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Odyssey

by Homer, Fagles
Odyssey

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ISBN13: 9780140268867
ISBN10: 0140268863
Condition: Standard


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Awards

A Time magazine Best Book of 1996

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

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 Review of Books hails as "a distinguished achievement."

If The Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then The Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of 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 the timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends that are 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 new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.

This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

Review

"The greatest strength of Fagles' Homeric translations is that they do nothing to slow the narrative. If anything, they argue that, used well, verse can move faster than prose....Altogether, an outstanding piece of work." Stuart Whitwell, Booklist

Review

"Robert Fagles' new translation of the Odyssey restores the original joys of the performing bard." Paul Gray, Time

Review

"Wonderfully readable....Just the right blend of sophistication and roughness it seems to me." Ted Hughes

Review

"Did the world need one more translation of The Odyssey? Yes. In Robert Fagles' lucid, muscular verse, these ancient measures stalk across the page in march time, from the first sight of 'young Dawn with her rose-red fingers' to the moment when the last suitor has been slaughtered and Odysseus takes Penelope to bed." Newsweek

Synopsis

The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles
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 Reviewhails 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.

"

Synopsis

Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem, recounting the great wandering of Odysseus during his ten-year voyage back home to Ithaca, after the Trojan War. A superb new verse translation, now published in trade paperback, before the standard Penguin Classic B format.

Synopsis

If The Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then The Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus's 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.

Translated by Robert Fagles

Introduction and Notes by Bernard Knox


About the Author

Robert Fagles, the winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, is Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University and received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Yale University.

Bernard Knox is Director Emeritus of Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C.


Table of Contents

The Odyssey Introduction

Introduction

The Spelling and Pronunciation of Homeris Names

Maps:

1. Homeric Geography: Mainland Greece

2. Homeric Geography: The Peloponnese

3. Homeric Geography: The Aegean and Asia Minor

Homer: The Odyssey

Book 1: Athena Inspires the Prince

Book 2: Telemachus Sets Sail

Book 3: King Nestor Remembers

Book 4: The King and Queen of Sparta

Book 5: Odysseus-Nymph and Shipwreck

Book 6: The Princess and the Stranger

Book 7: Phaeacia's Halls and Gardens

Book 8: A Day for Songs and Contests

Book 9: In the One-Eyed Giant's Cave

Book 10: The Bewitched Queen of Aeaea

Book 11: The Kingdom of the Dead

Book 12: The Cattle of the Sun

Book 13: Ithaca at Last

Book 14: The Loyal Swineherd

Book 15: The Prince Sets Sail for Home

Book 16: Father and Son

Book 17: Stranger at the Gates

Book 18: The Beggar-King of Ithaca

Book 19: Penelope and her Guest

Book 20: Portents Gather

Book 21: Odysseus Stings his Bow

Book 22: Slaughter in the Hall

Book 23: The Great Rooted Bed

Book 24: Peace

Notes

Translator's Postscript

Genealogies

Textual Variants from the Oxford Classical Text

Notes on the Translation

Suggestions for Further Reading

Pronouncing Glossary


Reading Group Guide

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Since Athena knows that Odysseus is alive, why doesn't she tell Telemachus, rather than sending him "in quest of news of your long-lost father"? (p. 86)

2. When she and Menelaus tell their stories about past times in Troy and the missing Odysseus, Helen drugs the wine so no one will feel any pain. Are we to think that she is wise or unwise in doing so?

3. Why does Odysseus reject Calypso's offer of immortality?

4. In Phaeacia, why doesn't Odysseus immediately identify himself to Alcinous and Arete?

5. In telling the story of the Cyclops, Odysseus says that he led some of his men to their deaths and then further endangered the rest of his crew by taunting Polyphemus as they escaped by boat. Since there are no other witnesses present when he tells this story, why does Odysseus show himself in such an unfavorable light?

6. How are the fate and death of Odysseus, as prophesied by Tiresias, different from those of Agamemnon and Achilles, both of whom Odysseus meets in the House of the Dead?

7. Why does Odysseus tell such long, elaborate, untrue stories about his life to introduce himself to Athena, Eumaeus, and Penelope? Are the stories in some sense truthful?

8. Why doesn't Penelope bring the suitors' courting to an end when she knows for certain that they have plotted to murder Telemachus?

9. Does Odysseus mean to warn Amphinomus about his plan to kill the suitors so that he can save himself? Why has Athena nevertheless "bound him fast to death"? (p. 381)

10. Why doesn't Odysseus explicitly reveal himself to Penelope before proceeding with his plans?

11. Why does Telemachus hang the serving women "so all might die a pitiful, ghastly death" (p. 454) instead of killing them as his father prescribes, cleanly with swords?

12. Why does Odysseus think it best to probe and test his aged father Laertes in every way, instead of revealing himself at once?


4.7 3

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.7 (3 comments)

`
Raquel , January 01, 2012
This college semester was a journey of "firsts" for me-- first semester at university, first time living in a different state than my family, first time living in a big city, first time seeing a drug deal, first Muslim friend, first agnostic friend, first this and first that. Much like Telemachus' transformation in the Odyssey, I developed from my innocent, naive, and immature self to one with more knowledge and maturity. Much like Odysseus' journey homeward, I had new experiences which brought me to the home of my existence, my heart and soul. In these ways, and more, I related to Homer's Odyssey. But even still... had I not been so closely attached to the epic poem, the story of adventure, betrayal, deceit, renewal, reunion, love, testing, and ultimate reconciliation stands alone--spanning the test of time-- to bring true satisfaction. Let Homer be your guy. Let the Odyssey be your book.

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dougnlis , December 08, 2009 (view all comments by dougnlis)
waitingtoleave compares various translations, and I can't comment on Greek words or metrical sense. I can say that Fagles propels his story along swiftly and entices the reader into his form of metrical rendering of the text. The Odyssey is an intensely modern work in its structure. Presenting it as a collection of short stories or isolated events has insulted the genius of its story telling. A few lines after the beginning, rendered by Fagles as "Sing to me of the man, Muse," comes the odd direction, "launch out where you will - sing for our time too." In ancient times that may have allowed an oral presenter to take up the story at any point, but hints that the story doesn't have to unwind chronologically so long as the beginning and end are included. So the story twists and turns. The Odyssey is told with a cinematic sense of scene cuts and flashbacks and questionably reliable narrators. Fagles makes of this epic a book that lets readers plow through as with a modern novel, allowing the metric arrangement of lines the text to provide a sense of antiquity while translating a sense of the original text so it sings for our time too. "Translator's Postscript" and "Notes on the Translation" satisfied my need for detail on how other times might have taken in The Odyssey for their own times. I bow to waitingtoleave for his ability to compare translations. I embrace this Fagles translation as utterly fulfilling for me reading in my time. Knowing the Odyssey only through renderings of isolated bits and pieces (tricking the Cyclops, threading Scylla and Charybdis, etc., etc.) might meet the command to "launch where you will," but fails to tell anything like the tale of the man of twists and turns that Fagles presents, and doesn't hint at the other plot threads following the wife and son of Odysseus that twine together to make the complete tale.

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waitingtoleave , September 29, 2007 (view all comments by waitingtoleave)
this is an amazing book, with something for anyone. if you are interested in studying philosophy, you'll find it here. but, you can also read a great adventure story with fables and a love story written in. in that sense, this is a great translation; if you want to read this for the sake of entertainment, Fagles is a great translator. if you want to read for philosophical discussion, however, he might not serve your purposes. the thing you have to know about Fagles is, he often inserts adjectives and the feel of the entire story changes. so, if you want fidelity to the Greek words, try Lattimore. if you want fidelity to the Greek metrical sense, try Mandelbaum or Pope. and if you want fidelity to the Greek adventure epic, Fagles is your guy.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780140268867
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
11/01/1997
Publisher:
PENGUIN PUTNAM TRADE
Series info:
Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition
Pages:
560
Height:
1.50IN
Width:
5.70IN
Thickness:
1.50
Age Range:
18 and up
Grade Range:
13 and up
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
1996
Series Volume:
EPA-650/2-74-081
UPC Code:
2800140268869
Author:
Homer
Author:
Robert Fagles
Intro:
Bernard Knox
Author:
Homer
Author:
Fagles
Subject:
Classical literature
Subject:
Epic literature
Subject:
Poetry (poetic works by one author)
Subject:
Epic poetry, Greek
Subject:
Continental european
Subject:
Odysseus
Subject:
Odysseus (Greek mythology)
Subject:
Classics-Medieval and Renaissance General

Ships free on qualified orders.
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$13.95
List Price:$19.00
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
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4Burnside
4Cedar Hills
3Hawthorne
7Local Warehouse

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