As an eleven-year-old child, I was fascinated by Classical mythology, especially Edith Hamilton’s work which was required reading in my grade school at the time. As I grew older, I “forgot” about my interest in mythology and turned my attention and enthusiasm to history and archaeology instead. My renewed interest in mythology stems from my study of archaeomythology, and my use of archaeomythology as a methodology to investigate Bronze Age Crete (c. 3200-1070 BCE), a society

Perhaps defining myth is impossible. Unanimity on an exact definition cannot occur because it will leave out what someone, somewhere, considers important; too loose a definition will lack enough specificity to be useful. Also, a myth nailed down dies, like a pinned butterfly.

Right now Homer’s epic poem is everywhere: from Uberto Pasolini’s The Return and Jorge Rivera-Herrans’s EPIC: The Musical to Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Odyssey (2026) and literary retellings like Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. This isn’t new. Fascination with Homer’s homecoming epic is centuries—millennia!—old, and its influence so vast it’s impossible to list.

McConnell’s vivid poem “Worm” brings alive an overlooked and vilified creature: the worm. Through tight, powerful words, the poem creates aw