Customer Reviews

The Odyssey (Vintage classics)

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Robert Fitzgerald's translations are among my favorites. While it is virtually impossible to translate Dactylic Hexameter into English, Fitzgerald still captures much of the power and majesty of Homer in his translation. Now, it is conceded that the Odyssey is technically inferior to the Iliad. It is for this reason that the majority of Homeric scholars believe he wrote the Odyssey first, THEN the Iliad. In any case, the Odyssey is still an awesome piece of literature and has enjoyed an enormous influence over all of western thought for close to 3,000 years. It is dubious to believe too many of today's poets / authors will still be remembered 2,500+ years from now. As always with classic literature, I would admonish anyone interested in reading the Odyssey to first consult everything that has gone before, such as the Judgment of paris & the Iliad, etc. The tale will make SO MUCH more sense that way. As one can see by the negative reviews to this work, Homer is not for those who are only interested in instant gratification. If you cannot get interested in a book which may take you a month to read & a lifetime to truly understand, Homer is not for you. On the other hand, if you're really intrigued by Greek mythology, history or literature, this book is an ABSOLUTE must. It is one of the great cornerstones of all western literature. I am quite certain that people will still be reading Homer 3,000 years from now.

Just because it's by some guy named Homer and it's "classic" doesn't mean it's unreadable. Quite to the contrary, the Odyssey is one of the most readable ancient works around because so many of the stories (the Cyclops, Scylla and Charbydis, Circe, Penelope) have become part of the very fabric of our Western culture. Even Eric Clapton sings of Homer in "Tales of Brave Ulysses" in the old song by Cream! There's an allusion for you. Surprisingly, most of my honors 9th grade students adored the Odyssey and found it easy going. The Iliad is harder because it's more of a war book, while the Odyssey is much more of an adventure poem. You won't find the same technical level of poetry in the Odyssey (few of the those great epic similies) as you do in the Iliad, but it is the much more accessible work of the two. Great background reading for both kids and adults is the D'Aulair's Greek Mythology which is written for kids, but helpful for adults as well. I do like Fitzgerald's translation, but I"m still partial to the Lattimore for its proximity to the Greek. Most readers will find Fitzgerald easier, but once you've enjoyed it, give the Lattimore a try -- it's the closest you can come to hearing the poem in Greek.

Robert Fitzgerald's poetic translation of Homer's ODYSSEY simply picked me up and carried me away when I first read it in the tenth grade. I did not expect something written thousands of years ago to have such colorful language and vivid images. Nor did I expect it to surpass anything I had read before as the greatest story ever told. Very few works have even matched it in my last 15 years of reading.

THE ODYSSEY is the prototypical journey tale of world literature. After ten years fighting and helping the Greeks win the Trojan War, Odysseus, King of Ithaka, offends the sea god Poseidon and is doomed to another ten years of wandering before being able to return to his wife, son, and homeland. He meets all manner of deadly obstacles and pleasant diversions along the way, but always in his mind is the desire for home. Virtually everything is in THE ODYSSEY: a son's coming-of-age without his father, a hero's escape from giant whirlpools, sexy sorceresses and the angry wine-dark sea, the most faithful wife in the history of literature, and that's just for starters.

Fitzgerald imposes no stylistic or rhythmic roadblocks, on the contrary, his poetry is smooth and his gift for bring us all the color and music of Homer is rich and deft. In my book, only Shakespeare and Tolstoy are in the same class as Homer, but the ancient one should be experienced first. Read THE ODYSSEY before or after THE ILIAD, but read it and enjoy.

First and foremost, the Odyssey is a great tale. It is at heart an adventure story of Odysseus's return to his home after the 10 year Trojan War. Because Odysseus has upset the wrong god, he has to spend another 10 years journeying home. Meanwhile, suitors for his wife, Penelope's, hand have gathered at his home trying to win her heart, and, in the meantime, eating Odysseus out of house and home.

Homer picks up the tale in medias res (in the middle of things). Much of Odysseus's journey is told as a flashback, and it is wonderful to read of the adventures fighting a Cyclops, being lured by sirens, escaping witches, even having a brush with the underworld. Through it all, the book is still a tale of a family reuniting (although Odysseus is not the most faithful husband). There is even a heartbreaking scene when Odysseus sees his old dog again after being gone for 20 years.

Robert Fitzgerald's translation is just what one wants for the Odyssey. Fitzgerald stresses the poetry of Homer's epic poem. He also strives to make the book readable. I do not know ancient Greek, but it does not appear that Fitzgerald sacrifices much to achieve this. The book is still deep and rich, yet bubbling with life at the top.

If you are looking for more of a transliteration, Richard Lattimore's translation is probably closer to what you want.

Homer's Odyssey set the stage for just about everything that was ever written after it. Other works copy its themes, devices, constructs and more. The construction of fiction, whether it be epic fiction or even the postmodern novel, has it roots in Homer.

The Odyssey is a written collection of oral stories about a man named Odysseus. Classicists will argue regarding the authenticity of The Odyssey as compared to The Iliad because The Odyssey lacks a continuous "style."

Of course, the style is not continuous. This is a collection of stories, not a single story as is The Iliad. The style quite rightly reflects the style of those who first related the stories, so each should seem slightly different in tone, depending on who the original storyteller was.

The Odyssey is a book that truly has everything: the wrath of the gods, war, revenge, love, lust, intrigue and homecoming. I can't think of anyone who couldn't find something in The Odyssey to like and to relate to.

There are many, many translations of The Odyssey available and not just any one will do it justice. I would really recommend a strict translation of the original work. The language will be a little sticky at times, but will be far fuller in meaning than a "looser" translation. Fitzgerald's translation is a good one and the one most found in modern bookstores.

For those intrepid enough to do a little hunting, though, the translation by T.E. Shaw is excellent and a very good read as well. Shaw's is a strict translation in all ways but one; it is a prose translation and does not stick dogmatically to the iambic hexameter of the original. Ironically, in Shaw's translation, the cadence is preserved but the read is quite smooth. Anyone lucky enough to find a Shaw translation should grab it immediately. If you don't want it yourself, you no doubt know someone who would.

For study in graduate classes, I have read many translations of this great tale. This translation is for a reader that desires an easy read. It uses words that are not meant to confuse us, or to show of the translator's knowledge, but rather it promotes a good time for the reader. As for the story itself, we learn about the life of men and women(unlike The Iliad) and the qualities that were desired and applauded in ancient Greece. This work gives great insight not only on this time period, but it can help us understand more recent epics done by Dante, Milton, and so forth. The story draws the reader into the circumstances of the life of Odysseus and his quest for home. A journey some gods will allow, and others will not. We also see many great original characters introduced by Homer, including monsterous Cyclops', a figure we are all aware of. If you are interested in reading stories of ancient times, read The Odyssey...after you read The Iliad. The Odyssey is it's sequel. But read this translation, and enjoy.

I here consider not the story of the Odyssey itself, accounts of which abound, but rather Robert Fitzgerald's 1961 translation. Unlike recent more literal translations of the Odyssey such as Richmond Lattimore's (1962) and Albert Cook's (1967), which seek to reflect the original Greek with strict fidelity, Fitzgerald's does not confine itself to mirroring the Homeric line in syntax or parts of speech. Instead, he renders the verse of the Odyssey--which in the Greek averages roughly sixteen syllables per line--into English lines of ten or eleven syllables. His shorter line of course results in lengthening each of the original's twenty-four books. In the Greek, Book I, for example, consists of 444 lines; in Fitzgerald's version, 500 lines. He translates the first two lines of Greek into five lines of English; here the single Greek word polytropon, "much-turned" or "of many ways," becomes the rather full phrase "skilled in all ways of contending." This syntactically loose approach, while inconveniencing those readers curious enough to compare his version against a Greek text, allows Fitzgerald to amplify the original where he sees fit (though by no means to the extent of early translators like George Chapman and Alexander Pope) and to display here and there a poetical flourish not contained in the original.

Fitzgerald's liberality with the line extends to his choices with character epithets. At times they drop out of his version altogether - and these omissions occasionally conceal the subtlety of the original poem's design - but more often than not he deals with a commonly repeated epithet by varying his phrases, which helps to show the manifold nature of the Greek adjectives but may also lead Greek-less readers to think the original more manifold than is actually the case. He renders Telemakhos' epithet pepnymenos in a variety as diverse as it is colloquial : "kept his head," "cool enough," "clear-headed," "with no confusion," "thoughtfully," "seeing all clear." (Lattimore, by contrast, dutifully translates the epithet as "thoughtful.") Penelope's epithet, periphron, which means "circumspect" or "all-considering," becomes, depending on the context, "quiet," "wise," "careful," "watchful," "prudent," and even "most worn in love and thought." And finally, to take only one of Odysseus' numerous epithets, Fitzgerald renders polymetis as "the great tactician," "that sly and guileful man," "his ranging mind," "who had it all timed in his head," "the master of many crafts," "the great master of invention," "the master improviser," "ready for this," "the master of subtle ways and straight." (Lattimore more literally translates it as "resourceful.") While some readers may find such translational choices promiscuous, others will appreciate Fitzgerald's ability to showcase the many facets of Odysseus' character. Perhaps the best instance of this freedom comes at the start of Book 22 when, armed with his old bow, Odysseus finally discloses himself to the suitors: here Fitzgerald translates polymetis as "the wiliest fighter of the islands."

Readers seeking Homer's "pure serene," that is, an acquaintance with the unique concepts and syntax of Homeric Greek, may be frustrated by the loose relation of Fitzgerald's translation to the original. But those for whom the literalness of Lattimore is overly wooden may find themselves arrested by the vividness of Fitzgerald's verse and the vivacity which he gives Homer's characters. Fitzgerald's liberal approach frees him to reflect in his lines the sorts of stunning interpretations that more literal approaches entrust to the sensitivity of readers. Most telling along these lines is his choice in the opening of Book 21, when Penelope decides to try the suitors by bringing out at last the bow of Odysseus. The Greek is, roughly, "then the grey-eyed goddess Athena put it in the mind of / the daughter of Ikarios, all-considering Penelope. . . ." These lines Fitzgerald transmutes into "upon Penelope, most worn in love and thought, / Athena cast a glance like a grey sea / lifting her." As readers, the question is how high the translator must lift us in order for us to deepen our appreciation of the Odyssey; perhaps for some of us, Fitzgerald's alchemy will indeed provide the vessel which rides the utmost crest of the wave, bringing us within glimpse of that rare land which Keats wondered at above all other realms of gold.

The Odyssey stands out as among the first works of ancient art that are immediately accessible to the modern mind. It is for that reason alone that it is worth reading. For the 7th, 8th or 9th Century B.C. poet(s?) today known as Homer can be seen to be standing at the very threshold of man's awakening to the fact that he is an independent actor in the world and no longer the chattel of despotic god-like rulers nor entirely without recourse when confronting the whims of omnipotent gods. It was that spirit, after all, that led to the most amazing moment in the history of Western man, at least: the brief flourishing of ancient Classical Greece. To my mind, more than another other work of ancient art, save for perhaps the bust of a minor Egyptian official in Boston's Museum of Fine Art that dates from almost 5,000 years ago, which is so contemporary as to be breathtaking, the Odyssey enables you to see man standing there, taking that first step towards modernity, with all its wonders and horrors.

Fitzgerald's translation, which dates from the mid-1960s, brings the sweep of that epic poem to life. What's more, he also has the ear of a poet, and manages from time to time to capture in modern English -- an extraordinarily difficult task -- the onomatopoeic gift of the ancient Greek, one example being his "tumbling, clamorous, whispering sea," so evocative of the ocean shore break.

This is one of my three all-time favorite books, and my copy is so dog-eared that I don't have to tell people who see it on my desk that I've read it and re-read it countless times.

Robert Fitzgerald (and, more intrinsically, Homer) did an absolutely outstanding job. This book ran lightly and effortlessly, filled with beautiful imagery and clear themes. Every line was soaked in poetry, and the characters were fascinating and compelling. One of the most beautiful passages I have ever read was contained in Odysseus return to his wife and the description of their marriage ties. It also raised several interesting ethical questions, which Homer probably did not even consider because they were such an everyday part of Odysseus' society but which are extrmely relevant for modern readers. Why, for example, did Odysseus sleep with basically every goddess he met but hang his maids for their submission to the sexual coertion of his enemies? Was Odysseus' massacre of his wife's suitors, including the ones who begged for forgiveness, justified? What emphasis does pride have on Odysseus' fate? This book is a stunning, elegant, poetic masterpiece that manages to encompass timeless themes and tear-wrenchingly moving moments. A triumph.

Most excellent translation of Homer you will find.
Fitzgerald's epic translation of THE ODYSSEY, which
is the classic journey story of all time, has no
forcedness to it, has no unnatural feel--it has
the rhythm of the waves Odysseus sails to return
to his beloved, Penelope.
Odysseus, additionally, is a classic scout,
and master of all that is clandestine. The poem,
which is the first great novel of the West,
is also the first classic journey novel, ever.
If you are not versed in Greek mythology prior
to reading this book, you will be once you've
put it down. But, be advised, it reads better
if you've first read Edith Hamilton's works on
Greek mythology. And, of course, read THE ILIAD
first, and read Fitzgerald's translation.
Homer knew something Ezra Pound never knew:
if you make it sing, it's new forever. Homer
made every line sing, and every line has stayed
new forever. Five Stars.