I have yet to read Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey, but I fully intend to soon. In the meantime I have been keeping up with her Twitter account @EmilyRCWilson, where she selects passages from the poem and compares various translations and explains why she chose the words/phrases she did for these selections. It’s a […]
Tag: Homer
I originally included Yasuko Taoka’s paper “A Liar’s Yarn: Storytelling in The Lost Books of the Odyssey” as an update to my post on the book. Now that I have a copy of the first edition from Starcherone Books I realize both the paper and the first edition of the book deserve their own post. […]
I have joked about 2012 being “The Year of the Doorstop” because of the size of the books I’ve read and plan to read before the end of the year. 2013 will probably prove to be a sequel: “Year of the Doorstop, Part 2,” if my plans hold. One of my intended reads is the […]
First up in 2012 at Reading Odyssey is Homer’s Iliad. Based on my experience with The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander this year, I highly recommend exploring the Iliad through Reading Odyssey. The conference calls proved to be exceedingly informative (see this post for a sampling of the Arrian calls) and the discussion questions […]
Many thanks to Sheila O’Malley at The Sheila Variations for posting on the stage play An Iliad, playing at The Court Theatre in Chicago. There are more video excerpts on YouTube (see the links shown at the end of the clip) about the play, definitely worth checking out. Sheila links to a review by Chris […]
The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 240 pages, $24.00 ISBN: 9780374192150Steven Riddle at A Momentary Taste of Being gave this book a high recommendation and since I re-read The Odyssey lately (or so it seems to me) I thought I would check this book out from the library […]
Odysseus and Circe by Bartholomäus Spranger Picture source Of all the things that breathe and move along the ground, Earth does not raise anything more insignificant than man. He thinks he’ll never suffer any harm in days to come, as long as gods provide prosperity and his knees stay supple. But when blessed gods bring […]
Some stray thoughts on The Odyssey… The first thought has to do with the similarities and differences to The Iliad as well as references to the Trojan War in The Odyssey. Both works look at mortality and man’s need to accept it. Achilles, when presented with a choice of fates, initially chooses a long life. […]
Odysseus’ Palace According to Johann Heinrich Voss (1820) Let Death come down to slavish souls and craven heads with his sharp scythe and barren bones, but let him come to this lone man like a great lord to knock with shame on his five famous castle doors, and with great awe plunder whatever dregs that […]
Odysseus recognized by Euryclea by Gustave Boulanger (1849) Have Ithaka always in your mind. Your arrival there is what you are destined for. But do not in the least hurry the journey. Better that it last for years, so that when you reach the island you are old, rich with all you have gained on […]
Odysseus is put ashore in Ithaca Theodor van Thulden Fair nymph! if fame or honor were To be attained with ease, Then would I come and rest with thee, And leave such toils as these. But here it dwells, and here must I With danger seek it forth : To spend the time luxuriously Becomes […]
Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus by John William Waterhouse (1891) Picture source When Circe had detained me more than a year There near Gaeta, before it had that name Aeneas gave it, and I parted from her, Not fondness for my son, nor any claim Of reverence for my father, nor love I owed […]
Nausicaa by Frederick Leighton (1878) Picture source Gerty smiled assent and bit her lip. A delicate pink crept into her pretty cheek but she was determined to let them see so she just lifted her skirt a little but just enough and took good aim and gave the ball a jolly good kick and it […]
I’m not much on academic-type studies, but Brian Boyd’s On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction looks interesting. From the product description: Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play, itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals. More particularly, our […]
Penelope Unraveling Her Web Joseph Wright of Derby Picture source A god could easily bring someone home from a long way off, if he wanted to. But I’d prefer to go through many hardships and then see the day when I got back and reached my home, than to complete my trip only to be […]
Marble seated harp player Cycladic, late Early Cycladic I–Early Cycladic II, ca. 2800–2700 B.C. Picture source While my thoughts constantly change on what direction I want this site to go, the one thing I have kept in mind of late is that I want my discussions to benefit someone approaching a work for the first […]
Odysseus’ travels Muse, speak to me now of that resourceful man who wandered far and wide after ravaging the sacred citadel of Troy. He came to see many people’s cities, where he learned their customs, while on the sea his spirit suffered many torments, as he fought to save his life and lead his comrades […]
Book 8, lines 245-253 in a Greek manuscript of the late fifth or early sixth century AD Picture source Generations of men are like the leaves. In winter, winds blow them down to earth, but then, when spring season comes again, the budding wood grows more. And so with men— one generation grows, another dies […]
This is a partial review of Alessandro Baricco’s An Iliad (translated by Ann Goldstein)—partial because I could not finish it. The book does raise interesting questions (more about his choices, but some about the original work). I’ll outline Baricco’s introduction and end note (in slightly different order than he presented them) and then go into […]
Andromache mourning Hector Jacques-Louis David “Revere the gods, Achilles! Pity me in my own right, Remember your own father! I deserve more pity… I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before— I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son.” Book XXIV, lines 588 – 591 […]