Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

A Odisseia by Homer

15 reviews

timmytunter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I found The Odyssey a difficult one to review. On the one hand, I recognize that this story, or indeed, poem, is one of the first pieces of Western literature. As such, and given its scope and scale, it deserves a huge amount of praise. There is adventure, drama, tension, fantasy, and heroism. Factual elements are mixed in with the fiction, creating a vivid narrative.

On the other hand, as a product of its age (it is approximately 2,800 years old!), the poem is riddled with chronic sexism and hyper-masculinity. Worst of all is the unironic presentation of a “hero” character in Odysseus, who is constantly touted as “godlike” and “noble,” yet he is dishonest, prideful, arrogant, unfaithful, and I would argue selfish. Nonetheless, the poem justifies Odysseus’s ruthless and barbaric acts in the final scenes by framing these as justice.

I want to pause here and let my boiled blood simmer, as I recognize that the context I live in is entirely different from that of Homer’s hero almost three millennia ago. I live in a democratic society, where the people have appointed a leader who is held accountable by said people, and whose government enforces the law. In this ancient Ithacan context, the king holds the power and authority, and it is up to him to determine justice for crimes. And there is no doubt that crimes have been committed: the suitors have imposed themselves on Odysseus’s household in his absence, consuming his food and drink, abusing his staff, slaughtering his livestock, harassing his wife Penelope, and attempting to kill his son Telemachus. They pray for Odysseus to not return and want to make sure he has nothing to return to if he does. When they fail to recognize Odysseus, they hurl verbal and physical abuse upon him, seeing only a decrepit old beggar. No doubt, justice is warranted. Nonetheless, Odysseus’s bloodthirsty desire for vengeance is severely at odds with my own ideology of love, peace, forgiveness, and mercy. There is certainly a need for justice to be meted out, but as the wronged, Odysseus is not in a position to be an impartial judge and is unable to apportion appropriate punishment.

Having said all this, I want to set the jarring contextual differences aside and recognize this work for what it is: a complex, beautiful tale, with countless characters including gods, people, gods-who-pretend-to-be-people, mythical creatures, and animals. The tale is ingeniously spun, taking us to both real and fictional locations. The fact that the entire work is in fact poetry was frequently lost on me, as I read the English translation by Rieu. Rendered as prose, it is highly readable and accessible, and from what I understand, accurate to the story, but entirely lacking in most of the poetic content of the original. To have told such a lengthy and complex tale in beautiful, flowing poetic language, Homer—and indeed, The Odyssey—is worthy of all the accolades bestowed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Gore, Infidelity, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

miguelito_juanito's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Confinement, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Cannibalism, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Incest

therealslimkatie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Incest

caelfind's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

catherineallsop's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and War

athenian_frog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Slavery, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

There are graphic deaths of several characters. A group of women are hung and it is described in the epic with a few disturbing lines. There is a lot of violence in general.

mxpringle's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I found this interesting to analyze because of the ways that rhetoric is used to have a more powerful analysis of what it means to share stories through poetry. I appreciated having read this because it's a classic that is referenced so often in other works. However, it is relatively boring and dense for the things that happen within the poem, and the characters are incredibly unlikeable. If you're interested in Greek mythology for the plot, this may not be what you're interested in, but it can be more enjoyable in more of an academic setting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

meganpbennett's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Many years ago, I helped clean out Dr. Mandelbaum's office when he retired, taking box after box of books to the library to see what could be and what should be added to the various library collections,. Manuscripts, books he'd written, translations. I knew he was a Dante scholar, but I didn't realize that he'd also translated Homer and Virgil (Virgil makes a lot of sense, given the role Virgil plays in The Divine Comedy). 

Like many people, I'd never read The Odyssey. I knew a bit of the story, but had never read the original text. I knew a little bit about the various translators, and was thrilled with Dr Wilson released her translation, but never read it. I've read enough Greek plays and Roman histories to know that I wasn't really a fan of the literature of that time period. 

I finally read it when the library where I work used it as part of our "Read the book, see the movie" series. It's very interesting, but it's also very long. Like a lot of classical literature from the Greek and Roman era, it's a lot of words to describe things that could have been said in one or two. It's hard to get into, since it's in verse, not prose, but once you get into it, it's fun to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kaitlyng's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

tamara_joy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail