homer's epics

[ShadesWolf]

So who has read them?
and what do yo u think?

[Subotan]

I started reading Ulysses by James Joyce
I realised I had no idea what was going on
I bought the Odyssey, thinking it would be a bit dry/dull
Only to be very pleasantly surprised when it turned out that it was very easily readable, and with a contempoaryish plot. I loved it.
In short: buy them, and read them.

[ShadesWolf]

Which translation did you read of Odyssey?

Ive read the lattimore and listened to the samuel Butler version. Quite similar but quite different intersting how different people tranlate the meaning of certain greek words and which meaning they use.

[Prince Cobra]

I read Iliad seven years ago. There are still two years left before the fall of Troy. ~:p I haven't read Odysseus, though the character is my favourite hero in the Troy epic. His adventures are also very fascinating.

It is clear I did because we studied it at school and apart from few expressions, there was not anything intriguing in the story. As a matter of fact, before reading the Iliad, I read a compilation (500 pages) with the basic Greek myths and legends. The events in the Iliad are disappointingly small part of what happened. It does not depict the fall of Troy and what happens with most of the characters. The Agamemnon's family (his treacherous wife and his son bound to avenge his father), Odysseus and his avdentures, and even the Roman propaganda about the Troyan survivovors... Some of the plots are quite intriguing.


Sign,

:apple: "To the most beautiful"

[caravel]

The Robert Fitzgerald translations (in prose) of the Iliad and Odyssey are quite good. There are a lot of other translations to consider however.

[CountArach]

I ok a course in this semester gone by called Ancient Epic in which we read the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid and Lucan's Civil War. Of the four I found the Civil War to be most interesting because of the way it completely subverts the genre. But out of the two Greek ones I found the Odyssey to be far more interesting while I thought the Iliad was probably the better written of the two.

Also Homer didn't exist as a single person... just sayin'

[Megas Methuselah]

I like how "Homer" measures the wealth of individuals by their flocks of animals. Very dark age-ish.

[Meneldil]

The Odyssey is freaking cool. The Illiad...not so much.

[InsaneApache]

You know the very first lesson I had at grammar school was classical studies. September the 6th 1971.

It was the Iliad we did and I was instantly hooked. I loved all the names and the plot. Betrayal, love, lust, war and freindships made and lost. What's there not to like?

The following term we did the Odyssey. Even better. Man gets mucked about by the Gods on his way home from the war. Lots of smiting and weird creatures. Again, what's not to like.

It provoked an interest in the ancients that I still hold today. I'm full of admiration of what they did. Simply amazing.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Yeah, I've read it. All three parts. I loved the vivid descriptions, the poetry of the language. And the many battle scenes. My favourite bits are Galadriel's mirror and the scene when Faramir dies when he leads an assault from Minas Tirith.

[al Roumi]

I like how "Homer" measures the wealth of individuals by their flocks of animals. Very dark age-ish.

It's still a fairly common measure of wealth and power in many contemporary cultures -admitedly those not so far removed from pastoralism.

[Megas Methuselah]

It's still a fairly common measure of wealth and power in many contemporary cultures -admitedly those not so far removed from pastoralism.

Yeah, and pastoralism was supposedly more prominent than farming in Dark Age Greece.

[Azathoth]

Yeah, I've read it. All three parts. I loved the vivid descriptions, the poetry of the language. And the many battle scenes. My favourite bits are Galadriel's mirror and the scene when Faramir dies when he leads an assault from Minas Tirith.

Faramir doesn't die.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Faramir doesn't die.

Gosh, dang it. I suppose then that this gives away I haven't really read the Iliad and Odysseus.

[Subotan]

Which translation did you read of Odyssey?

Ive read the lattimore and listened to the samuel Butler version. Quite similar but quite different intersting how different people tranlate the meaning of certain greek words and which meaning they use.

Fitzgerald. It read like a modern fantasy novel, without the made up words and acne.

Gosh, dang it. I suppose then that this gives away I haven't really read the Iliad and Odysseus.

Your total lack of understanding of the Dune Trilogy showed you up there.

[KrooK]

I have read Iliad and part of Odyssey. Oddyssey is better because Homer made it later.
He was simply more skilled as a poet. Anyway I think these books should be read together with Eneide.
Wergiliusz made good add on :)

[CountArach]

I have read Iliad and part of Odyssey. Oddyssey is better because Homer made it later.
He was simply more skilled as a poet.

Most scholars believe that the Odyssey was written down about 50 years after the Iliad, thus making it highly unlikely that a single author made both poems. Both are collections of a far earlier oral tradition that was passed down orally from one poet to another until it was written down. Even after being written down many versions existed until the version we had was put down, which was written for one of the Athenian religious festivals, where poets would recite Homeric poems in a competition. Standardising the text was important for Athens, most obviously so that there was a single text all authors could agree on and compete with. However, it was also important so that they could put a bit more focus on their very small appearances (Such as during the catalogue of ships).

[Megas Methuselah]

Most scholars believe that the Odyssey was written down about 50 years after the Iliad, thus making it highly unlikely that a single author made both poems. Both are collections of a far earlier oral tradition that was passed down orally from one poet to another until it was written down. Even after being written down many versions existed until the version we had was put down, which was written for one of the Athenian religious festivals, where poets would recite Homeric poems in a competition. Standardising the text was important for Athens, most obviously so that there was a single text all authors could agree on and compete with. However, it was also important so that they could put a bit more focus on their very small appearances (Such as during the catalogue of ships).

God knows how many versions of the epics there were. It's likely that every poet/bard that recited the poems off by heart probably added their own spice to it.

[Fragony]

Gosh, dang it. I suppose then that this gives away I haven't really read the Iliad and Odysseus.

Well that's one of the greatest of all French traditions