Intertexuality between Tennyson’s Ulysses and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

摘要

Compared with Dante’s Inferno which has an original interpretation of Odysseus’ s last voyage different from that in Homer’s Odyssey, Tennyson’s Ulysses seems closer to the Homeric epics. An intertextual study of these texts shows that Tennyson’s Ulysses resonates with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in a profound and multidimensional way. The former is largely informed by the latter in setting, event, perception of death, heroism and so forth. A sequel to the Homeric epics, Tennyson’s Ulysses however also ingeniously rewrites the fate of Achilles, thus adding a more humanistic dimension to the classical texts.