The journey of learning Luca Tateo Federal University of Bahia and Aalborg University � ABSTRACT The Odyssey is one of the highest products of human creation of all times. In the book Mythos and Voice, Charles Underwood presents an innovative perspective on this work of art, discussing the development of the main characters by the light of psychological and anthropological theories. Then, he discusses the dialogical theories of ontogenetic development using the characters of Odyssey as specimen. I finally suggest that the Underwood’s insights about the characters of Odyssey can provide fruitful hints for the understanding of the identity enactment in contemporary societies, by revisiting the positioning process and the dialogical construction of identity. As one of the peaks of human creation of all time, Homer’s Odyssey is a particularly valuable object of study for psychology. In his book Mythos and Voice, Charles Underwood presents an innovative perspective about and through this work of art. Underwood discusses the development of the main characters along the course of the epic poem in the context of psychological and anthropological theories. He discusses dialogical theories of ontogenetic development using the Odyssey as an example. I find this endeavor extremely stimulating for the theoretical and epistemological debate in psychology. Therefore, I do not limit myself to a traditional review to praise and discuss Underwood’s book. I would rather use it as an opportunity to stress what I consider relevant issues for contemporary cultural psychology, for instance: the use of literature (as well as any other product of human activity) as an object of investigation in psychology; the developmental nature of all human psychic phenomena; and the development of the Self in the contemporary era of popularity-based social media. The odyssey as a polyphonic work Despite the contemporary taste and literary standards, the Odyssey is still a remarkable piece of literature, which has everything: romance and action, plot twists, flashbacks, great characters, and irony. It is a polyphonic work in which at least four stories develop in parallel, namely the journey of Odysseus, the developmental process of the young Telemakhos, the struggle of Penelope and, in the background, the dispute between the gods, which is of no small importance when it comes to the unfolding of the plot. According to Bakhtin, a polyphonic novel is composed by “a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses” (Bakhtin, 1984, p. 6, italics in the original). The characters of the poem develop independently in time and space, until reaching a convergence in the final books of the poem. Some of the characters seem to be on the same plane as the author, who in Bakhtin’s terms has always an exceeding vision (Bakhtin, 1984). In “polyphonic novels the discourses of the characters do not come under the control of the discourse of the author” (Eun, 2018, p. 12). The initial episode of the council of the gods, shows how the author is above the CONTACT Luca Tateo lucatateo@gmail.com Mythos and Voice: Displacement, Learning, and Agency in Odysseus’ World, by C. Underwood, Lexington Books, September 15, 2018, 228 pp., $95 (hardcover), ISBN-10: 1498534244 Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/hmca. © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC MIND, CULTURE, AND ACTIVITY https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2019.1686028