Milton Under Wychwood,
OXFORDSHIRE,
UNITED KINGDOM
$20.40
Add this copy of The Odyssey to cart. $20.40, very good condition, Sold by Greensleeves Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Milton Under Wychwood, OXFORDSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1997 by TSP.
Add this copy of The Odyssey to cart. $24.07, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by Penguin Putnam.
Add this copy of The Odyssey: Homer to cart. $27.00, very good condition, Sold by PASCALE'S BOOKS rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NORTH READING, MA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Viking:.
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Seller's Description:
Fine- 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 541 pages, Introduced by Bernard Knox. "In the myths and legends that are magnificently retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom and given us an Odysey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery." FINE-SOFTCOVER.
Add this copy of Odyssey to cart. $48.79, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by Hackett Publishing Company.
Add this copy of Odyssey to cart. $74.08, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by Penguin Putnam.
Add this copy of Odyssey to cart. $77.91, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2000 by Penguin Putnam.
Homer's Odyssey is the prototypical "journey" of Western literature. The epic tells of the wanderings of the Greek hero Odysseus, King of Ithaca. Odysseus spent ten years with the Greeks at Troy (he is an important character in Homer's Iliad) and devised the strategem of the Trojan Horse which led to the fall of Troy. Following the fall of Troy, Odysseus wandered for ten years before his return to Ithaca. The Odyssey celebrates his trials during this long period and his ultimate vindication upon his return to Ithaca.
The Odyssey differs in tone and content from the Iliad. Simone Weil, a mid-20th century French writer, described the Iliad as the work of Western literature which best explored the use and limitations of force. Battle scenes, death, and the human cost and folly of war are realistically if heroically described. The Odyssey is more in the nature of romance. It surely has moments of grandeur and heroism, but its story is in the telling and in the journeying and in the adventures of Odysseus along the way.
The tale of the Iliad, and of Achilles' wrath, involves only a few days in the Trojan War and the poet of the Iliad recounts his story in a forward-moving chronology. The story is focused in that the main action takes place entirely in Troy and its environs. The Odyssey is much more diffuse, covering as it does the wanderings of Odysseus for ten years. The scene shifts frequently and the story is told with flashbacks and shifting tenses and locations. The bulk of the action (the last 12 books of the epic) occur in Ithaca after Odysseus returns home. These books are recounted in the voice of the poet. (Homer) The first four books of the Odyssey recount a smaller-scale journey of Telemachus, Odysseus's son, as he searches for news of his father and tries to avoid death at the hands of the suitors of Penelope who are plaguing Ithaca and plundering Odysseus's estate. (In addition, many of the women servants are having affairs with the suitors.) The middle section of the book deals with Odysseus's adventures, with mythical characters such as the Cyclops, Scylla and Charibdis, the rock-throwing Laestroginians, the Lotus eaters, the sirens, and many others. We learn of Odysseus's long but ultimately unsatisfactory dalliances with Circe and with Callypso and his perseverance in returning home.
The most striking element of the poem for me was Book 11 which chronicles Odysseus's journey to Hades and which teaches him that human life is precious and irreplaceable for all its pain and suffering. Much of the middle section of the book is told as a flashback with Odysseus speaking in his own voice. There is much in the Odyssey (unlike the Iliad) about the nature and function of epic poetry and about its performance.
The Odyssey concludes with Odysseus' slaughter of the many suitors of his faithful wife Penelope and with his reuniting with his wife, aged father Laertes and son Telemachus. Odysseus is a wily, much-battered, and cunning hero. But in his perseverance and strength, he is a hero nonetheless.
The Odyssey is a much-translated work. I found this translation by Robert Fagles helped me get into and involved with the poem. The translation is in a modern American free verse idiom which to me lets the poem speak and does not call attention to itself as a translation. For a work such as the Odyssey, I think that if the translation moves and the reader is drawn into the work, the translator is doing a good job. By this test, the translation is outstanding.
There is an excellent introduction by Bernard Knox which introduces the reader to the scholarly issues surrounding the composition of the Odyssey and the Iliad and which discusses as well the major themes of the poem.
The Odyssey and the Iliad are works to be read and reread at many stages of life. They should probably be explored in several translations for those, (most readers) who don't read the original Greek. This is a stirring epic poem of what has become the journey of the West.
