I’ve loved The Odyssey since junior high (I bounced of The Iliad in high school but it might have been because of a dated translation). I first built this playlist of pop songs referencing The Odyssey on my birthday in 2013. I’ve added songs and re-arranged their order over the years. Here’s the current version.
| Playlist Order | Song | Artist | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calypso | Suzanne Vega | Calypso’s perspective on her relationship with Odysseus |
| 2 | Tales of Brave Ulysses | Cream | Man misses his vacation hook-up |
| 3 | More News from Nowhere | Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | Retells the myth with a modern bent and modern names |
| 4 | Home at Last | Steely Dan | “On a tour of one-night stands” |
| 5 | The Odyssey | SYMPHONY X | A 24-minute ballad as if Triumvirate had tackled Homer |
| 6 | Ghost | Indigo Girls | Former lover compares herself to Odysseus in one of the four verses |
(I left off “Odyssey” by Beck and Phoenix, which uses the English word but makes no reference to the myth.)
