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The Odyssey

The Odyssey Soft cover - 1998

by Homer

  • New
  • Paperback

Fagles presents his universally acclaimed modern verse translation of the world's greatest war story in an exquisite edition with French flaps, designed as a companion volume to "The Odyssey".

Description

Penguin Books, 1998. Reprint Edition. . Soft cover. New/No Jacket Issued. This is a Very solid and square Classic soft cover book in New condition. Reprint edition, 1998. Translated by Robert Fagles. This book is in New condition. It is in wonderful condition both inside and out. It has a very bright & very clean cover. The edges are very nice with nice spine ends. It has a Smooth spine! The pages are tight, bright & unmarked, no names. Not a remainder. Very Sturdy & Very clean book! 541 pages. #22340-124
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Details

  • Title The Odyssey
  • Author Homer
  • Binding Soft cover
  • Edition Reprint Edition.
  • Condition New
  • Pages 704
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Books, New York
  • Date 1998
  • Features Bibliography, Glossary, Maps
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 022340
  • ISBN 9780140275360 / 0140275363
  • Weight 1.65 lbs (0.75 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.9 in (21.34 x 14.48 x 4.83 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Reading level 1330
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: Ancient (To 499 A.D.)
    • Theometrics: Secular
  • Library of Congress subjects Trojan War, Achilles (Greek mythology)
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 89070695
  • Dewey Decimal Code 883.01

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

Dating to the ninth century BC, Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to  the wrenching, tragic conclusion of the Trojan War. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb Introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace.
 
Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. He maintains the drive and metric music of Homer’s poetry, and evokes the impact and nuance of the Iliad’s mesmerizing repeated phrases in what Peter Levi calls “an astonishing performance.”

First line

"Iliad" is a word that means "a poem about Ilium" (i.e., Troy), and Homer's great epic poem has been known as "The Iliad" ever since the Greek historian Herodotus so referred to it in the fifth century B.C.

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. 

Categories

Media reviews

Citations

  • New York Times, 11/15/1998, Page 68

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.

Robert Fagles (1933-2008) was Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He was the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His translations include Sophocles's Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus's Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award), Homer's Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets), Homer's Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid.

Bernard Knox (1914-2010) was Director Emeritus of Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He taught at Yale University for many years. Among his numerous honors are awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His works include The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy, Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles' Tragic Hero and His Time and Essays Ancient and Modern (awarded the 1989 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award).