The Odyssey of Homer

by Richmond Lattimore

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: Classics

384 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 1999

About the author

Richmond Lattimore graduated from Dartmouth in 1926 and received an A.B. from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar at Christ Church in 1932. He took his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1934.

He was an American poet and classicist known for his translations of the Greek classics, especially his versions of the Iliad and Odyssey, which are generally considered as among the best English translations available

Reviews

[Logan Wyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just great. I would read the whole book (poem?) again for the last 40 pages. Odysseus is morally grey at best though.

[Michael Stein]

Book 2 of St. John’s Annapolis Curriculum. Lattimore translation is great as always.

[Samuel Sadler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no scholarly authority to say anything about translators, but I loved this edition and found it easy to teach. It is accessible while maintaining the dignity of high poetry.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody, you bastard.

[Nathanael · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

It was an odyssey to read the odyssey
If I were to give advice to my past self on reading the odyssey, I'd say 1-2 books a day is a decent pace.

I feel much more confident in my ancient greek knowledge, because I kept going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole exploring the lore, terminology, the historical details and the mechanics of the the world building.

Homer had such a concise and visceral way of describing violent sequences, clearly he draws from real life experiences. What's so shocking about the gore and violence is how few words he needs to get his point across. He was so good at describing the mechanics of the world he lived in. Of course it's apparently anachronistic detailing, but nonetheless, it feels historically immersive and intimate. And when reading, at times it was described in so much detail that I could feel I was there.

I found it farcical that Athene was intervening with the story every step of the way. Pure match-fixing from the goddess.

My favourite books:
book 5 for the inspirational way of describing a tumultuous water and trying to stay alive despite the environment trying to kill you.
Book 9, Book 10, for the faster paced storytelling and surreal imagery that is founded on augmentations of nature and humans.
Book 11 for the hades exposition, afterlife mechanics, extensive lore dumping, and opportunities for me to go down lore rabbit holes.
Book 12, the final stretch of the journey was also quite compelling
Book 15, for giving me perspective on life as an ancient greek beggar. Tele and Ody's story overlapping
Book 17, again beggar lifestyle immersion. Argos the dog was very sentimentally written
Book 18, Iros vs Ody was funny, lots of conflicts and insults thrown
Book 21, bow competition was interesting, the calm before the storm
Book 22, the massacre
Book 23, Pene and Ody trying to rekindle their relationship was quite nice, the bed that cannot be moved was peculiar storytelling
Book 24, decent pace, there's no epilogue which I found funny. Very abrupt ending which is fun.

My least favourite parts were when Odysseus kept making fake madeup stories about his past. It became exhausting to read. It totally worked during the Polyphemus part, but when beggar Odysseus was making up story after story, man it was dragging. Too much hospitality storytelling. I know ancient greeks seemed to be huge on hospitality. But it became very repetitive after the 100th time of eating, drinking, making sacrifice, pouring libation, gift giving, sleeping, long winded goodbyes.

[Simon Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This being my first reading of The Odyssey, I sought an accurate, more academic translation and settled on Lattimore’s after some research and reviews that described his work that way.

Odysseus’ epic was an enjoyable read overall, though at times highly repetitive, excessively descriptive, and full of long-winded monologues. The reader has to remember that The Odyssey was originally performed as oral poetry, only written down in ancient Greek some centuries later (or so historians believe). Story and dialogue unfold together like the acts of a play, with the gods serving as playwrights over the drama of the mortal characters.

I particularly liked the swineherd Eumaeus, mostly because of the narrator’s second-person address to him. I was puzzled at first by “You, Eumaeus”– was I, the reader, suddenly a pig farmer? But Homer presents Eumaeus as the moral ideal of Ithaca and so seems to compliment the audience by association (or so is my interpretation).

Now it’s time to watch Christopher Nolan’s adaptation in IMAX, if I can somehow manage to find a good seat before the theatrical run ends.

[Zack Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty amazing read. I couldn't get through it freshman year of college, perhaps because I found the translation stuffy and couldn't read between the lines well.

But on this read, I deeply appreciated many scenes of emotion and awe. This story is over 2000 years old, and yet so much of it holds true and makes sense.

There's one part near the end when a small group of people is, I feel, unfairly slaughtered, but I didn't write The Odyssey and can't change it.

But I'm almost certain that almost every revenge movie is indebted to The Odyssey.

[hannah magner · Rating 2 out of 5]

there are some books that we should leave in the past!