The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation

I won't be the one to say that Homer was of no literary prowess. He paved the way for some of the greatest literary works of mankind (Without The Odyssey, there wouldn't have been James Joyce's Ulysses...a must-read). I am just saying that The Odyssey wasn't quite the enthralling read that it's made out to be. Certainly it was one of the best works of its time. But the narration becomes stale quite rapidly. Other than that I have no qualms. It has created some truly fascinating characters {i.e. Telemachus, Penelope, and (duh) Odysseus} . But read it if you must. If you get bored like I did, don't say I didn't warn you.

Robert Fitzgerald's translation of the Odyssey is my favorite. His images are crisp and nestled in a comfortable approximation of iambic pentameter. Seamus Heaney's introduction is AWESOME: it is worth the price of the book and more.

Unlike many epic poems (the Iliad, Beowulf), in which the bulk of the story focuses on the adventures and departure from home of the hero, the Odyssey focuses on going home. This theme of returning is one generally given scant attention in other epics--the homeward journey is usually mentioned briefly at the end to sort of wrap up the story. Not so with the Odyssey.

Of course, Odysseus's ultimate test comes in ridding his house of the suitors, and it seems as if everything else is preparatory to that end. With all the hardships he suffered at Troy, with all the difficulties in sailing for home, there remains one test for "the master tactician:" that of cleansing his own home.

It goes without saying that the Odyssey is a classic masterpiece, a wonderful story of a man fighting for survival and wanting to regain his lost life. This translation by Robert Fitzgerald is excellent. Like his translation of the Iliad, Fitzgerald does a wonderful job here of retaining much of the feeling of the poem. If you've never read this classic, its time you did. The Odyssey is captivating, from beginning to end.

No review of the world's great literature is complete without a reading of "The Odyssey", a dazzling and timeless tale of love, honor and courage told in spellbinding fashion. An amazing feat even today, but especially for its time, Homer's epic is a magnificent work to behold. Few works since have come close to capturing its sweeping drama and majesty.

"The Odyssey" sets the standard for dramatic treatment of many of the grand themes of literature that we take for granted today. Place this masterpiece on your "A" list.

I am not a scholar of classical studies and I probably missed a lot of the art in Odyssey, since, after all, this is only a translation. But I still found this book to be really beautiful and also fascinating.

The beauty resides in its unexpected characters and events and in the way the whole thing is narrated in a very sensitive and poetical way. It has been said that the main topics in the Odyssey are universal (family, home, exile, treason) and this is certainly true. But reading Homer, we realize how much our civilization has evolved. In the Odyssey, we plunge back into a world dominated by the fantastic. Anything can happen and Odysseus' reality is the stuff of dreams and nightmares alike. Also and more interestingly, we go back to a world dominated entirely by Fate where humans barely have control of anything. The gods, in this pre-christian world, capriciously rule everyones' life according to their all too human moods. Humans, saved or doomed for reasons mostly beyond their control, are left to laugh and feast when things go well and to cry and mourn when tragedy strikes. What distinguishes the hero is his or her courage and determination in the face of inevitable adversity.

Emotions is really what the Odyssey presents to us. Odysseus' oarsmen do a good deal of crying, actually they cry every time they are scared, and there is also a good deal of anger,despair, courage and hope. But above all, the Odyssey is about brave and uncomplicated human beings. When Odysseus finally comes home after twenty years, he goes to visit his father. He sees him from the distance, tending to his garden, and finds him very old, impoverished and tired. Odysseus leans on a pear tree, cries a little and only then proceeds to meet him. The two simple lines it takes to narrate this pause are straightforward and powerful.

To sum it up, this is the wonderful story about us and our world long before we tried to understand it, to control it and to explain and over-explain it all. I guess the purity of action in Odysseus is what makes it a universal myth. For this reason only, to rediscover our original helpless condition and our potential courageous response to it, this book is a real gem.