This study demonstrates how the Odyssey combines separate, distinct genres of myth, all of which are also extant in Near Eastern cultures. Though parallels were noted in several traditions, Mesopotamian (especially Gilgamesh), Egyptian, and Ugaritic, Old Testament myth offers far the greatest number. The parallels provide contexts for the Odyssey on three different levels. While revealing interconnections between the Odyssey and Near Eastern myths, and a more specific inter-relation with OT myth, they demonstrate sustained parallels between the Odyssey and Genesis. This is true of small-scale narratives such as Menelaus wrestling with Proteus, which finds a parallel in Jacob wrestling with Yahweh (Gen. 32:22–32), as well as the Odyssey's three larger genres of myth, romance, theoxeny, and Argonautic myth, all of which appear in Genesis (Gen. 37–47, 18–19, and 27–31, respectively).

In a Mesopotamian link, the Odyssey's most well known episode, Odysseus' encounter with Polyphêmos, employs several motifs prominent in Gilgamesh's defeat of Humbaba. Both episodes are instances of the well-attested genre the combat myth; each occurs at a similar point in the larger epic; each brings the hero fame, but prompts a divine wrath; both heroes' companions try to prevent them from committing a reckless act. Comparison suggests the Odyssey innovates, imposing changes upon the basic encounter by adding its thematic concern with hospitality, the fantastic voyage, and the use of cunning to defeat brute force, none of which are concerns in Gilgamesh.