Customer Reviews

The Odyssey (Signet Classics)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

W.H.D. Rouse provides an excellent plain language translation of Homer's classic "The Odyssey". Other translations can make reading this classic a real chore, but Rouse's version was an easy read.

After so many people have said so much over countless centuries about Homer's "Odyssey," what is left for me to say? In this review I will not so much attempt to review the work itself as the translation. Suffice to say that it is a grand adventure that should not be missed. but average modern readers may miss it, being weary of reading it as poetry or are simply intimidated by its age.

If you are one of those people, fear not! W.H.D. Rouse's prose translation brings The Odyssey to the masses with flair. Reading it for school this year, I was a bit apprehensive of it at first, but eager to see what was so great about it. I needn't have been apprehensive at all. The prose reads just as well as modern novels, and the feeling and adventure of the book is well captured.

For those who don't know, this is the story of what became of Odysseus after he fought in the Trojan War (which is chronicled in The Iliad.) Several obstacles, including the wrath of Posiden, Greek god of the sea, bar him from returning home, where savage men, under the impression that he has died at war, consume his posessions and woo his wife. Watch as he braves these obstacles with the help of the goddess Athena so that he may return home and punish the insolent wooers.

While it's slow to start off, give it time -- at its best, The Odyssey is riviting, and it's obvious why it has been able to stand the test of time and is regarded as a classic. The action is exciting and will leave you breathless, but also there is humanity and real emotion here. All of that is perfectly captured in Rouse's translation, and he brings it accross to the reader with a remarkable strength and deftness. Reading it, it's as if you re being told the story orally (which, as Rouse notes in his preface, is how it was originally intended by Homer), and all of the energy of a live storytelling is present. I commend Rouse for his work, and thank him for bringing me The Odyssey. When you read it, you will, too!

This is one of the finest translations I've read, and this is because Dr. Rouse (the translator) doesn't bog it down with unnecessary stylization and ridiculously archaic English poetics (such as the uses of words like 'twain' instead of just saying two). The Iliad as well as the Odyssey were designed to be an enjoyable, more or less easy to understand didactic, and it's impossible to translate it in such a way that it mirrors what the ancient Greeks would have heard and understood. This is also supported by the fact that we will never be able to have as full of an appreciation of the works as the ancients, because we live in a different time with different belief and lifestyles. There are parts of this wonderful work that we will never fully appreciate nor understand.

So, why do I love this translation of it and rank it among my favourite translations? Because it is in a plain verse and in simple English. As I mentioned above, you won't be able to accomplish the same rhythm as Homer did while keeping the work in high quality. The languages are way too different from each-other. If you're looking for something that has that level of rhyme and melody, then I suggest you learn the ancient Greek and read it in that form. This work is pretty much a direct translation from the original, and the translator does not take too much poetic license when changing it around but uses his skill to piece it all together to make something that can, in essence, capture what was initially intended. I have translated a few poems myself, and it is a very labourious task to undertake when you're trying to do it right and capture the authors intentions.

The works of Homer were intended for a more natural flow, which I believe was beautifully accomplished here. Honestly, a lot of the more poetic translations put me to sleep and I can never finish them because they're so boring. This one really kept my attention.

How to approach this book, and other ancient Greek works:

There is a rather patronizing and, dare I say, religiocentric point of view that Homers stories and other epics were merely a work of fictional poetry. On the contrary, it is like the Bible for the ancient Greeks, as it contains a collection of stories that are designed to further ones own enlightenment in respects to veneration towards the gods and goddesses and to your fellow man, as well as other areas of life. One of my favourite examples of this is the scene where Odysseus and his men are trapped within the cave of their captor, the cannibalistic Polyphemos. Polyphemos represents the savagery of mankind, and it teaches the lesson of why one should exhibit proper manners towards guests (The blinding scene of ole Goggle-eye was a popular scene to have on serving vessels, which still makes me chuckle). Poseidon, subsequently, unleashes his wrath upon the crew for such a transgression towards his son (I, personally, thought that was ridiculous. It was one of those moments when you read something and have to say out-loud 'Are you kidding me, come on!'. Polyphemos was a total a-hole and deserved what he had coming to him, but I digress).
If one is to approach such stories as works of fiction, then you essentially miss-out on the true, deeper meaning of it all and why they were composed. Try to be open-minded while reading it and try putting yourself into their shoes, you'll get much more enjoyment out of it.

This review only addresses one question: how do you decide which translation to read? There is no single 'best' translation. They're all different, and they all have some merits and some drawbacks. If you are buying for yourself, the best approach is to browse a bookstore first. Choose a particular incident, or the first or last page of any of the books of the Odyssey, and then read that page in all the translations you have before you. You can easily choose the one that reads best for you.
If you want to choose without the benefit of a personal test read, here are my comments on the Rouse translation. I first read it as a seventh grader. I loved it. I read it again in college or grad school, after having read other translations and eventually after having learned Greek. I still loved it. Lately my wife and I bought two volumes of a six-volume child's version translated by Mary Osborne, and our five year old loves it. I wanted to fill in the missing books and felt that since he loved Mary Osborne's translation, perhaps he would understand Rouse. He listens with rapt attention and needs no explanation.
This should give you an idea of some of the advantages of this translation.
If you want poetry, good; but be sure you like the poet you choose--it won't be Homer unless you learn Greek. Nothing I've ever learned has been as rewarding as Greek. Homer is among the top five poets and story-tellers known to man.

This book is written as a novel in easy lucid style that reads as a story and a good read. However, much of the writings themselves are poetry, where various ancient Greek reciters read such passages with in depth acting and poetic style, which is a separate study in itself, one I have not read nor am reviewing here.

A great novel and read after first reading the Iliad, a different story, and the continuing saga of Odysseus' journey. The theme of the Odyssey is that of Odysseus' household dilemma with the wooing of his wife, Penelopia, by would-be marriage mates and his son Telemachos' problem of holding the household together from these men in devouring all the goods. In the end, order, revenge and justice is restored. Both of Homer's novels are beneficial in learning about Greek mythology and I recommend reading Edith Hamilton's book on the history of mythology.

Like its predecessor, the Iliad, this story is two stories, the comic background to the tragedy below, yet in this novel the gods are that much more active in human affairs, half mortals, mortal descendants of and involvement. However, there are relatively few gods that are actively involved in the Odyssey compared to their totality in number.

What really makes this book so inspiring is the gods themselves. The Greeks transformed a world full of fear into a world full of beauty. The gods become human, lovelier and more powerful, immortal, but often acted in a way no decent man or woman would.

Greek mythology is not so much a religion as it is a way of actively dealing in the deeper meanings of life. Nor is the Odyssey a Greek kind of bible. While myths may have real religious meanings, they are more explanations of the deeper answers in nature. And the Greeks transformed a world of nonhuman fearful gods into humanly divine that actively engaged in human affairs.

"Each god, like the men, shows what manner of god he is; and the scenes are full of delicate comedy, which gives the relief necessary for the grim stories. The gods are really the most human of Homer's creations, and there is plenty of variety in their setting." p. 290

The Odyssey is an amazing tale of the travels of Odysseus and his crew after the Trojan War. His encounters with the Cyclops, sea monsters, Sirens, Gods, and ghosts create a tale larger than life. Mr. Rouse does an amazing job of translating the tale in a way that flows well and reads easily. My only complaint of this classic is the ending... in 1 1/2 pages things go from nearly a civil war to peace. It appears almost as if homer had not finished the tale before his death, and someone else added the ending just to finish the book. Aside from the ending, the entire book is a masterpiece of ancient literature.

There's a reason that The Odyssey and The Illiad are considered classics in the most complete sense, and in reading the two I was blown away time and time again in seeing why. Credit must also be given to Rouse for a brilliant translation that gives the words of Homer a fluidity most translators lack.

As a novel, The Odyssey reads well as a great tale picking up where The Illiad left off; full of rich detail, beautiful imagery and an incredibly elaborate mythology that one needn't be familiar with to understand. I was worried beforehand about knowing so little about Greek Mythology but Homer incorporates exactly enough information of the Gods to provide insight to the characters and traditions of their culture necessary to understand the story, while teaching you about them along the way. There is an abundance of reference and connection with religion, culture and traditions (actually, as you read you'll find a lot of modern words or expressions that originated from the text) to be studied at length, but the story is also excellent as a stand-alone tale if you don't want to analyze it.

The plot is that of Odysseus, after the Battle of Troy (described in The Illiad), who is stranded on an island as his house and family are plagued by ignorant men who are slowly consuming his wealth and resources while awaiting his thought-to-be-widowed wife's decision on which of them she will marry. As his much-abused young son comes of age, he is set upon a journey by the Gods to find his father and restore his household to proper order. The tale is weaved around this and lined with themes of love, loyalty, honour and revenge in such a way that no author I've read has even come close to. Homer is perhaps comparable to Shakespeare only in the sheer breadth of his scope, but surpasses him in his intuition for storytelling.

If you genuinely like to read but haven't read this yet, buy it now (after The Illiad, of course) or get it from the library. Considered to be the first Novel, you're reading a piece of history, a dead society, and an amazing tale as well.

I find it somewhat odd to be sitting here writing a review of a book that is older than our calendar. I'm not sure when this book was actually written. I suppose nobody really does, or even who the real author is for that matter. All of these facts cause a book review such as this to be held under a somewhat strange circumstance.

I'm not going to justify giving this book 5 stars. It is what it is. Thousands, if not millions before me have dubbed it a masterpiece. I'm certainly not going to change the collective consciousness and its opinion of this book in 2002. What I will do with this brief review is try to explain just what this book is and who might be interested in reading it.

Simply put, this is a simple story about a simple man and his complex adventure to get home. It's a straightforward tale about man and his relationship with the gods. With this, you get an excellent perspective of what man thought of the gods and how they acted and reacted. How everything was decided by the gods. And how everyone was at the mercy of those gods.

The travels away from Ithaca and back to Ithaca are the meat of the book. I'm not going to summarize other than to say that a strong, brave man (Odysseus) finds his was into a number of complex situations. Through these situations he continues to rely on his strength and bravery, of both mind and body, to find a way out of them.

What I do find most interesting is that Homer portrays the gods as veritable children in the way they act. Often times they seem no more mature than teenagers that fly off the handle when little things fail to go their way. This is an interesting perspective in terms of personifying these entities that were thought to rule the heavens.

As we follow Odysseus, we generally know what will come to pass. Because the oracles and seers and gods want something to happen, there is little chance the prophecies will not come true. These predicted events come to pass as the story moves on. We travel with Odysseus back to where he started while the gods shape his course.

The story is simple, while at the same time complex. It's interesting to realize that this was the literature of the time; very basic, very structured, and very grand. One imagines it was a spoken tale that was eventually written down by Homer. Again, I don't rightly know.

So why read this book? Well, to be honest I was moved to read this after I saw the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? I was curious to see how closely the story followed. Well, the parallels are obvious and there's no need to go into that. After I was 1/4 of the way through the book, my interest level was beyond what it started as. I suddenly wanted to read the story on its own merit, and not because of the movie.

The book is the epitome of what I disliked in college. That was a few years ago, and now I can positively say I very much enjoyed this book. I think a lot has to do with the translation, and WHD Rouse does a sensational job to make his version as timeless as possible. Much of my enjoyment also has to do with the fact I was taking my time, trying to proceed as slowly as I could with the story.

I think my final suggestion would be this. Read this if you've got a fairly strong desire to. I know that sounds easy, but my point is this. Don't casually pick it up and decide you're going to read it because you want to read a classic. There are other books which can fill that need. This one demands for you to be in tune with it. If you're not going to try to carefully get through it, I think it could easily bore you.

This is a classic that you should read if you're moved to. Otherwise, you could end up being one of the people who swear all of the classics simply stink. But if you do approach it with the right mindset, it can be an extremely enjoyable read.

My major complaint with this translation was the way it was written. Throughout the book, written as a novel as opposed to in free verse, there is a forced sense of grandeur from the author. Conversations between characters seem more like monologues than any actual dialog. Two chapters, or books, that immediately come to mind are when Zeus and Poseidon are talking followed by the almost laughable conversation between the main hero and a swineherd. Rouse uses a more rustic dialect for the swineherd yet maintaining the long drawn out mini-speech approach used previously in the book.

I've read The Odyssey in poetic form more than once and love it. This version, while perhaps somewhat more accessible, leaves a great deal to be desired. Takes the Poetry out of Epic Poetry--which tarnishes the Epic, as well.