The Odyssey: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Paperback - 1997
by Homer; Robert Fagles (Translator); Introduction by Bernard Knox
In the myths and legends that are magnificently retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given readers an "Odyssey" to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.
About this book
Listen, O Muse, and hear my song, Of the great adventures that took so long, Of the noble Odysseus, king of Ithaca, Whose journey was filled with many a setback.
The tale begins with the end of the Trojan War, When the Greeks set sail from the Trojan shore. Odysseus and his men faced many a danger, From the wrath of the gods to the Cyclops' anger.
They sailed through storms and fought with beasts, But despite all odds, they made it to their feast, And there, in the halls of the goddess Circe, Odysseus learned of the dangers he'd soon see.
He sailed on to the land of the dead, To hear from the spirits what lay ahead, And learned of Scylla and Charybdis' might, And the Sirens' song that would lead to his plight.
But he pressed on, through trials and strife, And with the help of Athena, he saved his life. He arrived home to Ithaca, his wife and son, But his troubles were far from done.
His kingdom was overrun with suitors bold, Who sought to claim his wife and gold, But with cunning and strength, he won the day, And all the suitors were slain or driven away.
And so ends the tale of Odysseus' quest, His trials and tribulations put to rest. But his story lives on through the ages, A masterpiece of literature on history's pages.
Published in ancient Greece so long ago, By Homer, a poet whose name we all know, "The Odyssey" remains a classic work of art, A testament to the human spirit and heart. -
The Odyssey - a summary in poetry by Chatgpt
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems (along with The Iliad) attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature, also important because it is still studied and read widely today. Originally written around the 8th or 7th century BC in Homeric Greek, The Odyssey was passed down mainly by oral tradition. The text was used in schools and studied by scholars as early as the 4th century. Scholars in Alexandria organized the 12,000-line poem into 24 books. The first English translation of The Odyssey was produced in the 16th century.
Summary
Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.
"Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy."
So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey, which Jasper Griffin in The New York Times Review of Books hails as "a distinguished achievement."
If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey through life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once the timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.
In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.
Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.
This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.
First line
Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.
First Edition Identification
The first printed edition of The Odyssey was produced in 1488 by the Greek scholar Demetrios Chalkokondyles and printed in Milan by a Greek printer named Antonios Damilas. George Chapman's English translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad, published together in 1616, enjoyed widespread success. Since then, there have been many translations of the poem. Robert Fitzgerald's translation of Homer's Odyssey, first published by Doubleday in 1961, is the best and best-loved modern translation of the greatest of all epic poems. W. W. Norton & Company released a highly regarded translation by Emily Wilson in 2017, the first English translation by a woman.
More about the "A 3,000 Year Publishing and Translation History of the Iliad and the Odyssey" can be found in Philip H. Young's book The Printed Homer.
Details
- Title The Odyssey: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
- Author Homer; Robert Fagles (Translator); Introduction by Bernard Knox
- Binding Paperback
- Edition [ Edition: Repri
- Pages 560
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Penguin Group, New York
- Date 1997-11-01
- ISBN 9780140268867 / 0140268863
- Weight 1.35 lbs (0.61 kg)
- Dimensions 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.5 in (21.34 x 14.48 x 3.81 cm)
- Ages 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
- Reading level 1050
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: Ancient (To 499 A.D.)
- Theometrics: Secular
- Library of Congress subjects Poetry, Odysseus (Greek mythology)
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 96017280
- Dewey Decimal Code 883.01
Excerpt
Tell me, Muse, the story of that resourceful man who was driven to wander far and wide after he had sacked the holy citadel of Troy. He saw the cities of many people and he learnt their ways. He suffered great anguish on the high seas in his struggles to preserve his life and bring his comrades home. But he failed to save those comrades, in spite of all his efforts. It was their own transgression that brought them to their doom, for in their folly they devoured the oxen of Hyperion the Sun-god and he saw to it that they would never return. Tell us this story, goddess daughter of Zeus, beginning at whatever point you will.
All the survivors of the war had reached their homes by now and so put the perils of battle and the sea behind them. Odysseus alone was prevented from returning to the home and wife he yearned for by that powerful goddess, the Nymph Calypso, who longed for him to marry her, and kept him in her vaulted cave. Not even when the rolling seasons brought in the year which the gods had chosen for his homecoming to Ithaca was he clear of his troubles and safe among his friends. Yet all the gods pitied him, except Poseidon, who pursued the heroic Odysseus with relentless malice till the day when he reached his own country.
Poseidon, however, was now gone on a visit to the distant Ethiopians, in the most remote part of the world, half of whom live where the Sun goes down, and half where he rises. He had gone to accept a sacrifice of bulls and rams, and there he sat and enjoyed the pleasures of the feast. Meanwhile the rest of the gods had assembled in the palace of Olympian Zeus, and the Father of men and gods opened a discussion among them. He had been thinking of the handsome Aegisthus, whom Agamemnon’s far-famed son Orestes killed; and it was with Aegisthus in his mind that Zeus now addressed the immortals:
‘What a lamentable thing it is that men should blame the gods and regard us as the source of their troubles, when it is their own transgressions which bring them suffering that was not their destiny. Consider Aegisthus: it was not his destiny to steal Agamemnon’s wife and murder her husband when he came home. He knew the result would be utter disaster, since we ourselves had sent Hermes, the keen-eyed Giant-slayer, to warn him neither to kill the man nor to court his wife. For Orestes, as Hermes told him, was bound to avenge Agamemnon as soon as he grew up and thought with longing of his home. Yet with all his friendly counsel Hermes failed to dissuade him. And now Aegisthus has paid the final price for all his sins.’
Media reviews
Citations
- Men's Journal, 05/01/2007, Page 84
- New York Times, 12/14/1997, Page 36
- Newsweek, 03/17/2008, Page 14
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