The Odysses of Ulixes Through Medieval and Early Modern Literature

Abstract

This essay focuses on the Medieval and Early Modern reception of Ulysses and his myth, with a strong focus on the literature in the German vernacular, the concepts established and communicated by this reception, its continuity but also its unique shifts and ‘peaks’ within specific texts. It begins with Ulysses’ role in the medieval Trojan romance, outlines the long tradition of the allegoric interpretation, especially in regard to the myth of the Sirens, reaching back to Antiquity. Both separated tracks of reception show a significant continuity and ambivalence, culminating in the representation of Ulysses in Dante’s Commedia and its famous and crucial report of Ulysses’ last journey, where Ulysses functions as an example of human curiosity and human desire for knowledge and experience, both fatal and fascinating. In relation to medieval allegoric concepts Sebastian Brant wants to conceive Ulysses as a counterexample to foolishness and fools in his Narrenschiff, the intended clear didactic meaning nevertheless is thwarted by the complexity of the myth’s narrative. Finally, Simon Schaidenreisser’s alias, Minervius’, first German translation of the Odyssey brings back the original story. Still accompanied by allegoric and moral interpretation provided by commentaries in the margins, the myth now claims its own right and Ulysses’ interest in mundane experience and knowledge becomes an undisputed positive quality indicating the anthropological turn performed by writing and learning of the Early Modern period.