polarized Times: Why Humanity Needs Herodotus, the Man Who Invented History

"This brilliant and elegantly written book is both deeply learned and genuinely accessible."

–Candida Moss, author of God's Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible

This book examines the enduring appeal of Odysseus in artistic representation from antiquity to the present. The volume aims to provide a sense of how this character changes from ancient Greek myth through modern poetry, and how this capacity for change both perpetuates the motif of a mutable and devious character while reflecting essential anxieties over what it means to be a person. 

Why Odysseus? demonstrates that Odysseus was already a figure of dynamic reception in Homer’s Odyssey, then examines his varied uses in antiquity, his resurgence in the twentieth century, and his flexibility in modern reception. It concludes with the challenges of translating the character from one period to the next. Why Odysseus? explores how a uniquely indeterminate character becomes an important “shifting signifier” for reflecting different periods’ and peoples’ values on what it means to survive—and sometimes thrive—in a world that is definitively non-heroic.

Joel P. Christensen is Provost, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Professor for Classics at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. With Elton Barker, Joel has published Homer: A Beginner’s Guide (2013) and Homer’s Thebes (2020); he has also written The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic (2020), and Storylife: On Epic, Language, and Living Things (2025), and edited The Oxford Critical Guide to Homer's Odyssey (2026).