The Odyssey!

Deborah · Serious Reader

The Odyssey!

Jen · Light Reader

Congratulations on getting this site up and running. OH SURE...BLAME IT ON ME.

Glad to know I could be of some service so early into my membership in Demon Readers!

We're headed out of town to camp, some time to read (perhaps) while lifeguarding along the creek before kicking of our "school" year. Why not The Odyssey? Sent DH to library (on his way home from work) to snag it for me. His selection: the Harvard Classics edition by P.F. Collier & Son (copyright 1909 and 1937). I'll let you know how it goes upon our return.

(Good luck, Deborah, on YOUR first camping trip!)

Deborah · Serious Reader

You heard her, folks. BLAME JEN. Not just for this forum, either. I personally see no reason not to blame her for my kitchen floor still needing mopping after I've given it several disapproving stares.

Two questions, Jen: who translated, and is it prose or poetry? A friend of mine showed me her translation the other day, and the translator was Samuel Butler (the guy who wrote "The Way of All Flesh," and no, I haven't read anything but the title) and it was in prose. Which I didn't even know was a possibility. Since this isn't really a quotable-quote type book, you don't need to sweat the translation too much, but I would definitely steer clear of prose if possible. If nothing else, it makes it hard to compare notes when we're talking about a particular line.

--Deborah, going to rest her achin' back

Jen · Light Reader

We're back...sorry for the delayed response. The Sierra beckoned, and farbeit from me to ignore the call!

Started The Odyssey on the trip. The 1906 Harvard translation (prose, yes, in arcaic English) selected by my DH during his run to the library was like reading the King James Bible. Just short of "X begat Y," but not by much.

Unloaded van, showered, bathed kids and fled to library to pick up ANYTHING more modern. Found what (at first glance) seems a MUCH more reader-friendly version (verse): Robert Fagles' 1996 translation. WHEW! What a relief!

Deborah · Serious Reader

Hey, welcome back, Jen!

The Fagles is my number 1 recommended translation for The Odyssey. ANYthing he translates is wonderful. He generally works together with Bernard Knox, and between the two of them you get a gorgeously readable work with some wonderfully accessible yet academically rigorous information. The introduction to the Fagles translation alone would make the book worth buying, in my opinion, and the footnotes are fabulous. 100% geared to a civilian reader. Gotta love it.

I've seen a few other translations done in the last few decades (Richmond Lattimore's is very good) that are fine; but before that, unless you're looking for historical curiosities you'd better look for a more recent edition. Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of thing where the longer ago it was done, the closer it is to the original work and therefore the better. Almost the opposite, in fact. More about that later.

--Deborah, way behind on everything as per usual, but wanting to check in with her fellow demons

indyandarmysmom · Serious Reader

I'm so excited about reading this book! Last night, I put my boys to bed (4 and almost 6 year old) and then while they were laying there in bed I decided to read some to them. I had to stop because they were listening so closely that they wouldn't go to sleep! :)

I can't wait to hear other people's take on this great story!

Michelle

Newbie

Hi everybody!

Thanks Deborah for putting this all together.

I ended up with the Fagles translation. Lattimore seemed like a better read but Fagles has all that great backround that I so desperately need.

Is there some sort of schedule to follow or just a general discussion as we go along?

Guess I should get started...

-- Edited by L at 15:38, 2006-09-03

Deborah · Serious Reader

Hi, new person!

So sorry to be so behind in replying and posting. You bring up an excellent point.

Here's a thought: On Saturday, I'm having my last big writing binge before a couple of days computerless (aaagh!). So how about everyone post about how much they've read, what they've thought of it so far, stuff like that?

Even if you've only read some of the introductory material in, say, the Fagles translation, that should give you a lot to talk about. And anyone who hasn't yet could sign in with which translation they're reading.

I'm finally finishing up a piece on who exactly Homer was. Some of it is stuff that Bernard Knox brings up in his intro to the Fagles translation; some is from other sources.

The Lattimore trans. is an excellent read, but you're right -- if this is your first introduction to Homer, or ancient Greek lit at all, Fagles is always the way to go because he gives so much background material. He really gets you grounded in the period.

--Deborah

indyandarmysmom · Serious Reader

Two things.

I have Fagles translation and love it. I have gotten a bit throught he introduction and through two books of the actual book.

The other book I'm reading is a wonderful find I have to share with you guys. It is called Odysseus: A Life by Charles Rowan Beye. I found it at Borders one day while browsing. It is a biography of sorts. It tells the story of Odysseus as if he were a real person. It is giving me some great background of the time period and I love it!

Michelle

Deborah · Serious Reader

What a great idea -- to write a "biography" of Odysseus, I mean. I'll have to look for that.

Can you tell me more about the book? I've been reading a bit about trying to date when exactly Homer's Trojan War would have taken place (in spite of all poor Schliemann's loving labor, we don't have any real archaeological evidence that there ever even was such an event). When you say that the writer gives background material about Odysseus' time, is he describing Classical Greece (fifth century B.C.E.), or around what Homer's time probably was (750 B.C.E. or so), or what? The intro to the Fagles' translation (which I'm loving, too) is pessimistic about the possibility of learning anything about the truly ancient Greeks:

"Back beyond about 700 B.C. we cannot go. Evidence for this period is rare; in fact, we know very little about Greece in the eight century, still less, if possible, about Greece in the ninth. We have only the archaeological record -- geometric pots, graves, some weapons. It is the era of Greek history known, because of our almost total ignorance about it, as the Dark Age. All we have is the tradition, what the Greeks of historical times believed they knew aabout Homer."

I'll probably be hitting a bookstore or two this weekend (shocking, I know), and will definitely keep an eye out for this book. Thanks for mentioning it, and please post any particularly wonderful tidbits!

--Deborah

neveu · Light Reader

An interesting "translation" of Homer is the performance by Odds Bodkin. He's a performer and musician who tells the story of the Odyssey using his voice and guitar to create sound effects and music. Very dramatic and for my money conjures the same emotions the ancient Greeks must have felt when they heard it sung. Click on the Odyssey in RealAudio box to heard the first 17 min. of it. Side note: putting this in the car stereo will silence a car full of kids in about 30 seconds.

Deborah · Serious Reader

This sounds great. Thanks for letting us know about it. I love things that can bring families together with the classics.

--Deborah

neveu · Light Reader

or around what Homer's time probably was (750 B.C.E. or so)
It's no coincidence that the first Olympics occurred in 776 B.C.E: it was part of a revival of Heroic Age Greece. The Games were for men to gain glory through competition in honor of the ancient heros who gained glory on the battlefield; Homer writing down the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey was part of, or perhaps initiated, this revivall. In a similar way the modern Olympics was just one part of a larger cultural Greek revival in art, architecture, etc.

Deborah · Serious Reader

Interesting that Homer would be a cutting-edge, revolutionary writer applying that amazing new invention, the Greek alphabet, to set down stories of what were to him ancient times -- when of course to us, the "real" modern people, he's the most ancient of the ancient so far as Greece is concerned.

But I guess people always look back to "the good old days," and Homer and his people were probably no different. The Golden Age of Greece was long past and lamented when he first set down his tales. And we look back at a few hundred years *after* his life and think of it as the pinnacle, the classical Greek era, when men were *real* men, philosophers were *real* philosophers, playwrights were *real* -- okay, you get the picture.

--Deborah