Contains eleven critical analyses of Homer's "The Odyssey;" and includes an introduction by Harold Bloom and a chronology.

Introduction /Harold Bloom -- Transition and ritual in Odysseus' return / Charles Segal -- Odysseus and the genus "hero" / Margalit Finkelberg -- The wanderings / S. Douglas Olson -- Internal narrators, female and male / Lillian Eileen Doherty -- Penelope as moral agent / Helene P. Foley -- Rival homecomings / Frederick Ahl and Hanna M. Roisman -- Penelope's perspective: character from plot / Nancy Felson-Rubin -- The structures of The Odyssey / Stephen V. Tracy -- Kalypso and the function of Book Five / Bruce Louden -- In the beginning was Proteus / Mark Buchan -- The stakes of the plot / Richard Heitman.