The Odyssey

Rating:
Summary: to Maggie from Arizona
Review: Thank you for serving as a perfect example of the crisis in literate society: young readers, reared on televised trash, are barely able to comprehend, much less enjoy, books with a greater level of complexity than "the cat and the rat sat on the mat." TV has rotted my brain too, no doubt--that's why when I have kids, they're being raised on a diet of good literature, at least two or three languages, with no television whatsoever! To all those out there who feel themselves caught in this trap: do as I did and force yourself back into complex reading. Burn your John Grisham novels, throw away your TV set, buy a copy of Fagles' Odyssey and maybe a good translation of the Republic--and then find a quiet spot and work at it. Defeat passivity and predecided reactions!

Rating:
Summary: An arty, odd translation. And where are the epithets?
Review: Most of the reviewers loved this translation, but after reading it, and comparing it to others (and to the Greek), I don't see why. It claims to be modern and energetic, but in fact its language is quite odd and hard to read -- excessively jaunty, with word order distortions entirely uncharacteristic of Homer. One wonderful thing about Homer is the smoothness and straightforwardness of his sentences. That's completely gone in this translation.

In addition, Fagles radically distorts one of the distinctive features of Homer's verse -- the repetitive and famous epithets: "wily Odysseus", "much-suffering godlike Odysseus" etc. Many of them are just gone, but others are transformed beyond all recognition. The repeated formula "polumetis Odysseus" ('resourceful Odysseus'), for example, which ends 68 different lines in the Odyssey, turns out (by my count) to receive 48 different translations, only 12 of which have the form Adjective+Odysseus! Fagles did this on purpose: he wanted a modern-sounding text. If you like it, fine. But don't think this is a translation of the Odyssey! It's something between a translation and a retelling, and (in my view) a clumsy one at that.

Rating:
Summary: Not a Satisfied Customer
Review: The Odyssey is about a hero's journey home and his son's quest to find the heroism within. The novel starts with Telemachus sailing to the homes of family friends seeking information of the return of his father Odysseus. Homer changes main characters from Telemachus to Odysseus to tell of Odysseus' journey home; he then changes the point of view from third person to first person with Odysseus telling the story. The detailed description with rare action scenes makes the novel a slow read.

Our society has accustomed itself to fast paced action/adventure thrillers. The Odyssey is an epic filled with more figurative language than with deeds. There were only two chapters, chapter 9, "In the One-eyed Giant's Cave" and chapter 22 "Slaughter in the Hall," which I read with ease and enjoyment. These chapters had more action than the rest of the book. The second to last chapter, "The Great Rooted Bed," gives a summary of Odysseus' exploits. Homer wrote in a verbose fashion. When Telemachus visits Menelaus' house, Homer uses ten lines to describe the entryway. This is not what I prefer to read. On the whole I enjoyed two chapters and should have read the Cliff Notes. This novel should be taken like medicine, only a small amount every few hours.

Rating:
Summary: The Journey of the West
Review: 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 Odyssesy 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 Odyseeus'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 Odyseesy 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 Fagles's translation 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.

Rating:
Summary: excellent translation
Review: Like the Iliad, Fagles presents this wonderful work in English, perhaps as well as it can be. Perhaps, the most telling review, is that I have presented both this and the Iliad to a fourteen year-old boy who despises reading, and he found himself instantly addicted and began putting off his nightly cartoons for Homer. Furthermore, it has caused him to start thinking about right and wrong. Not just what feels good. If there is a better review, I don't know what is.

Rating:
Summary: Great translation, fine reading -- BAD production
Review: I write this on the heels of a review of the cassette version of Dante's Inferno in Pinksy's fine translation which was weakened by some so-so reading and disfigured by horrible between-canto sound effects. This is almost as annoying -- and it turns out to be from the same company, so no more Penguin audiobooks for me until I'm sure that they've cleaned up their act.
Fagles's translation is justly praised and needs no more encomiums from me. McKellen is a good, solid reader. His slightly growly voice as recorded here is no liability and he paces and expresses the reading well.
The production team, though, has once again rouged the Mona Lisa. Here, between books, there is some sort of awful discordant sound supposed to represent...what? Homer twisting his lyre into pieces and tuning a new one?
Also, there are some odd lapses. A few sound dropouts on the cassettes, a spot where it sounded as if an out-take (a mistaken repeat or a line with a dropped word) instead of the final take wound up in the issued copy.
The Oddysey is a long work and a lapse here and there is no big thing, but those awful noodlings coming back over and over again are hard to take. I would not recommend this set and regret that I bought it.

Rating:
Summary: The west travels from myth to literature
Review: What's there to say that hasn't been said already? Homer is the cornerstone of Western literature, no one will deny that. But why? In the Illiad, he created something larger than life. An epic war pitting man against man and god against god. In the Odyssey he created the idea of the story of one man. The Odyssey is the first instance of true character in the Western cannon. In Odysseus we see a hero that we can relate to. One that is above us without being superior to us. He flawed, but still embodies the best of human kind. The Odyssey is, I'm convinced, the bridge between myth and the novel (something that can only be done by poetry). It does not feel detached from reality, with a higher purpose, like mythology. But it still maintains the universal, base actions and characters that you simply don't find in most novels. It really is a most excelent poem, and anyone who feared it's wrath in high school or college desperatley needs to give it another go. If you don't mind spending the extra cashs, Fagles translation of both the Odyssey and the Illiad simply cannot be beat. But for those of us strapped for cash, and who want something a little easier to carry around, Allen Mandelbaum's translation, put out as a bantam classic pocket book for quite cheap, is also very respectable (though it just simply doesn't flow as well as Fagles...)

Rating:
Summary: Classic brought to life through translation and performance!
Review: Many of us (perhaps TOO many of us) were required to read at least ONE of the Great Works of Ancient Western Literature, like the Odyssey, the Iliad or (if we were lucky, the shortest one of the lot) Beowulf. Most of us hated the work because it was really, REALLY long and really, REALLY complicated. I mean, how many people still read and write in hectambic octameter, or whatever the heck it is...?? Most of us have enough difficulty sloughing through the works of Shakespeare and his sonnets. So, I think it's fair to say that most of us have been at least EXPOSED to Homer, though we've likely not gotten much out of it.

It took a few centuries, but there is finally a translation that brings the story more up-to-date for modern audiences. The translator, Mr. Fagles, has done away with the rhyming scheme of the original and instead put the text into a more readable format of sentences and paragraphs. This move alone has made the story more readable than any other translation I've attempted (and it should be noted, even at 13 hours on audio, this is the first translation of Homer I've been able to understand and, more importantly, *finish*). Expressions of gratitude also go out to him for reducing the amount of "thus"es and "heretofore"s and other elements of ancient speech that are commonly found in Greek translations. While I did notice that he sometimes used very modern words like "potluck", it is this very modernization that allowed me to more fully get into the text and comprehend it.

I therefore disagree with a friend of mine, a Classics professor, who says that Fagles is "dumbing down" Homer's work by making it more readable ("Homer is NOT Stephen King! It's a story that's over 2,800 years old!! Of COURSE it's going to be difficult to read!", he grumped). As a writer, storyteller and teacher of English writing and reading, my feelings are that if you have lost your audience, then you might as well be writing to the rocks and trees-the purpose of a story is to be told and UNDERSTOOD; if the audience doesn't understand you, then what have you got? Nothing! So, while I concede that Mr. Fagles might have taken some liberties with the translation and style by making it narrative text vs. poetic -meter, I believe it has only served to enhance the story so much more.

Much of the Odyssey, of course, are stories and retellings of the great deeds of the hero, Odysseus, who set forth from his native land of Ithaca to do the sorts of things that heroes do, mostly conquer armies. Odysseus of course becomes shipwrecked and endures a number of different adventures, including the Island of the Lotus-Eaters, Polyphemus the one-eyed Cyclops, and the destructive singing of the Sirens. Meanwhile, at home his wife, Penelope, awaits his return while suitors take over the kingdom and try to win her affections, devouring the goods of the realm in the process.

For a modern audience with all the convenient of CD-ROM's, the Internet, cable TV and whatnot, the repetitive nature of The Odyssey might grow a bit dull and tiresome if one were to read the whole thing in print, but thanks to the stellar voice talents of Ian McKellen, I breezed through the 12 cassettes in an astoundingly short time, so drawn in was I by his voice. His soothing tones, rising and falling with the action, pausing here, growing louder there as some battle is raged, is so perfectly matched to the text that you can easily picture him sitting there in some ancient stone hall telling the story as if it were his own and Odysseus his best friend. I was not bored for an instant with him as my narrator and guide through this ancient story, and I can't recommend this audio version highly enough.

In closing, the tapes are packaged with a short but informative and densely written book by Mr. Bernard Knox. Admittedly, I didn't use or refer to this book often, being more interested in just the story itself than all of the infinite details.

An astounding feat of translation, performance and research!! Highly, HIGHLY recommended!!

Rating:
Summary: Actually, I Give it 10 Stars!
Review: I know this was probably homework for you once, but I highly suggest you read it again, just to enjoy it. And you **will** enjoy it.

The things that make this story work so well are how specific it is about cultural detail, and how genuine the characters' motivations are: these characters feel what we feel - they want what we want. You think you're going to be alienated by a tale of an ancient people, only to see your contemporary self in these 2,700 year old characters.

The first time we see Odysseus, he's sitting on the beach of Calypso's island, weeping his eyes out because he just wants to go home. We are constantly reminded of this motivation, as we read on, and the sheer amount of obstacles that get in his way exhaust you as much as they do him.

But all the while you have to admire his resiliency, the way he constantly thinks twice about the best way to handle whatever travail he's presented with, and how crafty he is about getting himself out of trouble.

The story steadily builds toward a gripping final confrontation with the suitors for his wife's hand - a band of rogues who've taken over the halls of his own house in his absence.

The account of the battle is gut-wrenchingly intense, realistically depicted, and is much more riveting than most of the action movies made today. All of this action provided within the pages of a story that masquerades as mere classic literature.

Don't let the book's reputation as homework prevent you from enjoying this true gem of world literature. This was a gift of storytelling from a long ago culture that still pays off today. Read it. Enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Fagles Brings the Odyssey Home
Review: This is an attractive book with a lot to like inside. It has a knowing and substantial introduction by Bernard Knox that talks of the Odyssey in some detail, and of the world the Iliad and Odyssey depict. (Incidentally, his introduction to Fagles's Iliad is identical in its more general parts, but unique where it discusses the particular poem at issue.) Robert Fagles supplies an afterword in which he discusses the reasons for his approach, and some of his strategies. There are maps, a few family genealogies and a list for further reading. Bernard Knox also supplies the notes to the poem. Finally, the poem's own line numbers are tracked, as well as those of the (Oxford) Greek edition which was its source (deviations from that source are noted).

This book also includes a valuable pronouncing glossary covering virtually every place-name and person-name used in the story. The translator made a fine decision to render the names in their Latin, instead of Greek, forms. In their Latin forms they can be said using ordinary English sounds for the most part, and these pronunciations are sanctioned by long usage in English literature. Thus, you do not have to stop and explain to someone that by "Kir-kay" you really mean whom they know as Circe ("sir-see").

The primary decision for a translator of Homer is whether to use verse or prose. Fagles wishes to bring across the Odyssey as a song or chant, as in the original, so quite properly uses verse. Homer's line was strict: its syllable count was always twelve, and while variation was permitted within the line, the last few syllables always had a narrowly-prescribed form. In addition, each line was typically a syntactic unit. These two facts control the feel of an Homeric recitation, which must have been quite rhythmic, especially with a strummed accompaniment.

This Homeric line is not consonant with the genius of English metrics, but Fagles constructs his lines with Homeric song in mind. They tend to be six beats and loosely iambic, but he does not hesitate to go longer or shorter at need. He also tries to keep the lines syntactic wholes - phrases or clauses - but if not the slopover is usually graceful (in that one can pause slightly at line-end without doing violence to some partially-completed phrase). His language, too, is interesting, a non-literary, plain-spoken diction larded with quaint colloquialisms (e.g. "heart to heart", "my hopes ride high") cheek by jowl with exotic allusions to the gods that I think has the intent (it certainly has the effect) of depicting the narrator as a bit old-fashioned but honest, and his story true.

I have also read Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey a couple times and enjoyed it, and have partially read the verse versions of Mandelbaum and of Lattimore. I like Fagles better than these. Fitzgerald and Mandelbaum use five-beat lines; Fitzgerald's is loose, but Mandelbaum's a strict pentameter. Both of these versions read very well, but for Homer I prefer the six-beat line. Lattimore does use a consistently six-beat line, but his verse is inferior - it seems more like evenly-sliced prose. And none of these editions has the support sections the Fagles edition has (particularly that lovely pronouncing glossary).

As to how well the Fagles Odyssey plays, I have listened to Ian McKellan's recording of it: he does a great job - it is clearly the marriage of a fine actor and a superior text. The only thing I could wish for is someone strumming a lyre in the background.