Definitive translation of Homer for 'the rest of us'

books:


	• The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) Homer Penguin Classics, 2006 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The reason some stories remain classics is simply because they deserve it. This ancient story is as exciting, sexy, and romantic as they possible come and that is simply how it should be. Post-Iliad comes the perilous journey back to Greece, a journey that lasts twenty years through every horrible (and yet totally cool thing) that could ever happen. It's passionate, fun, and exciting and I guess that is why they make us read all of it in high school. Well, yay!

Easy to read, but uninteresting

"Odessy" is defined as "a series of adventurous journeys", it is "the story of Odysseus, a Greek hero of the Trojan War who took ten years to find his way back from Troy to his home"

This 2,700 year old epic poem in verse form is a surprise in its ease of read. I can't help but think the full impact of the original has thus been lost. I was anticipating a far more captivating story; it has its moments, but they are few. The Iliad is much better. Maybe I just made the mistake of reading it for entertainment. I was surprised to find that none of the characters are truly good.

I did find interesting the 56 page introduction by Bernard Knox covering the history, organization, origins, the language (oral or written?), the literary comparisons, and the characters (players) of Homer. At the back we will find notes on translation, further reading materials, a glossary, and help with pronunciations.

The world is continually at war. The son of Odysseus sets out by sea in search of his lost father. Back home in Ithaca Odysseus is presumed dead. Suitors are now in line to court Odysseus' wife; they will fight if necessary and take the kingdom over. The majority of the story we follow Odysseus on land and sea as he struggles to get back home with vengeance and assistance from the gods. He finds his son in time to destroy the suitors who are plotting to take his kingdom. There is a final celebration and the gods end the warring.

Wish you well
Scott

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Older and Wiser

While the story is fictional and full of all the joys and horrors of life, I am, at my later years finding that this text, the bible, and roman mythology have so much in common as to stimulate our minds, conceptions, and views without reducing our individual religious beliefs. The tales compliment and in some small way confirm each of mankinds dealing with the unknown at that period of history. To have the background of reading the Bible, Homer, Romans, Voltaire, etc. is to truly come to grips with an individual religion and God, versus, a rote learned Higher Power.

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A great translation.

I recommend this translation for anyone who loves this story, and tried to read it before and gave up. This book is an easy, flowing, beautiful read. Some readers may disagree with some of the translator's choices. For instance, the scene where Odysseus must carefully explain to Calypso why he wants to leave her - this translation has him say that he longs to travel home and see the dawn of his return. I prefer it translated as he longs for his homecoming. There are some very ancient-Greek reasons why that way of saying it conveys a fuller meaning, and also explains why Calypso doesn't press him further. But, unless you're a scholar of Homerian epics, you probably won't feel cheated by this translation. Instead, you will be transported by the poetry, excited by the adventure, and delighted by the fact that you are reading this great work of art without struggle.

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Definitive translation of Homer for 'the rest of us'

I am what you would call a casual historian. I am deeply fascinated by the ancient world, as well as the history of literature and the evolution of storytelling. However, I am not inclined to learn Greek, and also understand that even the most universal of stories must be adjusted in order for succesive generations to be able to grasp them (and I am talking language choice, not 'dumbing down' of complex work). This doesn't merely apply to translation, but to what changing English readers over the decades can approach, as well.

Enter Robert Fagles' translation of THE ODYSSEY. I have not read any other translations of this work presently, but Fagles presents the epic in a clear, vivid style that allows contemporary readers to be introduced to the journey of Odysseus. It must be understood that translation from another language, as well as presenting a very old story, requires compromise. Fagles has been as true as possible to, what I understand from Fagles' postscript notes, the 'spirit' of Homer, while allowing it to flow smoothly to modern ears and eyes. No doubt a deeper appreciation of many aspects of Homer could be had with a different translation, but what it seems to me this translation excels at is levity.

What about all the fuss over the story itself for all this time? What I got as a first time reader was a passage into the ancient world and it's morals, values, and beliefs. The core of the Odyssey is there, as it always was. Odysseus is a very multi-dimensional character for such an early story; he is noble but sometimes wicked, proud but sporradicaly humble, quick to violence but also sharp and eloquent in speech. He can pour honey into a king's ear to gain favor, or provoke an enemy to draw first blood with a viscous verbal rebuttal. The structure Homer employs must also have been quite radical when first told to an audience; setting up both Odysseus' plight abroad and his family's trouble at home separately, then merging them together by the end. Parts of his journey are omitted as they happen, only to be filled in later as he recalls it to one of his hosts on the way home. It's no big deal today but think how risky this structure of story telling must have been at the time.

I would strongly urge anyone interested in Homer to begin with THIS translation. Other translations may have had greater success at getting across other beauties of the Greek text, but this is a moot issue if the reader becomes uninterested in the story if the reading is bogged with archaic English, thus turning them off to ancient works for ever (and I speak of the many casualties grade-school English teachers have mounted in using translations that the kids just can't get into at their reading level).

Fagles has done Homer a great service here; re-introduced one of the oldest stories in Western Civilization to a new audience (and admittedly, one that may only be beginning in it's appreciation of the classics). Die-hards will find bones to pick, that's a given. However, one has to start somewhere, and only after they are engaged by the story will they then want to branch out and see what previous translations' strengths are. I suppose the ultimate way to appreciate Homer to the completist is to read it in the original Greek, and that would be great. For 'the rest' of us, this edition will do nicely as an introduction.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Robert Fagles?s stunning modern-verse translation?available at last in our black-spine classics line

The Odyssey is literature?s grandest evocation of everyman?s journey through life. In the myths and legends that are retold here, renowned translator Robert Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer?s original in a bold, contemporary idiom and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general reader, and to captivate a new generation of Homer?s students.

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