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A review by steven_nobody
The Odyssey by Homer
4.0
I really enjoyed The Odyssey, and I tried to hear it anew after knowing it for 40 years.
I'm surprised by a lot of things about The Odyssey after reading The Iliad. Mainly the style. First, it is far less bloody. The grossest it gets is the cyclops spewing wine and chewed up human flesh. Even when Odysseus kills the suitors, it is much more tame. He never once shoots a head off and the brains spin out. Also way less similes and less poetic, but it must have been wonderful to hear and recite, nonetheless - a man's night out with his best friends, his brotherhood. I can imagine them playing a drinking game based on the Dawn, as in "When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more the true son of Odysseus sprang from bed and dressed." Yamas!
Second surprise is what an adept liar Odysseus is. I'm now apt to agree with those who say he made up much of his fantastic voyage, especially since monsters are absent from the rest of the book. I got this idea from the Great Courses but that professor doesn't think he made that section up. She does talk about everyone who comes across Odysseus suffers in someway or very often dies. Friend or foe. I'm sorry for the Phaeacian princess getting crushed under a mountain (an implied fate). But I do wish there had been a lot more monsters.
The role of the gods is also greatly reduced from Iliad. Often it's just Athena making disguises for Odysseus though he could have done this himself, I think, since characters do so all the time in other literature. I do tip my hat to Poseidon for turning that Phaeacian boat and sailors into stone after they delivered Odysseus home safely; very impressive. I also am surprised The Odyssey is so less full of quotes I wanted to highlight. The book continues beyond the happily-ever-after reunion with Odysseus' much long-missed wife Penelope. Monteverdi was right to end his 1640 stage musical at that point. It's one of the earliest extant operas, and like the book it has many beauties but just none I want to hear out of context.
I'm surprised by a lot of things about The Odyssey after reading The Iliad. Mainly the style. First, it is far less bloody. The grossest it gets is the cyclops spewing wine and chewed up human flesh. Even when Odysseus kills the suitors, it is much more tame. He never once shoots a head off and the brains spin out. Also way less similes and less poetic, but it must have been wonderful to hear and recite, nonetheless - a man's night out with his best friends, his brotherhood. I can imagine them playing a drinking game based on the Dawn, as in "When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more the true son of Odysseus sprang from bed and dressed." Yamas!
Second surprise is what an adept liar Odysseus is. I'm now apt to agree with those who say he made up much of his fantastic voyage, especially since monsters are absent from the rest of the book. I got this idea from the Great Courses but that professor doesn't think he made that section up. She does talk about everyone who comes across Odysseus suffers in someway or very often dies. Friend or foe. I'm sorry for the Phaeacian princess getting crushed under a mountain (an implied fate). But I do wish there had been a lot more monsters.
The role of the gods is also greatly reduced from Iliad. Often it's just Athena making disguises for Odysseus though he could have done this himself, I think, since characters do so all the time in other literature. I do tip my hat to Poseidon for turning that Phaeacian boat and sailors into stone after they delivered Odysseus home safely; very impressive. I also am surprised The Odyssey is so less full of quotes I wanted to highlight. The book continues beyond the happily-ever-after reunion with Odysseus' much long-missed wife Penelope. Monteverdi was right to end his 1640 stage musical at that point. It's one of the earliest extant operas, and like the book it has many beauties but just none I want to hear out of context.