PAINTING THE ODYSSEY
Wednesday 2 September
&
Wednesday 9 September
Blinding, seduction, sirens, sorcery, a storm of suitors, shipwreck, cannibalism, lotus-eating, trips to the underworld and a complex homecoming: The Odyssey had all the ingredients of great epics by as early as the 9c BCE. One of the founding texts of western literature, it had enormous impact on the evolution of storytelling thereafter. Its narrative journey is traceable in Virgil’s The Aeneid and in Dante’s Inferno while James Joyce borrowed the entire structure for his great 20c reconfiguration, Ulysses. There have been countless homecoming tales ever since. The Odyssey pioneered techniques that became narrative staples: using parallel plotlines and delayed recognition scenes; starting the epic mid-story; utilising flashbacks. This great text essentially codified the archetype of the ‘quest’: trials, tribulations, temptations and a nail-biting homecoming. The Odyssey encouraged writers to construct characters of psychological complexity paying attention to often invisible layers of cunning, deception, and disguise.
In the visual arts, scenes from The Odyssey were depicted on ancient Greek vases and Roman walls, but remarkably do not appear in the Middle Ages, when the text had been lost to the Western World, only to be rediscovered in the Renaissance. Thereafter, Odyssey scenes appear in almost every art movement through the Baroque to Romanticism, Symbolism and Post-Impressionism. Now such eventful scenes are dominating screens in Christopher Nolan’s current film, The Odyssey, released 17 July, 2026, one of the most successful movies in Hollywood’s history. So rich and varied are the representations of The Odyssey through millennia, we have allocated two sessions for this mini-course, each a week apart. We hope you will join us!
PAINTING THE ODYSSEY
Session l
Ancient Greek and Etruscan funerary urns, Roman murals, Pompeian frescoes,
the Renaissance of Apollonio di Giovanni, Primaticcio and Pinturicchio, the Baroque of Claude and Poussin, and the Romanticism of Kauffmann, Wright of Derby and Turner…
Wednesday
2 September
5 pm Zoom
PAINTING THE ODYSSEY
Session ll
The late 19c Symbolists Burne-Jones and Böcklin Redon’s The Cyclops, De Chirico, the illustrations of NC Wyeth, Romare Bearden’s retelling the epic with Black protagonists and Chagall’s 82-image lithographs.
Wednesday
9 September
5 pm Zoom
BOOKING INFORMATION
Cost: £95 for both sessions, £50 individual sessions for members. £115 for both sessions, £60 individual sessions for non-members.
The Odyssey Zoom sessions (for which we offer support to access) have been developed, designed and edited by Louise Friend and will be presented by Nicholas Friend.
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