Homer

'The Odyssey is a poem of extraordinary pleasures: it is a salt-caked, storm-tossed, wine-dark treasury of tales, of many twists and turns, like life itself' Guardian The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - ship-wrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon - Odysseus must use his bravery and cunning to reach his homeland and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await him. E. V. Rieu's translation of The Odyssey was the very first Penguin Classic to be published, and has itself achieved classic status. Translated by E. V. RIEU Revised translation by D. C. H. RIEU With an Introduction by PETER JONES

Penguin Classics

The Odyssey

The Odyssey is vividly captured and beautifully paced in this swift and lucid new translation by acclaimed scholar and translator Peter Green. Accompanied by an illuminating introduction, maps, chapter summaries, a glossary, and explanatory notes, this is the ideal translation for both general readers and students to experience The Odyssey in all its glory. Green’s version, with its lyrical mastery and superb command of Greek, offers readers the opportunity to enjoy Homer’s epic tale of survival, temptation, betrayal, and vengeance with all of the verve and pathos of the original oral tradition.

A New Translation by Peter Green

Joe Ricupero

You were dear to the gods, so even in death your name will never die…

Woman—your words, they cut me to the core!

So now, after all the years of grief, you two can embark, loving hearts, along the road to joy.

It’s unholy to glory over the bodies of the dead

"God help me," the inspired prince cried out. "must I be a weakling a failure all my life? Unless I'm just too young to trust my hands to fight off any man who rises up against me. Come, my betters, so much stronger than I am try the bow and finish off the contest." 

Pack them off to Sicily, fast-they'll fetch you one sweet price!

Then when the sun had set and night came on they turned to bed and took the gift of sleep.

All right then. Here's my story. Even though it plunges me into deeper grief than I feel now.

But if beggars have their gods and Furies too, let Antinous meet his death before he meets his bride!

Bashfulness, for a man in need, is no great friend.

Tell me, though, do you let yourself be so abused or do people round about, stirred up by the prompting of some god, despise you?

A world of pain, you see, still lay in wait for me

Each man delights in the work that suits him best

I loved them all—god planted that love inside me

The power is always yours. Do what you like. Whatever warms your heart.

I broke into tears to see her here, but filled with pity, even grief

A pledge for a worthless man is a worthless pledge indeed.

He gave you pain, it seems. You simply have to bear it.

I have never laid eyes on anyone like you. neither man nor woman... I look at you and a sense of wonder takes me.

Right or wrong, what can I say? My heart tells me to come right out and say I've never seen such a likeness, neither in man nor woman-I'm amazed at the sight.

Homero,

The Odyssey (Penguin Classics)

For ten years of war they've killed us slowly...

Ari </3

Alright my brothers listen closely,

(duh duh duh duh)

tonight we make the Trojans pay.

For ten years of war they've killed us slowly...

but now we'll be the one's who SLAaAy 

✨

You feel proud when you’re finished with Homer’s great epic. A bit long and sometimes confusing but the story of hardship and patience is vital to this generation of young adults. What’s yours is waiting for you at the end of your journey. 

Robert Fagles

Bernard Knox

a keystone text for liberalism, not conservatism

Ghee

odysseus said ‘lord of lies? watch me.’ 

marie

It’s a revolutionary epic poem for its time, but at current times it falls quite plain. 

Ester Waclavova

Andrea Morales

the translation. was. amazing!! <<3
even though i’m more of a ‘the Iliad’ kind of girl, this was a very fun, fast paced and beautiful written tale!

miss wilson did an amazing job at translating this to modern and easy-to-read english, she also made sure de meter de su cosecha to make this thousand year old text into something completely new.

Chloé

"This is a translation of the epic Greek poem by Homer."--Provided by publisher.

Sean Wilson

Epic was promised, epic was delivered. We also loved the cadence of this translation.

chloe rae

Damn, what a story.
I'm currently taking a Greek and Roman Mythology course online and our first few weeks were spent dissecting this beast of a novel. We were supposed to finish the book weeks ago but I just found myself taking my time, really divulging myself in this tale. Also, this story could be so dense at times, a single speech lasting up to 5 pages with no break from dialogue. It could definitely be beautiful, but also pretty tedious. 
There's a lot to unpack here (like, SO MUCH) but overall, I honestly had a lot of fun reading this! It was wild and dramatic and a little dumb at times (and suuuuper problematic) but it was so interesting reading such an old, epic story. One of the oldest stories to exist! Like, that's rad!
Here are some highlights I wrote down while reading:
-Helen calls herself a 'whore' literally because she's so beautiful that some dude stole her from her other husband. She's the face that 'launched a thousand ships' but she's a WHORE for just existing? 
-Aeolus had six sons and six daughters and made them MARRY each other
-Cannibalism
-MORE cannibalism?!
-Just a bunch of women having affairs but the men having them aren't discussed or judged, uh, ever?
-Wow, every dude in this book weeps.
-Still so many dudes crying
-THAT is the last chapter?
Those are just SOME of the notes I wrote down while reading. A lot of themes addressed in this book I found to still be very relevant today; the themes of friendship and courage and love. This really is an EPIC story. But I honestly think this particular translation by Robert Fagles is the reason I enjoyed it so much. I feel like he made this story so easy to follow and understand. What a dude!
This story is messed up, make no mistake. But reading it purely with the intention of delving into the text critically for a class was the perfect way to start this. And then the story was just so interesting and insane I had to finish! What a ride.

Kendall McClain

Odysseus is an Aquarius (derogatory) 

Mans acting like he’s the picture of morality for wanting to go home when he’s going everywhere but Ithaca!! Grow up!!

The Odyssey.

I love Greek mythology. I do not like Odysseus 👎🏼

sophie <3

erin

(review of the Emily Wilson translation. GoodReads is piss poor at managing merged editions, so added for clarity)

A sparkling translation that brings something new and vibrant to the work. Easy to read, it drew me in and I finished it in a single sitting. I think this'll inspire and invite a whole slew of new people to Homer. I hope so, anyway.

Had to read it for school. Dated is an understatement but worth reading to appreciate its influence. Odysseus kinda ripped too.

Christopher Saw McKaige

Nikita 

The Odyssey, the direct sequel to the Iliad, is a story about a man of pain who, having plundered the hallowed heights of Troy, embarks upon a perilous voyage home, where brazen suitors court his wife, coveting to obtain the kingdom of our hero. Many dreadful ordeals and blood-curdling encounters await him on the way. In other words, not for the faint of heart, that trip is. 

	The Odyssey is not mere entertainment; the utmost profundity and poignancy pervade the poem, making it an integral part of the cultural veil through which we perceive the world. It's hard to find a book that can compare with the Odessey in its seminal value. Indeed, we seem to know Homer's stories from our birth. Here and there, references and allusions to them pop up in pop culture. Another indicator of an iconic classic is the number of expressions derived from it. Undoubtedly, the Oddysey meets this criterion, as the phrases found in it are ubiquitous in everyday life. But enough said of the cultural significance of the Odyssey; let us proceed to the history of its writing.

	The poem was composed about the 8th-7th century BCE. Scholars cannot tell with a due amount of certainty whose authorship it is. Some attribute the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey to two different persons by virtue of the drastic shift in the themes and atmosphere of the books. Others suggest that the Odyssey is a composite of two independent works (the journey of Odysseus and the journey of his son, Telemachus). Overall, we have few certain facts about that era, so let's agree that the blind bard Homer wrote it, leaving debates to competent people.

	Honestly, I favor the Odyssey above the Iliad. For that I have several reasons: The Odyssey is more engaging since it's fast-pacing compared to the Iliad; intriguing because the characters are easy to relate to; applicable to our everyday lives, that is, it deals with more mundane problems.

	The adventures of Odysseus are loaded with fascinating events and individuals. It's not an iliadic tug of war between armies; each section of the Odessey has a unique story, which is formative for the rest of the literature.
	
	Nevertheless, my opinion is affected by more than just the narrative style. As previously said, the characters of the Odyssey are more human and hence more relatable. Compare Achilles, a proto-superhero, to Odysseus, the first gentleman of Europe, according to James Joyce. Achilles, being a son of a goddess and an owner of an exceptional heroic character, is flawless from the Achaeans' viewpoint. Odysseus, on the other hand, is different. His mindset is virtually the same as ours. He has a plethora of foibles to the extent that, despite all his meritorious feats, Dante casts him into the depth of hell. It's no wonder, especially considering his involvement in Palamedes' death. 

	Along with mortals, more human gods are too. When Calypso, who literally made Odysseus her love slave, was asked to let him go, she she demonstrated her disdain for the patriarchal system by claiming that if she had been a male god, it would have been perfectly fine for her to have a concubine, but, she was a woman thus it was improper for her to have him. In some respects, the Greeks were far ahead of their time. Moreover, Homer questioned many Greek beliefs. I especially liked the passage in which one character says that sometimes an eagle is just an eagle, not a divine portent.

	In a sense, Odysseus' wanderings are a metaphor for our life journey. All predicaments in which the main hero finds himself are those temptations and tribulations that every human being will undoubtedly endure at least once in a lifetime. Lotus-eaters are none other than substance-abusers, Circe represents an obsessive infatuation, and the encounter with the Cyclops is nothing short of a reminder that one can overcome even the most hopeless situation by ingenuity.

	All in all, the Iliad is driven by heroism, whereas the Odyssey is driven by the ever-present force of love. Nothing aforementioned can compare with the aftertaste the book leaves. Homer assures you that every life is a sequence of ups and downs, but it's only a matter of time before your persistence in seeking genuine love will be rewarded.

Richmond Lattimore

Homer’s great epic The Odyssey—one of Western literature’s most enduring and important works—translated by Richmond Lattimore A classic for the ages, The Odyssey recounts Odysseus’ journey home after the Trojan War—and the obstacles he faces along the way to reclaim his throne, kingdom, and family in Ithaca. During his absence, his steadfast and clever wife, Penelope, and now teenaged son, Telemachus, have lived under the constant threat of ruthless suitors, all desperate to court Penelope and claim the throne. As the suitors plot Telemachus’ murder, the gods debate Odysseus’ fate. With help from the goddess Athena, the scattered family bides their time as Odysseus battles his way through storm and shipwreck, the cave of the Cyclops, the isle of witch-goddess Circe, the deadly Sirens’ song, a trek through the Underworld, and the omnipresent wrath of the scorned god Poseidon. An American poet and classicist, Richmond Lattimore’s translation of The Odyssey is widely considered among the best available in the English language. Lattimore breathes modern life into Homer’s epic, bringing this classic work of heroes, monsters, vengeful gods, treachery, and redemption to life for modern readers.

The Odyssey of Homer

I read this for my Classics course (Epic Heroes and Poems). 

liya n

Daniel Carril

Para ser sincero, en el momento que lo leí, hubiera matado por ver la película y dejarme de historias...

Gavin

I don't want to hector Homer. But somehow this was both boring and evil, both childish and didactic. I won't belabour the book's immorality, since it is so obvious; it's the near-total absence of artistic merit that is apparently not obvious. I found nothing in it worth reading or quoting until Book 9, nearly half way through. Songs of praise of warmongering pirates. (People love pirates, and I say let em. Just don't call them paragons.) 

The ideology is dad porn, a set of thin, obvious, animal values. "Kings do whatever they want - death for messing with a noble; don't cross the priests; offer huge sacrifices; always do what your husband and dad say; the unlucky and the disabled are cursed and to be shunned; blood is blood is blood." 

   The ghost
 of Agamemnon answered, “Lucky you,
 cunning Odysseus: you got yourself
 a wife of virtue—great Penelope.
 How principled she was, that she remembered
 her husband all those years! Her fame will live
 forever, and the deathless gods will make
 a poem to delight all those on earth
 about intelligent Penelope.

(Odysseus sleeps with half a dozen other women and demigods, most of them begging him to, and needless to say suffers nothing of it.)

There's no mention of the suffering of the several cities he sacks, or the many tacitly raped women. Dozens of people are murdered for being rude, though. For a quasi-sacred text there's a surprising amount of unpunished priest killing (e.g. Leodes).

The structure is awful: we see almost nothing of Odysseus for the first quarter of the poem, instead following his son around as he listens to a series of boring old men. Most of Odysseus' feats are not shown, are instead related by him as unaffecting stories. (I suppose we could amuse ourselves by treating this as unreliable narration, but they certainly didn't.) And the poem doesn't end at its climax, instead meandering on through another few books of pointless back-patting.

(Should I go easy? After all, this is groundbreaking work, the prototype of art. Sure; I'll go easy if you stop hyping it and making everyone read it as an exemplar.)
(It's not that they could easily have been otherwise. Too poor, too lawless, too near to nature.)

It must be a cliche among classicists that the 'Classical' civilisations were not classical in the sense of being austere, logical, tasteful, or contemplative. That they were not Apollonian, that only a handful of people in them were. I hope my rant here is not just me being misled by the modern sense of "hero" - but the fact is that Odysseus wins, is praised endlessly, and his rights trump all else.

This isn't just me being clueless, post-oral, and close-minded: The ancients were well aware that the ending is unsatisfying crap. One popular headcanon was that, after Odysseus slays the suitors, he is immediately exiled from Ithaca, set adrift again. Cue the music!

---

One reading of Odysseus' name is as variant of the verb 'to be hated'. So a calque might be "King Punchable of Ithaca". ("the most unhappy man alive")

Odysseus is treated incredibly well by almost everyone, despite his crimes. Complete strangers oil him up and dress him in fine "woolen cloak and tunic" eleven times, and he is given precious weaponry and potions for nothing several times. This is supposed to reflect on him, but instead it shows the Greek ideal of hospitality, one of the few nice things in that culture.

He appears to sincerely miss Ithaca (his status more than his wife), weeping frequently. But he also fucks about all the time, for instance staying an entire year voluntarily enjoying Circe.

It is completely unclear what O does to deserve his fortune. (Whereas his misfortune is always directly linked to his own machismo or idiocy.) The only virtues we see him exercise directly (not counting brute aggression and discus throwing) are courage and cunning (specifically lying). Ok, he also makes one good speech:

  'Listen to me, my friends, despite your grief.
We do not know where darkness lives, nor dawn,
nor where the sun that shines upon the world
goes underneath the earth, nor where it rises.
We need a way to fix our current plight,
but I do not know how...

I suppose we can put the rest down to charisma, the oddest and least rational of human powers.

  'It seems that everybody loves this man,
and honors him, in every place we sail to.'

Everyone extols him without him ever demonstrating the virtues they extol. (Politeness, propriety, wisdom, strategy...) Every other idiot is "godlike" at something or other, and seeing the state of their gods you see how this could be true. At least it's funny:

  He went out of his bedroom like a god

  King Menelaus, you are right... Your voice is like a god's to us.

  Majestic, holy King Alcinous
leapt out of bed, as did Odysseus
the city-sacker. Then the blessed king,
mighty Alcinous, led out his guest...

(The gods are stupid mirrors of Greek nobility; for instance they have supernatural slaves, the nymphs.) This at least is a philosophical difference between them and I: in their superstitious idealist mode, properties aren't for describing the present, but instead the timeless essence of a thing:

  Ships are "black", "hollow", "swift" or "curved", never "brown", "slow" or "wobbly"... Penelope is "prudent Penelope", never "swift-footed Penelope", even if she is moving quickly. Telemachus is thoughtful, even when he seems particularly immature.



All the feats of the heroes are totally dependent on the power of gods. If they say you can't sail, you can't. 
  His skin 
would have been ripped away, and his bones smashed
had not Athena given him a thought.


  Athena poured unearthly charm
upon his head and shoulders, and she made him
taller and sturdier, so these Phaecians
would welcome and respect him.

Without Hermes or Athena constantly intervening, O would be nowhere, achieve nothing. One nice tension here though:

  But death is universal. Even gods
cannot protect the people that they love,
when fate and cruel death catch up with them.


One of the few times I felt sympathy for Odysseus was when he was trying to lead his men, who are mainly large-adult-sons. (Same with the suitors.) One breaks his neck falling down a ladder. They undo a month of work by playing with the bag of winds. Several times they are totally paralysed by their wailing and tantrums. 

  As when 
a herd of cows is coming back from pasture
into the yard; and all the little heifers
jump from their pens to skip and run towards
their mothers, and they cluster round them, mooing;
just so my men, as soon they saw me, 
began to weep...


  The other men... 
wept for those that died. I ordered them
to stop their crying, scowling hard at each.


Odysseus occasionally draws his sword on them for backtalking him, or running around like Muppets. Their deaths are roughly equally due to Odysseus' aggression and avarice, and their own foolishness.

I cheered the uprising against him, who are completely in the right. But of course they lose, because of mere divine intervention.

---

OK I lied: I will talk about evil. Though by the end of this I was jaded and dismissive, the aftermath of Odysseus slaughtering the suitors still struck me as an atrocity unusual for the genre:

  "When the whole house is set in proper order,
restore my halls to health: take out the [slave] girls
between the courtyard wall and the rotunda.
Hack at them with long swords, eradicate
all life from them. They will forget the things
the suitors made them do with them in secret,
through Aphrodite..."

"I refuse to grant these girls
a clean death, since they poured down shame on me
and Mother, when they lay beside the suitors."

At that, he would a piece of sailor's rope
round the rotunda...
just so the girls, their heads all in a row,
were strung up with the noose around their necks
to make their death an agony. They gasped,
feet twitching for a while, but not for long.


I've read de Sade, Kaczynski, Himmler, Houellebecq, Egan and Watts at their most dyspeptic; it's not that I'm squeamish about real or fictional evil, or that my sulking sense of justice blinds me to aesthetics. This sort of thing happened; nothing cannot be said; maybe even nothing cannot be said beautifully. It's just that, again, there is nearly no nobility and no classicism in this. I am so glad this culture is gone.

---

Did its audience know the story was bullshit? Or was it scripture to them? (Like most scripture, it is pathetically ignoble, violent, and self-serving.) Well, they don't seem to have had scripture, not even Hesiod. So Homer is more like Dante or Milton for them: not sacred, but pious and moralising.

How big was mighty Troy? How noble was godlike Odysseus? How petty their pantheon? How long this epic?

---

* Even thought-provoking bits like the lotus eaters or Cyclopean anarchism are over in less than half a page.

* Surprised when Zeus was described as "husband of Hera". 

* The "no man" pun thing was so stupid I had to put the book down for a couple of days.

---

Normally I would stop reading a book this bad, but I read it to prepare for Ulysses, so I dragged myself through.

Wilson's introduction takes up a quarter of the entire book. It's good and sane but repetitive, taking pains to spell out all the ignoble and questionable, all the ugly and clumsy parts. I don't know how she keeps up her enthusiasm for the book, in the face of them, but more power to her.

Plus two points for Wilson's intro and demystified translation.

Andrew Louis

[It feels silly to give a star rating to such a classic but...] I thoroughly enjoyed Gandalf (Ian McKellen) reading a story that's complex, rich, and relatable 2500 years later.

A story of great trial and pain threaded with themes of loyalty and hospitality and culminating with the homecoming of the King!

over all I liked the Odyssey better then the Iliad but still it’s not my favorite. Worth reading and a great classic which I overall enjoyed.

Moriah Howard

A story of great trial and pain threaded with themes of loyalty and hospitality and culminating with the homecoming of the King!

over all I liked the Odyssey better then the Iliad but still it’s not my favorite. Worth reading and a great classic which I overall enjoyed.

Wilson’s Odyssey captures the beauty and enchantment of this ancient poem as well as the suspense and drama of its narrative. Its characters are unforgettable, from the cunning goddess Athena, whose interventions guide and protect the hero, to the awkward teenage son, Telemachus, who struggles to achieve adulthood and find his father; from the cautious, clever, and miserable Penelope, who somehow keeps clamoring suitors at bay during her husband’s long absence, to the “complicated” hero himself, a man of many disguises, many tricks, and many moods, who emerges in this translation as a more fully rounded human being than ever before.

Ivy X

This was so fun to read & easy to follow.

 Quotes 
- I wish I were the son of someone lucky, who could grow old at home with all his wealth. Instead, the most unlucky man alive is said to be my father--since you ask." 

-Watching her go, he was amazed and saw she was a god. Then godlike, he went off to meet the suitors

-And it is rare for sons to be like fathers; only a few are better, most are worse. But you will be no coward and no fool.

-But death is universal. Even gods cannot protect the people that they love, when fate and cruel death catch up with them.

-His destiny was suffering, and mine the endless pain of missing him.

- There sat Calypso with her braided curls. Beside the hearth a mighty fire was burning. The scent of citrus and of brittle pine suffused the island. 
-So now, you male gods are upset with me for living with a man. A man I saved! Zeus pinned his ship and with his flash of lightning smashed it to pieces. All his friends were killed out on the wine-dark sea. This man alone, clutching the keel, was swept by wind and wave, and came here, to my home. I cared for him and loved him, and I vowed to set him free from time and death forever. 
-I swear I will not plot more pain for you. I have made plans for you as I would do for my own self, if I were in your place. I am not made of iron; no, my heart is kind and decent, and I pity you.
 I love Calypso 

-The brave succeed in all adventures, even those who come from countries far away. 

-The gods do not bless everyone the same, with equal gifts of body, mind, or speech. One man is weak, but gods may crown his words with loveliness. Men gladly look to him; his speech is steady, with calm dignity. He stands out from his audience, and when he walks through town, the people look at him as if he were a god. Another man has godlike looks but no grace in his words. 

-A man who challenges those who have welcomed him in a strange land is worthless and a fool; he spites himself. 

-Penelope replied with caution. "No, the deathless gods destroyed my looks that day the Greeks embarked for Try, and my own husband Odysseus went with them. If he came and started taking care of me again, I would regain my good name and my beauty. ....."
 mood 

-Human beings have short lives. If we are cruel, everyone will curse us during our life, and mock us when we die. The names of those who act with nobleness are brought by travelers across the world, and many people speak about their goodness." 

-But no dinnertime could be less welcome than the one the mighty man and goddess would soon bring them, in revenge, because they started it and wronged him first.

a re-read of my favourite classics this winter to freshen my memory and see if i can gain new understandings.

Kira L

Anna

Un mot pour décrire ce livre : malchance.

Lombardo's Odyssey offers the distinctive speed, clarity, and boldness that so distinguished his 1997 Iliad .

Odyssey

Kira Butler

Started reading this in high school for a class but never finished it, glad I’ve added it to my collection of classics and found it interesting to get to know the story instead of just prices of it. There were some pretty funny scenes honestly and I really enjoyed it! Looking forward to reading some other translations too.

Isabela H 

It was ok. Very ok. 
I think my biggest problem with the book (poem?) was Odysseus himself. I don't like Odysseus and therefore didn't appreciate any of the narrative involving him, which was most of the book (obviously, ig) So yea, don't read if you don't like Odysseus because you won't enjoy it.

The Odyssey Penguin Classics

Reviews

Highlights