The Odyssey by Armitage, Simon. (W. W. Norton & Company,2008) [Paperback]

by Armitage

Odyssey (06) by Armitage, Simon [Paperback (2008)]

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Helen Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this sent me dreaming back to the days of my own Ithaca - teaching at Graveney School, and the blissful school production we put on of The Odyssey, in the green between two wonderfully old school buildings. I played violin underneath a huge willow tree and Billy played the keys as a troupe of student sailors marched in to the tune of What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor. It was bliss! And now I find myself far away, just like Odysseus (except less muscular and less Wiley, but definitely more forgiving) on the other side of the ocean, in a strange land that is it's own pleasant and beautiful Calypso island, but it is not home, not my Ithaca. The writing in this edition danced off the page, and there were moments long after reading this in my day, when my thoughts would be lost, wandering in the underworld, or admiring the magnificent oak tree bed that Penelope and Odysseus built their home around. Thanks to Armitage, I think this has opened up a treasure cove of exploration - maybe greek literature is far more accessible and exciting than I ever imagined. 🤤

[deet · Rating 4 out of 5]

world literature reading list #1
i'm too much of a pussy to read it in verse so a dramatic retelling it is. this version is so accessible and such fun to read.


the trials of odysseus (i listed these in my notes because i have the memory span of a goldfish)
1. men killed by the cicones in revenge for pillaging.
2. lotus flowers(managed to get through fairly unharmed ooh drugs)
3. the famous "nobody is hurting me" polyphemus. odysseus blinded him and snuck out hanging under sheep. polyphemus calls poseidon to curse the crew.
4. the fucking idiot crew opened the wind bag aeolus gave them (with the four winds) JUST as they were reaching the shores of ithaca.
5. laestrygonians. giant cannibal island. enough said.
6. loml circe. crew turned into pigs, hermes provides magic resistant herb. odysseys had an affair with her for a YEAR.
7. she sent him to tiresias(underworld) to ask for prophecy. sees achilles agamemnon his mother etc while trying to summon. i wrote in my notes "haha no one pities you agamemnon you're pathetic. team clytemnestra forever"
8. the sirens. crew doing a good job for once?
9. i spoke too soon. scylla and charybdis. why can't these stupid men just listen.
10. thrinacia. cattle of apollo. CREW HAD ONE JOB. ONE. zeus is obliged to destroy. only odysseus remains alive.
11. the suitors. dead. dun dun DUNN. happy ever after :)

[Molly Rodden · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/5 to teach