Academic career as an Odyssey: allegories from the work of homer and personal experiences in modern Greece

Abstract

The chapter proposes to discuss the challenges, risks and pitfalls, as well as rewards, opportunities and benefits of an academic career in management. It is inspired by the analogies between academic career as experienced by the author over the last 15 years and the Odyssey epic poem. The chapter will focus on the following analogies between the academic career and Homer’s epos: (1) Obstacles and Enablers (2) Companions and Critical allies (3) Destination and Journey. In each of the 3 parts, personal experiences of the author are presented and the analogies or antitheses with the classic epic poem are discussed.