The Odyssey
The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles
Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Christopher Nolan
A Penguin Classic
Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. "Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy." So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey, which Jasper Griffin in the New York Times Book Review hails as "a distinguished achievement."
If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of an everyman's journey through life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.
In the myths and legends retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb introduction and textual commentary provide insightful background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles's translation. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general reader, to captivate a new generation of Homer's students. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition features French flaps and deckle-edged paper.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Christopher Nolan
A Penguin Classic
Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. "Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy." So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey, which Jasper Griffin in the New York Times Book Review hails as "a distinguished achievement."
If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of an everyman's journey through life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.
In the myths and legends retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb introduction and textual commentary provide insightful background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles's translation. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general reader, to captivate a new generation of Homer's students. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition features French flaps and deckle-edged paper.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Community Reviews
As with the Iliad, Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey is enjoyable, delightfully uncomplicated, and faithful to the epic's oral storytelling roots. It reads smoothly and makes it easy to see why these stories have endured for so long.
Of course, my feelings about the epic itself are about as complicated as the man it's about. This is not a story about a hero. It's a cautionary tale about the dangers of following a self-serving, egomaniacal, and often uncaring leader.
Odysseus, for reasons beyond my understanding, is celebrated as a hero. He's praised for being clever and intelligent, but he wouldn't be trusted with a supervisory role at Popeyes, given the number of decisions he makes that get his men killed along the way. He and his crew steal and eat the Cyclops's sheep and cheese, then somehow find the moral high ground and call him a savage. Odysseus even taunts the Cyclops on the way out, which predictably leads to more deaths. He spends his journey home sleeping with multiple women, yet Penelope is expected to remain perfectly faithful. And Telemachus? This kid deserved more than a few resounding, head-turning slaps for the way he treats his mum throughout much of the story.
Greek mythology is a lot like our modern social hierarchies. The gods are deceitful, greedy, jealous, petty, and only occasionally compassionate, much like corporate overlords pulling strings from above. Kings and lords carry out the gods' wishes and fight their wars, much as middle managers follow orders and are rewarded with a share of the comforts and privileges, provided they remain obedient.
Meanwhile, the burden of morality falls on everyone else. The shepherds, swineherds, slaves, servants, and foot soldiers are expected to be humble, dutiful, kind, and endlessly patient. They bear the consequences of decisions made far above them, and if they step out of line or raise their voice a little too loudly, cruelty or death is never far behind. For all its monsters and magic, the social order in the Odyssey feels pretty familiar.
The other half of Homer's extant epic poetry, this is the tale of that wayward man, Odysseus, as he is driven off course again & again by the anger of Poseidon, stripped of his friends and the trappings of glory he has accumulated through war. Or at least, its the tale that Odysseus sells the Phaeacians so they'll give him a ride home. Maybe he was just in Egypt raiding alongside Menelaus! In any event, Odysseus punishes the suitors of his wife for their ill treatment of his hearth & home.
I love this book! It's my favorite! I love Greek Mythology and this was so interesting! After I finished this book I started to love Epic the musical!
An excellent translation that uncovers many of the complexities of the characters, particular female ones. Wilson's translation uncovers vivid expressions bypassed in other translations.
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