A study by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) contrasts the fiction of Homer’s Odyssey with actual archaeological evidence from the Mediterranean and analyzes how each era has adapted its characters to its own cultural context.
The study explores how the Homeric narrative transcended the oral tradition of the nostoi (stories of “returns home”) and became part of the collective imagination. The goal is to understand how Odysseus (Ulysses) has endured to the present day through film, comics, literature, and transmedia and video game contexts.
“First, the Odyssey—and the Iliad—were created as oral traditions. Then they were put into writing and gained significant prominence throughout Antiquity. This legacy extended into the Roman world and continues to the present day,” notes the study’s author, Mirella Romero Recio, a professor in the Department of Humanities: History, Geography, and Art at UC3M.
Unlike epics centered on military exploits (such as the Iliad), the Odyssey tells a story of return (nostos) and of its protagonist’s cunning and adaptability (mêtis). The study analyzes how the figure of Odysseus and the characters around him (Penelope, Telemachus, Circe, and Polyphemus) have been systematically reinterpreted in light of the dilemmas, crises, and ideologies of each historical period. Furthermore, the study examines the myth’s impact on the characterization of scientific concepts and modern human experience, such as the coining of the word “nostalgia” or the so-called “Ulysses syndrome.”
Archaeological Context and Contemporary Reinterpretations
Starting from the Mycenaean context and the text’s establishment in Greco-Roman classical antiquity, the study contrasts the myth of the narrative with factual information regarding the geographical and historical context. “Odysseus travels throughout the Mediterranean in a space that is mythical. Ever since antiquity, scholars have sought to identify the locations mentioned in the text. Some are very clear because they are—and were—well known: Crete, Egypt, Cape Malea… But it is precisely the eastern Mediterranean where the fantastical world of the Odyssey unfolds, precisely because it was a much less familiar place,” explains Romero Recio.
The analysis integrates a historiographical and archaeological perspective that contrasts the poem with evidence from the real Mediterranean environment in which the epic was conceived. The research examines efforts to unravel the historical reality behind the fiction—from Schliemann’s archaeological work to debates over the geographical location of Homeric Ithaca—detailing the material and social transformations between the Mycenaean era and the Archaic period.
Furthermore, the study examines how contemporary reinterpretations have reevaluated the story’s secondary characters. Specifically, female figures such as Circe and Penelope have shifted from traditional interpretations—such as the femme fatale or the self-sacrificing wife—to being reimagined in contemporary literature and theater as symbols of autonomy, resistance, and political strategy. “The Odyssey has a very interesting feature, which is that women play a major role, and this is something—let’s say—unusual in such an ancient narrative (…). In addition to their prominence within the work, these women also had their own lives and their own way of seeing things.”
About the ANTIMO Project
This research was conducted as part of the research project “Modernized Antiquity: Classical Reception and Modernity in the Arts, Spaces, and Voices of Spain and Ibero-America (1850–1939)” (ANTIMO; PID2024-156462NB-I00), funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities through the State Research Agency and the ERDF/EU fund. Its findings and main theoretical framework are presented in the monograph The Return of Ulysses: The Journey of a Myth, published by La Esfera de los Libros (2026).
Video: https://youtu.be/Exy6U0n3824