Reviews

After 10 years of fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus has spent the 10 following years on the seas, punished by Poseidon for killing his cyclops son Polyphemus. He encounters gods and cannibals, gets into several shipwrecks, and spends the final seven years trapped on an island by the goddess-nymph Calypso whom he sleeps with, all the while pining for home and his wife Penelope. 10 years later, and there are suitors vying for Penelope, consuming Odysseus’ food and wine and lazing around in his palace. His son Telemachus, angry at the suitors and missing his father, goes, with Athena’s help, in search of news of his father, then returns to find his father disguised by Athena as an old beggar. They return to the palace, and the pair scheme a plot that leads to them killing the suitors, and Odysseus is reinstated to his throne and reunited with his family and household. And everything takes place with Athena’s help and blessings.

Given that this was written in 800 B.C. (plus-minus a few hundred years), it’s really quite amazing how advanced writing was at that time. (Of course, by writing, I also mean speaking, depending on whether you believe that Homer wrote his verses or that these are poems passed down via an oral tradition and compiled by later writers.) I mean, the whole thing is written in dactylic hexameter. Fagles, who wrote the particular English translation that I read, couldn’t even translate it into iambic pentameter, or any other sort of rhythm. Not that I’m knocking Fagles’ translation – it reads as smoothly as prose, and the language is modern without losing any of the ancient Greek formality, nobility or majesty.

I was surprised at how human the characters were. I thought this would be a traditional epic poem, with heroism and fighting and battles, where the men are valiant and the women are captivating. And yes, there was plenty of that, but there were also real human emotions. Odysseus is not just a great warrior, he’s also sentimental and loving. He cries. He isn’t portrayed as being perfect either. His arrogance and impetuosity leads him into trouble several times, especially with Polyphemus. But there is also character development. Odysseus, at the end, shows self-control in keeping his calm when the suitors abuse him, thinking he is a beggar. Telemachus, his son, also has a coming-of-age experience, growing from a whiny prince to a man fighting alongside his father, even if he isn’t quite strong enough to string his father’s bow yet. There is something for everyone here: battle, love (between lovers, between parent and child, and between friends), nostalgia, homesickness, and wily schemes and tricks.

Homer’s poetry give modern readers much of our knowledge of Greek mythology, but surprisingly, much of The Odyssey was unfamiliar to me. Off the top of my head, the only two parts that I’d read before were the one where the sailors stuff their ears with beeswax while passing by the sirens’ land, and the one where Odysseus and his men escape from the cyclops’ cave by blinding him and then tying themselves to his sheep while the sheep leave the cave. Reading this with fresh eyes gave me unexpected insights into ancient Greek culture. I knew that they honoured their heroes and heroines, but I was surprised at how much they worshipped their gods as well. Everything good that happens is credited to the gods, and everything bad is seen as punishment from the gods. A man’s character is determined in large part by the number and quality of his sacrifices to the gods. This dependence on gods is something that modern-day Christians can learn from. If the Greeks depended so wholly, in everything, on pagan gods, how much more must we depend on the true God?

elizabeth_reads_on's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

floreani's review against another edition

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adventurous

Feels weird to give a rating to something like Homer but what I will say is that Emily Wilson’s introduction was an absolute joy to read and while I haven’t read other translations so I have no point of comparison, I found her translation to be beautiful and not nearly as daunting as I expected reading the odyssey to be.

lydiadoesm3th's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

spenkevich's review against another edition

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4.0

When you stop and think about it, much of classic literature is about how getting on a boat is a bad idea. This book is a litany on why boating is a bad idea. You can say it at least worked out for Odysseus but did it? Did it really? If that dude isn’t haunted by the screams of his crew forever it’s just because the horrors of having been on a boat are overriding it. The whole war could have been avoided if Helen had just stayed off one boat. So if you ever find yourself as a character in a novel (you’ll know by the sweet smell of freshly printed pages on the breeze) I beg you DO NOT GET ON A BOAT. You won’t get that ‘one fine day…’ on a boat Gatsby is hoping for in the famous line about the futility of boats (among other things). Look at Moby Dick—bet the crew of the Pequad were all wishing they stayed on land right before the whale drowned all their asses. You know what isn’t trying to drown you? Land. Ahab might have been a cool baker or candlestick maker but boats led him astray. More like Moby DEAD amirite?

The danger of literary boats is real, my friends, Poe’s only novel was about just that. Heart of Darkness? More like Boats are the Heart of the Problem. Look what happened to that old man in the sea, almost starved! 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was like but what if we go UNDER the water surely that’ll work out great? Wrong. Jim Hawkins and Robinson Curuso could have avoided all sorts of trouble if they stayed off boats. That movie with Jeff Bridges and his school boat was all fun and games until Ryan Phillippe ended up super dead. And watch out for Theseus’ ship, we don’t know if it even counts as the same ship! Boats are tricky like that. Ask the orcas, they know what’s up.

Now in sci fi, spaceships are basically just space boats. And look what happened to Paul Atreides when he took that space boat to Arrakis: literally fucking space genocide. Nobody wants that. Hell, the Death Star is just a really really big genocide boat and that ended poorly for everyone. 2001 A Space Odyssey has a space boat out for murder and blaming the crew.

So watch out for boats, ye land lubbers. Leave the pirating to me.

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