The Odyssey: Revised Prose Translation (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Homer (Author), E. V. Rieu (Translator), D. C. H. Rieu (Translator), Peter V. Jones (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: July 7, 1992

A revision of E.V.Rieu's prose translation of "The Odyssey", by his son. The version is revised to update only those points where the existing translation rings false such as occasional turns of phrase which are dated. Peter Jones provides an introduction and a synoptic index for this edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised Edition/ 1st Published 1991 edition (July 7, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140445560
• ISBN-13: 978-1573353809
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #649,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rieu's prose translation is best for general reader, June 13, 1998

By 

"nicbirns2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Odyssey: Revised Prose Translation (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

. I decided to teach THE DOYSSEY (in a college general education course) from E.V. Rieu's prose translation (Penguin) because I am teaching students at a somewhat introductory level and wanted to do the simplest modern translation possible. To my surprise, I found the simplest, after some comparison, to be revealed as the best. For one thing, epic simile in Rieu's translation is not obtrusive, nor is it meant to be. It is meant to familiarize the non-Homeric reader with the Homeric world, not to serve self-consciously as an example of metaphor as such, which is what freshman-English teachers wanting to smuggle a bit of "literature" into their heavy Great Books diet tend to do. A good example here is in the Circe episode when the mountain lions threatening Odysseus' men but drugged by Circe are compared to dogs whining for scraps at their masters' table. Rieu lets the image speak for itself, and perform its rhetorical function, without having it obtrude from the narrative . The fuss that has greeted Robert Fagles' recent translation of the Odyssey is unprecedented--except if one remembers, as I do, that the Richmond Lattimore and Robert Fitzgerald translations were greeted with equal acclaim a generation ago. Both Bernard Knox (who wrote the introduction to Fagles' translation) and Fagles himself speak of Fitzgerald and Lattimore with mild disparagement, while the reviewers, implicitly by their attitude of "Fagles has finally provided us with a Homer for our time" implicitly dismiss Fitzgerald and Lattimore as failures. Yet the funny thing is Fagles, Fitzgerald, and Lattimore are all rather similar. They were all born within twenty years of each other, in the first quarter of the 20th century. Fagles, Fitzgerald, Lattimore all see themselves as tough-minded modernists, Poundian types, hewers to a stringent poetic line, none of this romantic eloquence or any of this "art" nonsense. They are all of the same vintage. Whatever the social and cultural changes from 1960 to n! ow, they have probably not been substantial enough to change the way we see Homer, a poet writing at the earliest 2700 years ago, from the perspective of a senior scholar/translator. Fagles is probably the best of the poetic versions, as he retreats from the extreme Hellenization in some of the others which gave us "Kirke" instead of the more familiar Circe. Fagles also includes Telemachus' rebuke to his mother, telling her to return to the women's quarters and mind her own business. Fitzgerald had deleted this in apparent recognition of the women's movement. I guess you can see Fagles' re-inclusion of the rebuke as third-wave feminism. Anyway, I don't see that Fagles represents anything but a slight improvement over Fitzgerald and Lattimore, and I do not recommend any of the three. If you want a prose translation that preserves both the sense and phrasing of Homer and is good for introductory students and the general reader, than take the E.V. Rieu translation.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The wanderings and adventures of Odysseus., May 24, 1999

By 

R. D. Allison ([e-mail]) (Gainesville, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Odyssey: Revised Prose Translation (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This epic were required reading in the humanities course I took at U.C.L.A. in the mid-1960s. And, I've reread it a number of times since then. The prose translation I read was by Rieu (if you are interested in the verse translation, see the volume provided by Robert Fagles). "The Odyssey" is the epic poem of the wanderings of Odysseus trying to return to his home in Ithaca following the end of the siege of Troy. There are three basic threads in this epic: Telemachus' search for his father, Odysseus (Books II-IV); the wanderings of Odysseus (Books I and V-XIII); and, Penelope's struggles with her suitors (Books XIV-XXIV). All of these come together in the conclusion. "The Odyssey" begins in the middle of the tale (in medias res) when Odysseus request to leave Calypso on the island of Ogygia. Much of his wanderings are told as recaptulations of earlier events. Telemachus sets out from Ithaca to find his father; but he searches in vain at Pylos and Sparta. Odysseus has many adventures in his travels: battle with the warlike Cicones; an encounter with the Lotus-Eaters; the famous fight with the cyclops Polyphemus; a near shipwreak following the release of winds from a bag; a visit with the enchantress Circe who turns Odysseus' men into swine; talks with the spirits of the dead; escape from the Sirens; eluding Scylla and Charybdis, two sea-monsters lying between Italy and Sicily; the killing of the sacred oxen of the Sun; seven years with Calypso; another shipwreak; rescue by King Alcinous; and the final arrival on Ithaca. This is one of the great classics of literature and evry college student should be required to read it. I've always felt that until recently when I discovered that, at a local Middle School, it was required reading for eighth graders! Now, I think that all High School graduates should have read it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What can I say?, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Odyssey: Revised Prose Translation (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Anybody who can give "The Odyssey" negative ratings, except for those criticizing the translation, have a serious brain defect. This is considered one the greatest books ever written, folks. No, I am not a tenured professor of English or anything like that, but to all of those students out there in high school or college, here's a story to which you can relate. I read "The Odyssey" in my sophmore year of high school and hated it. I never thought that a mere three years later I would come to appreciate this great masterpiece as much as I did. In my freshmen year of college I was "forced" to read this book for my freshmen English class and I realized how much I had grown up between the age of 16 and 18. Don't forsake this book. It is a masterpiece that will survive the test of history for thousands of years to come.