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Right now I am writing an essay, also I am currently stuck doing so because I don't know how to properly use a piece of grammar. This essay is focusing on the book written by Homer. The problem is I don't know what to call it:

Do I call it Homer's "Odyssey" or do I call it Homer's "The Odyssey"?

The books name seems to be "The Odyssey" so I think the second option is correct but it seems really clunky making the first option attractive.

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  • I believe the poem's title to be "Odyssey". (See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beginning_Odyssey.svg .) Or: the "Odyssey". What makes you think it is called "The Odyssey"?
    – Řídící
    Apr 12, 2015 at 17:38
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    Whatever you call it (either works fine for me), please be aware that the Odyssey is not a book. It is an epic poem. It is attributed to Homer (if such a person ever even really existed), but he did not write it: he composed it, if anything. The epos wasn't written down until many centuries after it was first made.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Apr 12, 2015 at 20:53
  • Thank you for the classification, previous comment deleted.
    – GenuinePlaceholder
    Apr 12, 2015 at 20:57
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    @Panzercrisis: definite articles were around in Germanic languages much, much, earlier than the Middle Ages. You're probably remembering that the Romance languages didn't acquire articles until the Middle Ages; Classical Latin didn't have them.
    – Peter Shor
    Apr 14, 2015 at 10:08
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    @Panzer Many languages have had articles since long before the Middle Ages. Whether Homeric Greek (the oldest layer of non-fragmental prose in the Greek language that is available to us) had them is a matter of opinion; but by the time of Classical Greek, still several centuries BC, Greek definitely did have articles. The Odyssey is an English title, though, not a Greek one.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Apr 14, 2015 at 12:10

2 Answers 2

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One can readily find these stats at Google Boooks (no vanilla Google).

The moral:

When getting short

"on Homer's Odyssey" About 47,800 results

"on Homer's The Odyssey" About 1,470 results

be really short (no "the")

_

Now, when getting longer

"on Odyssey by Homer" 4 results

"on The Odyssey by Homer" About 3,270 results

be really long, and use the "the." :-)

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  • In "on The Odyssey by Homer" you capitalise the T. Could you break down the 3,270 results into Ts and ts?
    – Řídící
    Apr 12, 2015 at 17:44
  • Google is pretty much indifferent to capitalization, as far as I know. Still, one can look at the resulting book pages and do some counts for 20-30 samples to have an idea.
    – Marius Hancu
    Apr 12, 2015 at 17:51
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The editions of Homer (translated by Richmond Lattimore) that I read in college were rendered as The Iliad and The Odyssey. Supposing that those are the names you want to use for these two works in your paper, you may be interested in this style recommendation from the Chicago Manual of Style, fifteenth edition (2003):

8.179 Full and shortened titles. A title cited in full in the notes or bibliography may be shortened in the text. A subtitle may be omitted, or an initial a, an, or the may be dropped if it does not fit the surrounding syntax. ...

[Relevant example (1):] Hawking, in A Brief History of Time, opens up the universe.

[Relevant example (2):] Hawking's Brief History of Time explains black holes with alarming lucidity.

This style advice endorses identifying The Odyssey with or without the initial The depending on how your sentence reads. For example,

Homer, in The Odyssey, juggles themes of determination, struggle, loyalty, and revenge.

or

Homer's Odyssey juggles themes of determination, struggle, loyalty, and revenge.

You don't have to accept Chicago's advice on this point, of course, but it's available as an option if you choose to follow it.

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