Daniel Mendelsohn

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599 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 16 Jul

Daniel Mendelsohn’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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The History of Literature · 817 The Odyssey - Getting Ready for a Summer Blockbuster | My Last Book with Mary Beard · 16 Jul 2026 podcast

Honest though.

So yes, Athena does come in at the end, she helps him, she gives him disguises when he needs to be disguised, blah blah blah.

But most of the Odyssey and he actually there's a funny moment at the end of the poem where he reproaches her for not having shown up until now.

You know, he says, Where were you?

While I was on the sea having all these terrible, excruciating adventures.

Now you show up.

So I'm sort of articulating this in response to your original question because I think the Odyssey is itself, again, in a kind of meta way, interested in just what these gods are for.

So it trots them out in a very kind of

stylized way at the beginning of the poem.

This conversation between Athena and her dad.

And Zeus says, Okay, yes, let's get 'em

Home and they pop up once again.

Yeah.

Oh, Poseidon is ticked off at Odysseus, as we later learn, because his son is the Cyclops and Odysseus heard him.

And he pops up every now and then and makes, you know, wrecks Odysseus's ship, makes a storm, you know.

But really the focus is on the human.

I would say in a very different way to the Iliad.

And so as I say, I think the Odyssey is asking the same question that you're asking and that you're wondering about what my students ask, which is what are the gods for?

And I don't

I'm not sure I know the answer to that question.

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