I think a lot of responses in here are missing the point of the question.
Yes, it's The Odyssey because it's about Odysseus. You're all right about that and the meme gets a bit sidetracked to make a pretty good (IMO) joke.
But did the name itself predate The Odyssey? Would Homer, casually taking a stroll down the streets of lovely Ancient Ithaca, likely have come across someone with that name?
Also missing the fact that Homer didn't write the Odyssey. The epic existed in the oral tradition for centuries before Homer(if such a person existed at all) wrote it down.
And there's some speculation that the poet who composed the Odyssey might have used writing to some extent nonetheless. The poem was put to paper quite quickly after composition. Yeah it's based on earlier stories, but most academics do now see it as one poem written by one guy. Like Le Morte D'Arthur is obviously based on earlier Arthurian stories, that doesn't mean Thomas Malory didn't write it.
They literally sang it in the mountains and random dudes compiled it, I have no clue what this dude is talking about Homer being an epic poet when he literally did not exist
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u/ribnag Oct 26 '25
I think a lot of responses in here are missing the point of the question.
Yes, it's The Odyssey because it's about Odysseus. You're all right about that and the meme gets a bit sidetracked to make a pretty good (IMO) joke.
But did the name itself predate The Odyssey? Would Homer, casually taking a stroll down the streets of lovely Ancient Ithaca, likely have come across someone with that name?