"Odyssey" (BR)

[Soo]

Between the group challenges & general discussion, it looks like we're going to explore several classics this year. Yay!

Following the Iliad, we'll take on Homer's Odyssey.

Buddy Read Starts on February 12th, 2019

No worries about using spoilers on this thread. Feel free to share all thoughts, ideas, impressions, etc.

[Dawn F]

Woohoo, looking forward to it!

[Beth]

Yay! I might start a few days early. I am thinking Friday or Saturday.

Interrupting my reading of Metamorphoses (which I started in January) might be a bit awkward but I can always get back to it later.

[Soo]

Okay, I ended up getting the A.T. Murray translation because Charlton Griffin is the narrator for that one. I love his narration! I hope the translation will be good too!

I was hoping to find a Richmond Lattimore translation audiobook but I didn't find one at either my library or Audible.

Starting tonight.

[Anat]

I still don't have the book in my hands (buying Fagles' box set) so I won't be joining at this time, but looking forward to your thoughts about the different versions.

[Anisha Inkspill]

I started reading this last week, translations I'm reading are The Odyssey: A New Translation by Peter Green & The Odyssey

I've got up to book 9 - cyclops - had a few eeeuwww moments, I know we can put spoilers here but this one - when you get to it you'll see it's better I did not warn you

[Beth]

I started the Emily Wilson translation yesterday. Loved the introduction, I thought it was very insightful. I will be referring back to it later. Is anyone else reading this version? I have read the introduction and book 1.

A few years ago I read the Fagles translation and really enjoyed it.

[Soo]

I'm listening to Murray. There was a part that made me make faces but I realized later that Murray had written up a summary of Odyssey before going into it. That part was very dry. The actual translation seems fairly close to Alexander Pope's. Charlton Griffin is doing a great job narrating it.

[Soo]

Not sure where due audiobook listening but I enjoyed the meeting between Odysseus & his mother. Bittersweet. =)

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

Beth I will be reading the Emily Wilson translation but I’m afraid you will all be pretty far ahead of me.

I’m currently trying to get through Black Leopard, Red Wolf, then I have 2/3 more books to get through after that. Unfortunately the length and complexity of BLRW has held me up a great deal more than expected.

[Dawn F]

Thanks to everyone who has recommended Robert Fagles' translation, I'm listening to Ian McKellen reading it and it's brilliantly translated (and narrated of course). I prefer the story of the Iliad but I'm really enjoying the writing far more than I knew I could.

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

Oooh! Ian McKellen reads it? That’s pretty tempting.

[Dawn F]

Yup, couldn't resist that!

[Anisha Inkspill]

Beth wrote: "Yay! I might start a few days early. I am thinking Friday or Saturday.

Interrupting my reading of Metamorphoses (which I started in January) might be a bit awkward but I can always get..."

I read this translation last year, the story of how Odysseus outwits Aiax over Achilles's armour - poor guy I thought.

[Anisha Inkspill]

Soo wrote: "Not sure where due audiobook listening but I enjoyed the meeting between Odysseus & his mother. Bittersweet. =)"

oh what a shock it was for him, and when he tries to hug her, awwww

[Anisha Inkspill]

Sarah wrote: "Beth I will be reading the Emily Wilson translation but I’m afraid you will all be pretty far ahead of me.

I’m currently trying to get through Black Leopard, Red Wolf, then I have 2/3 more books t..."

I'm hoping to pick this one up down the line - let me know what you thin of it

[Beth]

One of my favorite moments, when Odysseus is caught in the storm sent by Poseidon in book 5:

His skin would have been ripped away, his bones smashed,
had not Athena given him a thought.
He grabbed a rock as he was swept along
with both hands, and clung to it, groaning, till
the wave passed by. But then the swell rushed back,
and struck him hard and hurled him out to sea.
As when an octopus, dragged from its den,
has many pebbles sticking to its suckers,
so strong his hands were skinned against the rocks.

some spoilery stuff:
(view spoiler)[
At the end of book 8, the bard stops singing so as not to disturb Odysseus. It's an interesting contrast with book 1, where this is exactly what doesn't happen -- Telemachus sends his mother upstairs instead.

I loved Book 11: The Dead, in which Odysseus meets his mother, Achilles, Ajax, and some other characters.

My lord Odysseus,
you fox! What will you think of next? How could you
bear to come down to Hades? Numb dead people
live here, the shades of poor exhausted mortals.
(hide spoiler)]

[Anisha Inkspill]

Beth wrote: "One of my favorite moments, when Odysseus is caught in the storm sent by Poseidon in book 5:

His skin would have been ripped away, his bones smashed,
had not Athena given him a thought.
He grabbe..."

nice desc - esp the simile to Octopus

[Anat]

I finally got my box set of Fagles translations, so I started this and of course I'm enjoying his translation a lot, tho the story so far (I finished Book 4) isn't as fast paced as the Iliad.

[Beth]

Great!

[Quantum]

Late last year (after over a year), I finally finished reading the Fagles to my daughter as bedtime storytime. I guess I'm used to the more "traditional" translation, but it's still an awesome story.

@Beth - excellent quote!