The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

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

Book Description

Release date: April 29, 2003 | Series: Penguin Classics

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.

@IthacaStateOfMind Uh oh. This cave is a giant’s lair. He has a taste for cheese, and my companions. He also has only one eye. Trying to keep from laughing.

Got him drunk. Put a hot poker in his ONE EYE when he blacked out. That will show him – if he could see. LOL. Time to leave.

Damn. Poseidon pissed. How was I supposed to know One-Eye was his son? What Olympian whore did he sleep with to get an issue like that?

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Editorial Reviews

Review

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Homer was probably born around 725BC on the Coast of Asia Minor, now the coast of Turkey, but then really a part of Greece. Homer was the first Greek writer whose work survives.

He was one of a long line of bards, or poets, who worked in the oral tradition. Homer and other bards of the time could recite, or chant, long epic poems. Both works attributed to Homer – the Iliad and the Odyssey – are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Homer must have had an amazing memory but was helped by the formulaic poetry style of the time.

In the Iliad Homer sang of death and glory, of a few days in the struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Mortal men played out their fate under the gaze of the gods. The Odyssey is the original collection of tall traveller’s tales. Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War, encounters all kinds of marvels from one-eyed giants to witches and beautiful temptresses. His adventures are many and memorable before he gets back to Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope.

We can never be certain that both these stories belonged to Homer. In fact ‘Homer’ may not be a real name but a kind of nickname meaning perhaps ‘the hostage’ or ‘the blind one’. Whatever the truth of their origin, the two stories, developed around three thousand years ago, may well still be read in three thousand years’ time.

E. V. Rieu was a celebrated translator from Latin and Greek, and editor of Penguin Classics from 1944-1964. His son, D. C. H. Rieu has revised his work.

D. C. H. Rieu is the son of E. V. Rieu, celebrated translator from Latin and Greek and Editor of Penguin Classics from 1944-1964.

Peter Jones is former lecturer in classics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140449116
• ISBN-13: 978-0140449112
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #88 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Epic

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Comment on the translation September 30, 2005

By T. Bachman

Format:Paperback

I own a number of translations of Homer, and the Rieu/Jones translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad are among my favourite (the others are Albert Cook's and Mandelbaum's translation of The Odyssey). I like all these better than the Fagles since they are more faithful to the original text.

If you order this book, grab yourself a Cliff Notes just so you get the necessary background info so it all makes sense.

Good luck!

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Sticker Warning December 8, 2011

By Van

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought nearly twenty of these Penguin classics with covers designed by the exceptional Coralie Bickford-Smith from Amazon. When I got them I discovered that an adhesive price sticker, apparently applied by Penguin, was on the back cover of each volume. Despite my efforts to carefully remove the sticker, some of the heat-stamped design lifted up with it in every case, some worse than others, but in all cases ruining the design. I contacted Penguin and I hope they have since rectified this problem, but please be forewarned. I ended up returning every volume to Amazon.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Looks nice on a bookshelf, but worth taking down to read April 24, 2010

By Tess R. Stockslager

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a big fan of this new series from Penguin Classics. The hardcover bindings (each featuring a stylized pattern that relates--sometimes subtly, sometimes obviously--with the subject of the book), the high-quality pages, and the ribbon bookmark all make these books attractive collectibles. But I also really enjoyed the content of this book. The prose translation was accurate but not slavish. I felt like I was reading a novel. The introduction was also highly readable and informative--I actually wanted to read it, which is unusual.