This book is the first in-depth examination of revenge in the Odyssey. The principal revenge plot of the Odyssey --Odysseus' surprise return to Ithaca after twenty away and his vengeance on Penelope's suitors -- is the act for which he is most celebrated. This story forms the backbone of the Odyssey. But is Odysseus' triumph over the suitors as univocally celebratory as is often assumed? Does the poem contain and even suggest other, darker interpretations of Odysseus' greatest achievement? This book offers a careful analysis of several other revenge plots in the Odyssey -- those of Orestes, Poseidon, Zeus, and the suitors' relatives. It shows how these revenge stories color one another with allusions (explicit and implicit) that connect them and invite audiences to interpret them in light of one another. These stories -- especially Odysseus' revenge upon the suitors -- inevitably turn out to have multiple meanings. One plot of revenge slips into another as the offender in one story becomes a victim to be avenged in the next. As a result, Odysseus turns out to be a much more ambivalent hero than has been commonly accepted. And in the Odyssey's portrayal, revenge is an unstable foundation for a community. Revenge also ends up being a tenuous narrative structure for an epic poem, as a natural end to cycles of vengeance proves elusive. This book offers a radical new reading of the seemingly happy ending of the poem.

About the Author
Alexander C. Loney is Associate Professor of Classical Languages at Wheaton College. Previously, he was an American Council of Learned Societies New Faculty Fellow in Classics and a fellow of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University. He has written on Homer, Hesiod, and Greek lyric poetry. He is co-editor (with Stephen Scully) of the Oxford Handbook of Hesiod.

Reviews
Loney's superb study of tisis ('revenge') in the Odyssey has far-reaching implications for an interpretation of the Odyssey as a whole and in particular for an evaluation of the much-debated ethical dimension of Odysseus' vengeance against Penelope's suitors.... In sum, this is an important book that illuminates a crucial, but surprisingly underexplored, aspect of the Odyssey. * Classical Philology *
Loney has written an important book that examines tisis (revenge) in the Odyssey demonstrating how this theme shapes and is shaped by the narrative.... Loney's book will no doubt become a work of reference in future discussions not only of the theme of revenge but also of the ethics and ideology of the Odyssey. The author is to be congratulated for providing the field with such an important study. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190909673
Author Alexander C. Loney
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 514g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 165mm * 27mm