Homer's Odyssey

by Denton Jaques Snider

A Commentary

Denton Jaques Snider, a St. Louis teacher and lecturer formed by German philosophy, wrote this commentary on the Odyssey as part of a series of studies of the great poems of the Western tradition. He reads the poem as a carefully built whole, beginning with the way its opening book lays out its own plan, and he follows Odysseus from Calypso's island through the wanderings, the descent to Hades and the return to Ithaca. For Snider the story is that of a man who falls away from home, family and state and must win them back through suffering and self-knowledge. The approach is philosophical rather than philological, aimed at readers who want the poem's meaning more than its text. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.