ABSTRACT
In the Ancient World, as in the modern, travel formed a central thread of both real life and the imagination. This chapter takes as its starting point a realistic – if false – tale of travel from Odysseus, the archetypal wanderer. From there it explores ways in which travel both established and reflected Greek and Roman conceptions of the world, leaving an indelible mark on literature. We find generations of wanderers both real and fictional defined against Odysseus; poets whose works are seen as metaphorical journeys even as they themselves travel to establish new audiences; the idea of travel itself treated as both mundane and extraordinary, as central to culture and commercial prosperity, especially under certain historical circumstances such as the peace of the Roman Empire, or as inadvisable, even downright suspicious. Finally, with the emergence in late antiquity of a culture of pilgrimage, notions of spiritual travel are revisited and redefined. The iconic figure of Odysseus stimulates a vast range of literary responses in the Ancient World, many of which will be mirrored in later European literature.
