Translator: Robert Fitzgerald
Published: 800 B.C.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages: 515
Penelope works years and years to ward of suitors, and must face remarrying or giving up her home - whereas Odysseus is able to sleep with as many women as he wants on his travels. Not to mention that Odysseus can be a hot head, and that is what gets him into trouble. And then there's the complete lack of a resolving ending at the end of the book!
All in all, though, The Odyssey was a more enjoyable read. The students in my class joked that it was like "The Hangover" of The Iliad. This time around, we could see much more clearly the consequences of pride, which had been exalted in The Iliad), and the story itself had a plot: Odysseus trying to come home. The Iliad is men fighting at the will of the gods, and stopping at the will of the gods.
But as we continued to read other Greek works in my course, The Odyssey rarely came up again - but The Iliad was referenced plenty. I will say that I don't think you should read only one of the books - I think they should both be read together to fully appreciate the contrast. But The Odyssey will be the easier read for most.
"Here there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand." --SEAMUS HEANEYI found The Odyssey much more enjoyable than the first - mostly because I think Odysseus introduces a new theme in a bland setting (that only included honor and glory in The Iliad): family. And yet, the failings here are very similar to that of The Iliad.
Robert Fitzgerald's is the best and best-loved modern translation of The Odyssey, and the only one admired in its own right as a great poem in English. Fitzgerald's supple verse is ideally suited to the story of Odysseus' long journey back to his wife and home after the Trojan War. Homer's tale of love, adventure, food and drink, sensual pleasure, and mortal danger reaches the English-language reader in all its glory.
Penelope works years and years to ward of suitors, and must face remarrying or giving up her home - whereas Odysseus is able to sleep with as many women as he wants on his travels. Not to mention that Odysseus can be a hot head, and that is what gets him into trouble. And then there's the complete lack of a resolving ending at the end of the book!
All in all, though, The Odyssey was a more enjoyable read. The students in my class joked that it was like "The Hangover" of The Iliad. This time around, we could see much more clearly the consequences of pride, which had been exalted in The Iliad), and the story itself had a plot: Odysseus trying to come home. The Iliad is men fighting at the will of the gods, and stopping at the will of the gods.
But as we continued to read other Greek works in my course, The Odyssey rarely came up again - but The Iliad was referenced plenty. I will say that I don't think you should read only one of the books - I think they should both be read together to fully appreciate the contrast. But The Odyssey will be the easier read for most.
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