PEL Presents Closereads: Horkheimer and Adorno on The Odyssey (Part One)

PEL Presents Closereads: Horkheimer and Adorno on The Odyssey (Part One)

June 5, 2026 · 1h 0m

About this episode

The episode discusses Horkheimer and Adorno's analysis of The Odyssey as an allegory for modernism's apparent triumph over myth.

We read part of The Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), specifically the parts about Homer's epic as an allegory for the merely apparent triumph of modernism (capitalism, instrumental reason) over myth (savagery, magical thinking). Subscribe to Closereads (and get a link to this text to read along) at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy ; follow us there via the free tier to part two and many other episodes like this one ad free, or pay us to get parts 2-5 and everything else we've recorded. (Alternatively, support both PEL and Closereads at patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife for a nice combo deal.)

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