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The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) |  | Author: Homer
Creators: Bernard Knox, Robert Fagles
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $4.32
as of 3/10/2010 20:26 PST details
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Seller: any_book
Rating:  86 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 560
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0143039954
Dewey Decimal Number: 808
EAN: 9780143039952
Publication Date: October 31, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780143039952 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
This is a boxed gift edition of Fagles's two widely acclaimed translations of Homer. The Iliad is typically described as one of the greatest war stories of all time, but to call it a war story does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action and characters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth and history in the 10th and final year of the Greek siege of Troy. The Odyssey is, quite simply, the story of Odysseus, who wants to go home. But Poseidon, god of oceans, doesn't want him to make it back across the wine-dark sea to his wife, Penelope, son, Telemachus, and their high-roofed home at Ithaca. The story is told in easy-going, beautiful poetry; the characters speak naturally, the action happens briskly. Even the gods come across as real people, despite the divine powers they exercise constantly. Both works have been hailed by scholars and the public for the powerful language that brings clashing, pulsing life to these ancient masterpieces.
Product Description
Robert Fagless stunning modern-verse translationavailable at last in our black-spine classics line
The Odyssey is literatures grandest evocation of everymans journey through life. In the myths and legends that are retold here, renowned translator Robert Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homers original in a bold, contemporary idiom and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general reader, and to captivate a new generation of Homers students.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 86
 Could you bend Odysseus' bow? January 27, 2010
Ron Braithwaite (El Indio, Texas United States)
Fagle's translation of the Odyssey is excellent as is Knox' knowledgeable foreward. During my life, I've read both the Iliad and Odyssey half a dozen times or more, by various translators, and regard Fagle's version as the best. I don't read Greek, ancient or modern, so, like most of us, I am unable to read the subtleties, glory and poetry of the original tales. I rather suspect, however, the Fagle's interpretation gets us close, indeed.
Every time I read the story...at different stages of my life...I read different things into the tale. This times, perhaps, I am more aware of the duplicity that is the very substance of the hero, Odysseus. Lies...complex, detailed lies...flow from his lips as easily and quickly as water poured from a flask. True, his lies usually serve a 'greater' purpose, but they are still lies...a fact of which gives Odysseus no problem.
Since reading the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' as a teenager, I've always been partial to the directness and overall simplicity of the 'Iliad.' Believability is also a factor. The Trojan War, some of the characters in it and some of the action details are almost certainly based in reality. The 'Odyssey', far lesss so. It seems to be a collection of out-and-out fables in which Odysseus is the primary player. Still....even fables may have echoes of the truth. Could Odysseus have been away from Ithaca for twenty years and would his wife have remained faithful all this time? Quite possibly.
The story of Odysseus' experiences with the goddesses, Circe and Calypso, are fascinating but, of course, fabulous. They also account for most of the time Odysseus spends on his long path home. This might be a fanciful way of dealing with reality. Odysseus may have been captured on his way home and held as a slave. This reality could definitely 'eat up' years of time but the Circe/Calypso stories are far more interesting and add to Odysseus' reputation as a very accomplished ladies man. Later, although, Odysseus has spent so much time as a virtual sexual slave to the goddesses, he happily recounts the adventures to his wife, Penelope. Penelope isn't offended. Afterall, her husband turned down goddesses and eternal blissful life, in favor of return to his wife of many years. It's one heck of a compliment.
There are a couple of other features that I noted that, again, may be rooted in reality. Twice, Odysseus lies that he is from Crete and that he led an unsuccessful attack on the peoples of the Nile Delta. A number of Egyptian accounts report accounts of attacks by 'The Peoples of the Sea'. Could the Achaean Greeks, in their black ships, have been some, or most, of the Sea Peoples?
Also, the death of Agammemnon, should also be noted. This may also be based on reality. Agammemnon, commander of all Achaean Greek forces against Troy, and King of Achaea's most powerful city, Mycenae, is slain by his wife and her lover. The motive is given as sexual infidelity and greed...greed for the throne of Mycenae. In the Odyssey we learn a fascinating 'detail'. Clytemnestra, Agammemnon's murderous wife, slaughters the slave-captive, Cassandra, on Agammemnon's just-killed body.
Hmmmmmm? Why would Clytemnestra kill a valuable slave? Cassandra, of course, was a Princess of demolished Troy and had been violently raped during the destruction of the city. Nevertheless, it would appear that Clytemnestra hated or feared Cassandra. Why? Probably the oldest reason of all...sexual jealousy. Cassandra's murder suggests that the REAL motive for Agammemnon's killing is quite different than usually represented. He may have preferred the company of Cassandra to that of his queen. Clytemnestra reacted with her well-known violence...a woman jilted.
Also, is it conceivable that the Queen, Penelope, could be held virtual prisoner in her own palace...for years...by 100 or so rampaging suitors? The answer must be 'No' but there are some interesting things to note. Odysseus' father, Laertes, would logically be King, but his son, Odysseus, IS King, which leaves a 20 year vacancy to the throne. We learn that Laertes, mourning over his lost son, lives in rags and poverty as a barely surviving farmer. Possible. Depression and/or mental illness. But why not Odysseus' son, Telemachus?
At the time the first suitors might have 'settled in' to pay court to Penolope and to eat up her wealth, Telemachus would have been underaged. The suitors, who would have become more arrogant and confident, would scarecely have Telemachus the opportunity to claim the throne. Still......it's a far-fetched tale.
Ron Braithwaite, author of novels...'Skull Rack' and 'Hummingbird God'...on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
Great collector's item November 8, 2009
Gene C. Harrison (Phoenix, AZ USA)
Nicely packaged hardcover double book set, promptly delivered.
This is a great translation. Has a long introduction giving historical context. Not intimidating for the first-timer. Although I did my own research ahead of time regarding the translator and the quality of the translation, it would be helpful to provide reviews of the translator and the translation on these types of books.
It was exactly what I ordered August 7, 2009
K. Borduin
It's a book of Homer - VERSE! Don't buy it if you need the PROSE version.
Outstanding July 4, 2009
WontonSoup
Brand new as seller listed; still in plastic package.
fast delivery
great price!
saved probably $15 buying on here than buying at borders or barnes and noble.
women want him, men want to be him May 11, 2009
S. Matthews (Mainz, Germany)
Well maybe. Really, men like to think that women want him, the way men think women are seduced by cars. There have been a lot more male fans of the Odyssey than female ones.
The reason why the Odyssey has survived is essentially that it is the original ripping yarn and Odysseus himself is the original thinking man of action (one could even say 'naval' thinking man of action: stand up e.g. Commander Bond and Captain Kirk). This is the tale of how our hero, having disposed of Troy with a trick (naturally), makes his difficult way home to Ithaca across the Mediterranean, thinking his way out of tricky situations, stopping off to enjoy occasional good food and wine, and - very important - seducing various beautiful and extremely dangerous babes, or 'nymphs', as Homer calls them (the best Bond ever managed, I personally think, was probably Barbara Carrera's Fatima Blush - on a tropical island, and, if I do not misremember, even braided hair at one point - but Odysseus manages to make it effortlessly with Circe and Calypso), before returning to his spectacular, and, all things considered, impressively faithful, wife.
The final scenes include the archetype for all those action movies where the hero, having tricked his way into the middle of the baddies, gets his hands on a loaded weapon - the pre-echo of an automatic pistol being cocked is almost audible at the moment he strings his bow.
Vastly entertaining, even if my first encounter with the maids scene in an unexpurgated version made me blink a bit.
Oh, and Fagles' translation is very readable.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 86
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