Sources and criteria

The World of the Odyssey begins with the Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, as its principal sources for understanding the world and characters associated with the Trojan War and Odysseus’ return.

Many of the stories now belonging to the Trojan tradition, however, do not appear in Homer or are mentioned there only in part. To complete that universe, the site also draws on other authors from antiquity, both Greek and Latin, and on works that preserved or developed episodes belonging to the so-called Trojan cycle.

The site seeks to distinguish between Homer’s testimony and later traditions. Where different versions of the same myth exist, it attempts to indicate their source rather than presenting one of them as the single definitive account.

Ancient sources are compared, when necessary, with translations, studies and modern reference works. The aim is not to produce a scholarly edition of the texts, but to offer a rigorous and comprehensible presentation that allows readers to know, as far as possible, where each story comes from.

Proper names are normally given in the forms most readily recognisable in Spanish. Quotations and references may vary according to the edition used, and are therefore identified preferably by work, book or passage.

The content of this site is under permanent review and expansion. When an attribution, mythical variant or interpretation cannot be established with certainty, the site seeks to indicate this explicitly.