The Voyages of Odysseus

by Homer, E.V. Rieu (Translator), D.C.H. Rieu (Translator, Editor)

Penguin 60 excerpt from The Odyssey

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Short Stories

56 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Homer (Greek: Όμηρος born c. 8th century BC) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.
Homer's Iliad centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. The Odyssey chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy. The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. Despite being predominantly known for its tragic and serious themes, the Homeric poems also contain instances of comedy and laughter.
Homer's epic poems shaped aspects of ancient Greek culture and education, fostering ideals of heroism, glory, and honor. To Plato, Homer was simply the one who "has taught Greece" (τὴν Ἑλλάδα πεπαίδευκεν). In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Virgil refers to Homer as "Poet sovereign", king of all poets; in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, Alexander Pope acknowledges that Homer has always been considered the "greatest of poets". From antiquity to the present day, Homeric epics have inspired many famous works of literature, music, art, and film.
The question of by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed continues to be debated. Scholars remain divided as to whether the two works are the product of a single author. It is thought that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity; the most widespread account was that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.

French: Homère, Italian: Omero, Portuguese, Spanish: Homero.

Reviews

[Daren]

Three excerpts of Homer's The Odyssey, published as a Penguin 60s Classic.
This is a different translator than the Penguin Little Black Classic excerpt Circe and the Cyclops, and to my mind a much better translation - much more fluid.

The three selections here are Odysseus' encounter with the cyclops; then with Circe the witch; and finally with Scylla and Charybdis.

There were well selected and all interesting and worked well as excerpts with a start, a narrative and an ending.

As I gave the Little Black Classic 3 stars, and this was much better, I guess we are in four star territory here!

[Isabella]

Read this for literature class at school and the funny thing was it was soooooooooo.......... boring In the beginning like I got out of that class feeling so asleep..XD but once the book continued it got soo interesting
DEFINITELY read if ur into Greek mythology or just myths PERIOD! ♥♥♥

[Andrew Galvin]

I picked this up back in the 90s when the Penguin 60s were published to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Penguin, the publishing house. I'd always been intimidated to start reading Homer because, well, he's like 3,000 years old and Greek, and I figured I'd get bored and quit reading. But this excerpt looked manageable so I decided to give it a go. Well, I had no idea that Homer put so much humor into the story! I really enjoyed this excerpt and I went on to read the whole book. It just goes to show, sometimes you just need help overcoming your own ignorance.

[rosey]

interesting read after circe

[Dieuw Roza]

5/5 verhaal 3/5 vertaling

[h]

4.5
Men

[Jo]

Read for a group session on the Odyssey film, which I haven’t seen. The facilitator is a classics lecturer. She hated this prose version when she read it at school, but I found it interesting and informative.

[Ved Gupta]

I picked this book with great expectations especially after reading The Iliad by Homer but this one was unnecessarily lengthy and boring to some extent. The stories are quite monotonous and predictable.

[P Fosten]

Well, I'd like to read a full version but basically Odysseus is a douche bag :)

[Amber Hao]

Odysseus speaks like your typical hyperbolic guy. I would have raised my eyebrows a couple of times if I was being told his stories to... Still, Homer writes cleverly, and it's an enjoyable read :)