Odyssey - 97 edition

by Homer and Robert translator Fagles

Odyssey (ISBN10: 0140445293; ISBN13: 9780140445299)

ISBN13: 978-0140445299
ISBN10: 0140445293

Summary: By its evocation of a real or imaged heroic age, its contrasts of character and its variety of adventure, above all by its sheer narrative power, the Odyssey has won and preserved its place among the greatest tales in the world. It tells of Odysseus' adventurous wanderings as he returns from the long war at Troy to his home in the Greek island of Ithaca, where his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus have been waiting for him for twenty years. He meets a one-eyed ...show more giant, Polyphemus the Cyclops; he visits the underworld; he faces the terrible monsters Scylla and Charybdis; he extricates himself from the charms of Circe and Calypso. After these and numerous other legendary encounters he finally reaches home, where, disguised as a beggar, he begins to plan revenge on the suitors who have for years been besieging Penelope and feasting on his own meat and wine with insolent impunity. The standard translation into modern English of Homer's Odyssey. "The best translation there is of a great, perhaps the greatest, poet."--New York Times Book Review "The best translation there is of a great, perhaps, the greatest poet."

--Rex Warner, New York Times Book Review

"This is the best Odyssey in modern English."

--Gilbert Highet

"Lattimore's translation of Homer's Odyssey is the most eloquent, persuasive and imaginative I have seen. It reads as if the poem had originally been written in English."

--Paul Engle

"A landmark in the history of modern translation....Lattimore has reanimated Homer for this generation, and perhaps for other generations to come."

--Times Literary Supplement (London)

This first self-contained edition of Books VI-VIII of the Odyssey -- the account of Odysseus' time among the Phaeacians -- serves also as a popular introduction to Homer. The Commentary provides guidance on questions of literary and narrative technique and poetic artistry. ...show less

Edition/Copyright: 97
Cover: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books, Inc.
Published: 10/28/2000