44 pages • 1 hour read
The Wanderings of Odysseus
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Background
Authorial Context: The Life and Work of Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff was a British author best known for writing children’s books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Born on December 14, 1920, in Surrey, Sutcliff spent her whole life struggling with Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (also known as Still’s disease). This chronic condition confined Sutcliff to a wheelchair for much of her life. Sutcliff’s family also moved frequently due to her father’s position as a Royal Navy officer.
Though Sutcliff’s schooling was frequently interrupted due to her condition and her family’s frequent moving, she did develop an acute interest in history and literature. In 1950, she published her first book, The Chronicles of Robin Hood, and in 1954 she published what is perhaps her most famous book, The Eagle of the Ninth, a historical fiction novel set in Roman Britain. Sutcliff soon gained widespread recognition for her contributions to children’s literature, especially for her ability to make myths and legends accessible to younger readers. Her retelling of Arthurian legend in her 1971 novel Tristan and Iseult earned the American Horn Book Award, while her 1985 novel The Mark of the Horse Lord was the first winner of the Phoenix Award. In 1975, Sutcliff’s achievements earned her an appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and in 1992, the year of her death, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Sutcliff’s own experience with physical disability influenced her storytelling. In her books, Sutcliff often emphasizes resilience and determination, qualities that Sutcliff displayed in her own life. Sutcliff was known for working tirelessly at her writing throughout her life, and a few of her books, including her retellings of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, were published posthumously. She never married or had children.
Literary Context: Homer’s Odyssey
Sutcliff’s The Wanderings of Odysseus is a children’s retelling of the Odyssey, an ancient Greek epic attributed to the poet Homer. The Odyssey is one of the two Homeric epics, the other being the Iliad. Scholars today generally agree that the Iliad and the Odyssey were recorded in writing around the eighth century BCE, though the poem itself probably originated centuries earlier in local oral traditions. The Iliad and Odyssey both deal with the myths surrounding the Trojan War, a decade-long conflict fought between the Greeks (or Achaeans) and the Trojans over the abduction of King Menelaus’s wife, Helen. The Iliad is set during the ninth year of the war and describes a series of events arising from the anger of the Greek hero Achilles and his quarrel with Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army at Troy. The Odyssey, meanwhile, describes the homecoming of Odysseus, another one of the heroes who fought at Troy.
The Odyssey, like the Iliad, held a privileged place in Greek literature and culture. The Greek world was not centralized in antiquity but split up into numerous communities and city-states who shared a similar language and religious beliefs. Within this world, the Homeric epics were regarded as a shared commodity, revered by all Greeks alike. The heroes and conflicts described by Homer illustrated ancient Greek values such as heroism, intelligence, and piety. Odysseus, the hero of the Odyssey, embodies these values. His adventures reveal a great deal about the Greeks and how they saw their world. The Odyssey also demonstrates how the Greeks saw themselves in relation to the strange and often-terrifying lands that surrounded them, many of which Odysseus encounters on his adventures.
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