Paper short abstract:

This paper intends to work on different travel narratives from Classical Antiquity to the Modern Age, focusing on the presentation of risks and dangers.

Paper long abstract:

The earliest European travel narrative is Homer's Odyssey. The risks and dangers affecting Odysseus consist of shipwreck and of meeting several marvellous beings, e.g. the Sirens or the Cyclops. Five centuries later, Apollonius Rhodius gave us The Argonauts, a poem about Jason travelling to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, describing different risks.

More recently, Camões describes the perils faced by Vasco da Gama, while sailing to India. Other narratives, as Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels or Moby Dick describe adventures that take place in different kinds of seas and oceans - Atlantic, Indian, Pacific.

What kinds of risks and dangers do they present and how do they relate to classical narratives is what this paper intends to discuss.