The Odyssey

Published Jan. 6, 2017 by Norton.

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4 stars (8 reviews)

21 editions

austere and moving

5 stars

to be totally honest, I had never been able to get through The Odyssey before. I did listen to maybe half of Ian McKellan reading the Robert Fagles translation, and of course I knew the general gist of the stories in it. But this was the first translation that I found compelling. And, as with how I read Moby-Dick, I read this slowly over multiple months (and listened to some parts in the Clare Danes audiobook) and often got lost in the immediate moment while forgetting where in the multiply layered narratives I was. But it worked for me. Iliad next! or soon, at least.

Vivid and accessible

5 stars

An approachable version of The Odyssey in a plain and modern English. Wilson matches Homer line-for-line, but compresses each line to a 5-beat iambic pentameter. Her language is chiseled, sometimes to a fault. But it adds up to a surprisingly quick, enjoyable, and morally engaging read.

Homer's most vivid images really shine in this rendering: "He saw them fallen, all of them, so many; / lying in blood and dust, like fish hauled up / out of the dark-gray sea in fine-mesh nets; / tipped out upon the curving beach's sand, / they gasp for water from the salty sea. / The sun shines down and takes their life away. / So lay the suitors, heaped across each other."

The text avoids justifying or masking immoral or questionable acts and practices. The word "slave" is used frequently, rather than euphemisms. Sometimes the translation strikes a judgmental note, like when the …

Odyssey

4 stars

1) "Thus Telemachus. And Pallas Athena Touched the suitors' minds with hysteria. They couldn't stop laughing, and as they laughed It seemed to them that their jaws were not theirs, And the meat that they ate was dabbled with blood. Tears filled their eyes, and their hearts raced. Then the seer Theoclymenus spoke among them: 'Wretches, what wicked thing is this that you suffer? You are shrouded in night from top to toe, Lamentation flares, your cheeks melt with tears, And the walls of the house are spattered with blood. The porch and the court are crowded with ghosts Streaming down to the undergloom. The sun is gone From heaven, and an evil mist spreads over the land.'"

2) "Odysseus picked up The arrow from the table and laid it upon The bridge of the bow, and, still in his chair, Drew the bowstring and the notched arrow back. He …

Review of 'Odyssey' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

This feels like a book that needs two distinct reviews.

First, Emily Wilson's translation, which is wonderful. Just as Heaney moved Beowulf from "worthy work" to a fun read, Wilson's made The Odyssey eminently readable, while keeping it a formally structured long poem and apparently sticking scrupulously to the pacing of the original Greek. I had started reading other translations of this work but never actually finished them, so I'm delighted that this one now exists. And the maps, introduction, footnotes and dramatis personae all helped me follow a work that's heavy on reference and allusion.

But I have to say I didn't get on very well with the content. Some of it is delightful, from learning that Greeks have appreciated wine, olive oil and the sea for longer than much of the world's had written records, to all the descriptions that weren't about Odysseus himself. But there's a degree …

Review of 'Odyssey' on 'LibraryThing'

4 stars

This feels like a book that needs two distinct reviews.

First, Emily Wilson's translation, which is wonderful. Just as Heaney moved Beowulf from "worthy work" to a fun read, Wilson's made The Odyssey eminently readable, while keeping it a formally structured long poem and apparently sticking scrupulously to the pacing of the original Greek. I had started reading other translations of this work but never actually finished them, so I'm delighted that this one now exists. And the maps, introduction, footnotes and dramatis personae all helped me follow a work that's heavy on reference and allusion.

But I have to say I didn't get on very well with the content. Some of it is delightful, from learning that Greeks have appreciated wine, olive oil and the sea for longer than much of the world's had written records, to all the descriptions that weren't about Odysseus himself. But there's a degree …

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rated it

3 stars