The Odyssey#1: Journey Begins

Instant Classics

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13d ago 17:23

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The Odyssey, along with its sister text, The Iliad, is often considered the bedrock of western literature. In it are the seeds of the road movie, the family drama, fantasy fiction, the Western, and any number of genres. It’s also being adapted in a soon to be released film starring Matt Damon as the wily hero, Odysseus. So what better choice of text for the inaugural Instant Classics Book Club?

The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and his (literally) epic journey home after the Greek war againstTroy. He encounters the man-eating cyclops, the dangerously alluring sirens (the original femmes fatales) – and he stops in the land of the lotus eaters, the land of blissful forgetfulness. But there is so much more to the story than a series of adventures. It’s also a story of what’s going on at home while he is away: his wife Penelope is trying to avoid being married off to one of a horde of ghastly “suitors” and his young son Telemachus learns how to be a man. The end is both happy and a grisly bloodbath.

Over the coming months, Mary and Charlotte are taking a deep dive into this greatest of all stories - and inviting you to read along with them. They’ll be sharing their lifetime’s enjoyment of it, putting it in context, and unpicking some occasionally tricky bits!

In this first episode, they set the scene, explaining why The Odyssey is such a pleasure, as well as historically significant, and providing the basic facts necessary to get going.

Pick a translation - any translation - and get going. And send your thoughts to [email protected]

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Mary and Charlotte’s recommended reads:

The translation we will be quoting from is that of Emily Wilson. But really any will do (there is another even more recent version by Daniel Mendelsohn, which we will be keeping an eye on too). There are also plenty available free online. Most of those are rather old (and sometimes sound a bit stilted), but you can find a more up to date version here: https://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/homer/odysseytofc.html

Both Wilson and Mendelsohn start with very useful introductions to the poem. But try also:

Barbara Graziosi, Homer: a very short introduction (OUP paperback, 2016)

Edith Hall, The Return of Ulysses (IB Tauris paperback, 2012) (you can download the whole book here: https://edithhall.co.uk/product/the-return-of-ulysses-a-cultural-history-of-homers-odyssey/)

The Open University has a useful website (“free course”) on the Odyssey, with links all kinds of articles (including one by Charlotte on the theme of “warrior home-comings”): https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/exploring-homers-odyssey/content-section-3

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