Title: The Odyssey
Author: Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
A Brief Summary from the Publisher
"Composed at the rosy-fingered dawn of world literature almost three millennia ago, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home.
This fresh, authoritative translation captures the beauty of this ancient poem as well as the drama of its narrative. Its characters are unforgettable, none more so than the “complicated” hero himself, a man of many disguises, many tricks, and many moods, who emerges in this version as a more fully rounded human being than ever before.
Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, Emily Wilson’s Odyssey sings with a voice that echoes the epic’s music, sailing along at Homer’s swift, smooth pace.
A fascinating, informative introduction explores the Bronze Age milieu that produced the epic, the poem’s major themes, the controversies about its origins, and the unparalleled scope of its impact and influence."
Insight and Opinions
Pleased, as always, to be together again, despite being shy of a few of our members, we kept to our agreed-upon "20 minutes of social time before book discussion" by exchanging info about the health of ourselves, our friends and our loved ones, at which point conversation veered onto the topic of farting on airplanes. This seemed as good a cue as any to start.
Reading a classic is something we like to do from time to time and the fanfare surrounding Christopher Nolan's new movie rendition of this epic poem steered us in the direction of The Odyssey, the Emily Wilson translation in particular.
At more than 500 pages, with an introduction nearly 100 pages long, it was an undertaking with which not everyone was equally thrilled. Some read it from cover to cover. Others made incomplete progress. Four out of five saw the movie, with three of us watching before reading and one watching midway through reading.
Wilson herself had kind things to say about the fact that Nolan was taking on The Odyssey, but after watching it, tore the movie to shreds. Since her initial criticism, she's backed off a bit and has also announced that she is currently working on an entirely new translation (which is not related to why she hated Nolan's movie). Then, a phalanx of other critics and academics weighed in on who is right, who is wrong, and who should be sent to bed without supper. Even Joyce Carol Oates joined the snark fest. But really, everybody should just calm down and accept the fact that a movie and a book are two different things, both of which can be enjoyed (or not) for what they are. If you want to know more about who said what about whom, it's all online and easy to find and is actually pretty interesting -- much more interesting than what Zendaya wore on the last red carpet.
+ Linda read the book while holding it in her lap and, at the same time, listening to the audio version read by Claire Danes. "I loved that experience because this work flows from oral tradition and because it's a poem that's meant to be read aloud." Linda also admired the fact that Wilson's translation is in iambic pentameter and includes exactly the same number of lines as the original.
+ Steve listened to book while he was in Norway wrestling polar bears or something, and was gripped by the book, so much so that he listened to the lengthy introduction a second time. The Odyssey was written by men and transcribed by Homer which, to Steve, made Wilson's ability to tease out the depth of character in the women impressive.
+ Wilson's translation employs accessible language and carefully avoids flowery, pseudo-academic word choices common to earlier translations. This approach made the text easy to read and the meaning easy to grasp. Occasional use of words that clearly would not have been used during that era do jar from time to time, but their use is rare.
+ All of us were fascinated by this deep dive into another time. Linda was struck by how nothing much has changed. "Women get raped. Men start wars. This is a foundational text in terms of what defines masculinity and we still have it after thousands of years. Very depressing." As Chris put it: "This isn't a surprise, right? People don't change." And Shirley pointed out that no one seemed to do anything or have any will of their own. "All tasks were done by slave girls. And everything was up to the gods."
+ Liz was fascinated by the way in which people at that time made sense of the world. The gods kept no one's interest in mind, only their own. Poaching was great. Just go ahead and steal someone else's stuff. "The idea that a god could visit your home at any time disguised as a human made everyone a welcome guest, which is, in many ways, a very good thing. But it wasn't done out of kindness. Only out of a need to avoid making the gods mad. It was a cruel mythology."
+ To Liz, "life then was very much like it is now. Kings enriching themselves at the expense of their people. Do the kings have subjects? They don't appear to. It seems to be just a theft economy. They don't seem to have subjects or any concern about the people, other than to steal from them. Like today."
+ Steve asked which character we enjoyed reading about the most. Who was the most nuanced, fully developed character? We all agree that Telemachus earns that honor. Because he thinks out loud, we learn more about him.
+ Most of us were struck by the enormous quantities of things frequently mentioned -- a household with 50 slaves, a sacrifice of 100 bulls. As Shirley put it "I mean, how big were these places?" Steve's theory is that some of this stated largesse is a metaphoric exaggeration, meant to show wealth and power rather than literal reality. (Because what would one do with 100 bulls, really. Anyone who knows anything about bulls knows that would never work).
+ Unusual details captured our attention. Linda asked if we'd ever read a book before with this much weeping. Liz wondered about the practice of throwing oneself to the ground and grabbing somebody else's knees as a sign of obeisance. "These people were brutal killers known for their height and their beards, but then they weep and hug knees," Steve said.
+ What did we think of the ending? After all of those pages to pore through, we were all a bit surprised by the end, which seems to fall with a bit of a thud. And then what? We are left to wonder what happens to Odysseus and Penelope after all is said and done.
+ Beyond being a foundational text that defines masculinity, The Odyssey has spawned the creation of countless other works across time -- Ulysses, Circe, Cold Mountain, The Aeneid, Ithaca, as well as a number of plays, operas, movies and comic books. So, not bad, all you oral lore keepers who created the first one.
+ Everyone agrees that Wilson's lengthy introduction is required reading. It's a fascinating look at the history of this poem, where it came from, Homer's role, what scholars agree and disagree on, how translation choices are made, and Wilson's particular reasoning behind making the choices she made in the text. If you read nothing else, read that.
Our Next Read
For November, we will read The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson.
Our host will be Jocey.
Our Pictures
We don't have any because Margy is busy.
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