Homer's invocation of the muse in the Odyssey

Issue 28

February 2021

The journey of the Odyssey throughout the centuries has been almost as fascinating as that of its protagonist, and its story has reverberated over two millennia, with its themes and structures explored by countless subsequent artists, rendering Homer’s epic a true womb of inspiration and creativity, intertwined with our universal cultural fabric. The invocation of the Muse, featured at the beginning of the poem, is a central element of the Odyssey. Along with being a plea for inspiration, and an effort to guarantee the favour of the inspiring addressee, it is also an innovative structural element as the poet conducts a meta-analysis of his work in revealing the source of his information and entrenching his statements in divine authority. There are countless translations—and indeed, interpretations—of Homer’s invocation to the Muse: from T.E. Lawrence’s ‘Divine Poesy / Goddess-daughter of Zeus, / Sustain for me / This song of the various-minded man’ (1928) to R. Fitzgerald’s ‘Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story / of that man skilled in all ways of contending, / the wanderer, harried for years on end’ (1961), and S. Lombardo’s ‘Speak, Memory – / Of the cunning hero / The wanderer, blown off course time and again’ (2000), readers have an abundance of choice for examining and decoding Homer’s work, and for the inspiration it provides.

Playlist inspired by the stimulus

Second Lament

Alani Hicks-Bartlett

o child, all the chances that you have / to cull these smooth, white days / are fouled by the winds. this is a velocity

When Man was not but found in those who lived

Antonio Melloni

When Man was not but found in those who lived

Imbolc

S.J. de Matteo

Cast a circle, burn the sweetgrass, and raise a cup of wine.

Ino and the Death of Time

Konstantinos Doxiadis

They called her Ino, the beauty of Boeotia, mother to Learchus and Melicertes, and daughter of Cadmus of Thebes.

The Middle Years

Richard W. Halperin

Faster, says my soul, but it is not my soul / Which says it. The soul knows; the brain / is Only an accoutrement.

Elegy to an Iceberg & The Barbarians

Carmine Di Biase

Two poetic responses to Auden and Cavafy.

Endless

Gavin Bourke

Empty rooms / and corridors / apart / from the furniture / unmade bed

For the Queen of Kindness

Arlene Naganawa

I made a wreath of leaves, / each leaf a light. / A breathing forest floor. / A flicker knocking.

The Variously-Minded Muse in the Ancient Greek Canon

Vasiliki Poula

The invocation of the Muse is portrayed in Ancient Greek texts...

A Movement in Chrome Primitive

Michael Salu

Three Seasons

Diane Thiel

When I first heard the story, I was Persephone, / feet in the blossoms, oblivious, / on the edge of another world.

The Veil of Ignorance

Eponine Howarth

I wouldn’t exactly say that Rawls is my muse.

Spaces Are Like Silk

Olivia Loccisano

Spaces are like silk, / and silk is spun / like a delicate wire.

Beyond the Treeless Sand-Brown Hills

Joyce Schmid

Beyond the treeless sand-brown hills / —new double-story houses, driveways / holding vans and cars, a thick man

Sailing Away

Jacqueline Shortell-McSweeney

Under morning's glowering sky

This issue was brought to you with the gracious support of our Patreons:

Aisenour Bitsen

Colby Torbett

Zoe Bell

Anthy & Costas

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