The Odyssey, Otherwise

This chapter considers how authors such as Franz Kafka, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Erich Auerbach, and Emmanuel Levinas recalled Homer’s Odyssey as a tale of ‘homecoming’, with which they juxtaposed Jewish conceptions of migration and exile, while referring to the biblical tradition and Midrash. The chapter focuses on the Sirens episode, the Homeric myth central to Odysseus's journey. It examines its modern Jewish receptions in literature and philosophy within the wider context of world literature. By exploring how these Jewish authors engaged with Homer, the chapter demonstrates how the Sirens episode became crucial for articulating the modern condition of being Jewish.