Quick Fix
Drop in the author’s last name and line numbers right after the quote, like this: (Homer 5.12-15).
What’s the deal with these citations?
You’re quoting or paraphrasing lines from Homer’s Odyssey and need an in-text citation that actually follows academic style. The Modern Language Association (MLA) style wants a quick parenthetical citation right after each quotation or close paraphrase. It’s just the author’s last name plus the relevant line or lines, separated by a period—no page numbers needed for ancient poetry.
Here’s how to do it right
- Find the exact lines. Open your digital or print copy of The Odyssey and jot down the book number, line numbers, and the exact wording you’re using.
- Build the in-text citation. Put the citation in parentheses right after the quote or paraphrase. Use the author’s last name (Homer), a space, then the book number, a period, and the line or line-range, like (Homer 5.12-15).
- Add the full Works Cited entry. At the end of your paper, format the entry like this:
Full entry:Element Example (MLA 9th ed.) Author Homer Title The Odyssey Translator Robert Fitzgerald Publisher Vintage Books Year 1990 Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Vintage Books, 1990.
- Shorten later citations. After the first full citation, you can trim the parenthetical reference to just the book and lines, like (5.12-15), as long as it’s clear which work you mean.
Still not working? Try these fixes
- Need Chicago style? Skip the parentheses and use footnotes or endnotes instead. The first note looks like this: 1. Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fitzgerald (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), book.line. Later notes can shorten to Homer, Odyssey, book.line.
- Stuck with APA style? Try (Homer, trans. 1990, bk. 5, ll. 12–15) in parentheses, then add the full reference to your reference list.
- Missing line numbers? Use chapter and paragraph instead, e.g., (Homer 5.3) if your edition breaks the text into paragraphs rather than numbered lines.
How to avoid citation headaches next time
- Pick one citation style and stick with it throughout your paper—unless your instructor says otherwise.
- Keep a separate file for your Works Cited entries so you can copy-paste them later and dodge last-minute formatting chaos.
- Turn on line numbers in your PDF reader (View → Show Line Numbers) when quoting poetry to save yourself from tedious manual counting.
- For digital texts without fixed line numbers, use stable section or paragraph numbers and mention the edition in your citation.
For the official rules, check the Modern Language Association and the Purdue OWL.
