The Odyssey: A Graphic Novel

by Gareth Hinds, Homer

With bold imagery and an ear tuned to the music of Homer's epic poem, Gareth Hinds reinterprets the ancient classic as it's never been told before.

"Gareth Hinds brings The Odyssey to life in a masterful blend of art and storytelling. Vivid and exciting, this graphic novel is a worthy new interpretation of Homer's epic."--Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series

Fresh from his triumphs in the Trojan War, Odysseus, King of Ithaca, wants nothing more than to return home to his family. Instead, he offends the sea god, Poseidon, who dooms him to years of shipwreck and wandering. Battling man-eating monsters, violent storms, and the supernatural seductions of sirens and sorceresses, Odysseus will need all his strength and cunning--and a little help from Mount Olympus--to make his way home and seize his kingdom from the schemers who seek to wed his queen and usurp his throne. Award-winning graphic artist Gareth Hinds masterfully reinterprets a story of heroism, adventure, and high action that has been told and retold for more than 2,500 years--though never quite like this.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Classics, Mythology, Fiction, Comics, Fantasy, Young Adult

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2010

About the author

Gareth Hinds is the creator of critically-acclaimed graphic novels based on literary classics, including Beowulf (which Publisher’s Weekly called a “mixed-media gem”), King Lear (which Booklist named one of the top 10 graphic novels for teens), The Merchant of Venice (which Kirkus called “the standard that all others will strive to meet” for Shakespeare adaptation), The Odyssey (which garnered four starred reviews and a spot on ten “best of 2010” lists), Romeo and Juliet (which Kirkus called “spellbinding”), and Macbeth (which the New York Times called “stellar” and “a remarkably faithful rendering”). Gareth is a recipient of the Boston Public Library’s “Literary Lights for Children” award. His books can be found in bookstores and English classrooms across the country, and his illustrations have appeared in such diverse venues as the Society of Illustrators, the New York Historical Society, and over a dozen published video games.

Gareth lives in the Washington DC area.

Reviews

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect medium for a lazy reader who will never read actual The Odyssey (aka me).

The only thing that left me scratching my head is this question: why is Odysseus considered a hero? He hasn't done ONE heroic, un-selfish thing in this whole saga. He was evidently a good fighter (and lover? hard to say, all women throw themselves at him for some reason), but all he ever did was either expect hospitality from various people or steal others' stuff when he wasn't offered that said hospitality.

[Giselle · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great graphic novel to read! I can finally get some sense of what THE ODYSSEY is all about now. I enjoyed every bit of it. Even the sexist undertones where women are seductresses who keep men chained to an island, or trick them and turn them into swine.

[JG (Introverted Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gareth Hinds undertakes the task of adapting The Odyssey, the tale of Odysseus's long journey home after the Trojan War, into graphic novel format.

I wish this had been around when I was wading through The Odyssey in high school (and maybe college? I can't remember). I don't know what translation we read, but we needed a translation of it. I think most of us had only vague ideas about what was going on, and we probably only figured those out after the teacher spoon-fed them to us.

The Odyssey is perfect for this format. It's a very visual story, with the sirens and Scylla and Charybdis, a journey to the underworld, the cyclops, and Circe's spell. I did like the illustrations, although they veered a little too close to the bulging muscles and gravity-defying breasts that most people think of when they hear the word, comic. Still, it's a manly tale, so they fit.

I was a little surprised by the translation. I expected the writing to be very modern, but it's not. It's still very readable but formal at the same time. From page 4, Zeus speaking to Athena:

"My child, what strange remarks you let escape your lips. Could I forget that wily hero Odysseus? You know I bear him no grudge--but Poseidon does, hates him for blinding his son Polyphemus the Cyclops.
But come now, let us take up the matter of Odysseus's return. Poseidon must relent; he cannot thwart the will of all the other gods."

I had forgotten much of what happens in the story, so it felt a lot like I was coming to this for the first time. I enjoyed it more in this format than I ever have before.

This is a fabulous (re-)introduction to this timeless classic. Teachers, take note and have some mercy on your classes. This could at least be a companion to the "regular" novel.

[My_Strange_Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.
⭐️⭐️ for the story/text
⭐️⭐️⭐️ for the illustrations

I hate Odysseus. I don't really like this story, but I bought this graphic novel for my classroom to help my lower readers have a better visual aid for their reading. It does a good job of serving that purpose, but the re-write of the text was too simplified, and I just generally don't care for this story, so it wasn't going to be a high rating for me.

[Jovi Ene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am avut întotdeauna o afinitate pentru Odiseea, cel puțin dacă fac o minimă comparație cu Iliada: mi-au plăcut mai mult aventurile decât războaiele, mai mult divinitățile marine decât cele terestre, mai mult dorința lui Odiseu de a ajunge acasă decât luptele nesfârșite de la Troia. Și am adăugat la asta și vizite la câteva dintre locurile despre care se povestește în Odiseea: câteva ore petrecute în Itaca, mai multe zile în strâmtoarea Sami, Creta, Zakynthos sau Kefalonia, toate menționate aici.
Gareth Hinds face (așa cum spuneam și ieri) ceea ce știe mai bine: desenează magnific (cât de bine sunt realizați, de exemplu, Circe sau ciclopul), face o sinteză a celor mai importante evenimente din Odiseea, pune accentul pe Penelopa și pe Telemah, dar și pe aventura reîntoarcerii în Itaca. Un roman grafic excelent, care oferă mai multă lumină asupra mitologiei și istoriei Greciei antice.

[Lindsay C-T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extry Extry, read all about it!! Die Hard Odyssey Purist Finds True Love In Graphic Adaptation!

[Christina Pilkington · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a beautifully illustrated, graphic novel retelling Homer’s Odyssey, read this!

I read this with my almost 11 year old twins, and we loved it. There were a few panels that had some partial nudity and some blood and gore, so be aware of that if you were going to show this to younger children. But for us, it really brought the poem to life and made the story memorable.

It’s been a while since I last read The Odyssey (probably about 15 years now!), but it seems to be a fairly accurate representation of the poem.

I’d highly recommend this graphic novel.

[Astrid Inge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Natuurlijk hoor je dit boek van Homerus zelf te lezen. Maar ja... Met deze graphic novel is ook weinig mis. Het verhaal is bekend en mooi en de graphics zijn erg goed.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A warm up with a simplified retelling of this story before delving into the classic text which is soon on my reading list. Lots of details left out given the format, but the artwork is lovely and the mythology is well represented here.

[Orla · Rating 3 out of 5]

think it's good for what it is, but i do feel like it oversimplified the tale as a whole

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Odyssey is one of the most famous epics ever written. It's discussed, read, studied for more than 2000 years. As it's expected, it's transfered in other mediums more times than you can count. This one, in comic book form this time by Gareth Hinds, did the best it could. Art is nothing special, maybe even bad at faces and animals. But, it's always nice to see foreigners take a chance to recreate parts of Greek mythology and I sure hope Hinds enjoyed adapting and drawing the story.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid and colorful graphic version of a very classic tale. My students love this version and I am thankful to be able to share this great story with the help of accompanying images. However, I am a little critical of the artwork at points. The art snob in me isn't completely in love but my teacher heart knows how valuable this version is to my classroom, especially for some of my most struggling readers. Thank you Gareth Hinds <3

[Dorin Lazăr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Partea a doua, Odiseea, e clar are material mai bun decât Iliada; o poveste mai palpitantă, un personaj mai interesant, și o poveste mai ușor de urmărit în general. Chiar dacă stilul de desenat nu m-a dat pe spate, rezumatul e bine făcut și povestea e bine spusă în desene. E un efort deosebit, și într-adevăr, merită.

[abby_theater_nerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

this is my first time ever actually reading odysseus's story but I really liked it.

and the amount of EPIC references that I made was insane (I couldn't go two pages without singing)

:)

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

bro did the dingle dongle with so many women istg he's gonna past something to his wife

[BookCupid · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poem turned novel, turned graphic book.

Although I could've picked up the full novel, I tasted the plot thanks to this graphic and must say that the novel would have most likely put me to sleep. Odysseus is stranded after the Trojan war and must fight against the odds with the help of a few Gods. Meanwhile, his son is trying to find him. Both characters move along the story by constantly asking for help. It takes a couple of tries before the book becomes interesting.

My advice is hang in there!

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never really been interested in reading graphic novels. They just seem like a bit of a cop out -- a lazy, unimaginative substitute to real reading. But when I saw this book at my small city library I suddenly had to re-evaluate my thinking.

I had attempted reading The Iliad a few years ago with high hopes of reading it and then The Odyssey shortly thereafter, but after a dozen or so pages of real difficulty I gave it up. But I really did want to learn and understand the story. So, a few years later I took a chance with this version of Homer's epic poem. I am very happy I did.

I understand that there is no way this graphic novel can really compare to Homer's original language or any good translation of it, but it does manage to tell this truly exciting story in a way that is easily understood and visualized. The illustrations were great.

My overall opinion of graphic novels is unchanged, but in some cases, such as in the case of this one, I now believe there is a place for them. I understand that this same author has a graphic novel version of Beowulf. I will definitely be on the lookout for it also.

[Chris Dietzel · Rating 3 out of 5]

In turning a 500-page epic into a 250-page graphic novel, tons of detail and story elements will inevitably be lost. This graphic novel was good at giving a high-level overview of the basic story, but I always felt like it was rushed and abridging too much of the original story.

[kaleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
Pretty enjoyable graphic novel. Nothing spectacular, although I did really like the artwork in it.

[Riley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overview:
Based on the book from Homer, The Odyssey. This graphic novel adaption brings a new light on the original book.
Odysseus, King of Ithaca wants to return home to his family after the Trojan War. On the way he offends the sea god Poseidon who makes sure he can't return home resulting in endless wandering. With help from Mount Olympus he and his small army of men have to fight and travel through dangerous areas to return home. And awaiting Odysseus at home is a large group of men who want his wife's hand in marriage.


Thoughts:
I gave this book two stars, NOT because I disliked it. I found this book just to be ok.
There was nothing spectacular about it but I didn't dislike it.

I have never read the original book from Homer. It is quite large so it was nice to have a graphic novel that was less dense then the original book and you could still enjoy the plot line.

The illustrations were cool and I liked it. I especially like that on the colophon (The page that gives all the statistical and professional information about the book) page tells you how the illustrations was drawn. In this case the illustrations were done in pencil and watercolour.

Overall this graphic novel was fine. (:

[Daniel Greear · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s nothing better than being in a book store and seeing a book catch your eye and buying it. Maybe this is only topped by reading it all at once in the same day, which I did today.

The Odyssey by Homer-where to begin? I guess I can’t really say anything more that hasn’t been already said. It’s perhaps the greatest story of all time, passed down for thousands of years, and one of the best windows into Greek mythology. It also inspired my favorite movie of all time, O Brother Where Art Thou?. Admittedly, I haven’t read it in full. I’ve had a paperback copy sitting on my bookshelf for years. I promise I’ll read the actual story one day.

That being said, this is the perfect medium in that it conveys The Odyssey into a graphic novel so that it’s much more accessible to an average reader. It’s concise, to the point, and written in modern English (although it’s still quite grand). The artwork is better than average but not superb, but Hinds does an excellent job in telling the story.

I plan on reading the actual story one day, as I said, so I feel that this is a great way to familiarize myself with the story in preparation for that.

[Petergiaquinta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not poorly done, but a reductionist (and fairly vapid) approach to one of the world's greatest stories that downplays some of the more interesting aspects of the original epic...though perhaps it will work as a gateway drug for younger readers. I'm obviously not six years old anymore, but Hinds' fairly innocuous version here probably would not have moved me in the same way that the much shorter summary did that I read in some ancient textbook I received as a wee lad from good old Uncle Levy. It only had a few reproductions of some of the classic paintings inspired by Homer's text (John Flaxman's drawings I specifically can recall), but that much abridged work grabbed me in a way that Hinds' volume fails to accomplish.

[Lucy Turnbaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this to use for teaching "The Odyssey" this year, and I loved it. The visuals are really cool, it does not skip really anything important from the actual epic and it is far more engaging and pretty to look at than the entire real version. I will say, it does have some nudity, violence, and hinted-at sexual relations, but it wouldn't be accurate to the story if it didn't. I will definitely be looking into this author for other classics I teach.

[Niné · Rating 4 out of 5]

ik was geen gymnasium kindje dus ik had deze wel ff nodig

[Devon Flaherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do intend to read a translation of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey one day. I actually believe I already read The Odyssey in high school. But this is where I am right now. I have stumbled upon the graphic novels of Gareth Hinds in my obsession with coming up with things that my middle school boy will read. I have now purchased The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Beowulf for our home school shelves. While teaching mythology to a small classroom of approximately-ninth-graders this year, I decided to have a looky-loo at these graphic novel versions of the Trojan War and Odysseus stories.

In case you somehow don’t know, The Iliad and The Odyssey are ancient Greek, epic poems. They are some of the oldest works of literature in the world and are based on a combination of history (perhaps) and Greek mythology. We don’t actually know too much about Homer and “he” might have been a number of people or not really Homer at all. The important thing is that The Iliad and The Odyssey were recorded (from an amalgam of oral tradition, basically) and have had an enormous impact on the thinking, literature, and story-telling of the World, especially the Western World. You can currently read either of these classics in any of a huge number of translations, including annotated versions, picture books, and movies.

The Iliad covers the end of the legendary Trojan War. A ten-year war between the people of Troy (Turkish, basically) and an alliance of Greeks (but at the gates of Troy) erupted basically over Helen, the stolen wife of a Greek King. Of course the gods also had something to do with it because they are mischief makers. The war just went on and on and on, and, like I said, The Iliad picks up in its final year. There’s a tiff between two of the Greek leaders over another woman, there are great disagreements happening on Olympus, lots of back and forth and miraculous interference, a sorta lame Trojan prince, and of course the Trojan Horse. The Odyssey then picks up the story of one of the Greek heroes of the Trojan Battle, Odysseus, as he journeys home from the war. It takes him ten years. The story itself isn’t chronological, but shifts around from his now-grown son and his still-longing wife trying ineffectually to protect themselves and the estate from hundreds of raucous suitors, Odysseus stuck for seven years on an island with Calypso the nymph, and Odysseus telling about the three years before those seven when he was having some ill-fated adventures with his even-more-ill-fated crew.

In the graphic novel versions, Hinds attempts to cover everything in the epics, but paring things down enough to move it way faster and fit all those illustrations in a readable format. I think he mostly accomplishes this. The battles, true, were a little confusing and his “marking” each character didn’t really help me. Then again, I was mostly like I don’t care which guy does what thing but I still was able to remember the important bits. Occasionally the narrative got lost and I thought I was missing a page or something because it does move so fast, from one thing to the next to the next. You might have to do some flipping back and forth and double-checking. But I also have issues in general with reading graphic novels. My ADHD has difficulty with the flow of pictures and words on the pages. It’s so flashy, I don’t know where to settle. This is clearly my issue, not Hinds’. The illustrations are colorful, clear, well-drawn, though not exactly artistic in a way that I would vote for. They get the job done and they do it well without any stylistic nonsense. There’s a little sex and a lot of gore, but it is about as tasteful as one could make Greek mythology.

To be honest, I’m not sure how much I’m going to like reading Homer when I get around to the unabridged translations, one day. I don’t exactly dig war epics. So while the Odyssey had some real intrigue and adventure to interest me, The Iliad was more of a stretch. Still a classic, though, and I find reading and studying Greek and Roman mythology to be, in general, both enjoyable and curiosity-sating. And waking to the imagination. I would say that Gareth Hinds’ versions of The Iliad and The Odyssey are excellent books for young readers to introduce them to the epics and are great companions to a unit in mythology or ancient literature. Even if you’re not so young, they’re a perhaps lighter and more flashy—and shorter—way to learn about Achilles and Odysseus and all those other heroes, gods and goddesses, and monsters.

***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***

[Jennifer DuBose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gets 4 stars for the beautiful illustrations. However, the story is edited in such a way that I couldn't use it to teach hero's journey to my students. It's kind of just an illustrated summary of The Odyssey with very little dialogue. I would need to assign supplemental texts to be able to teach with this. I'll just teach Hero's Journey using Star Wars graphic novel.

[Allison Berryhill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this on Jenny Paulsen's recommendation as an entry text for teaching Fitzgerald's translation. She suggested my ninth-graders read this first, then select a book (chapter) to read in the Fitzgerald. I'm excited about how accessible this graphic novel is, and yet how true to the original it adheres. I've asked my administrator for a classroom set. Wish me luck.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This graphic novel is an AMAZING book! I'd totally recommend this book for anyone. Though I felt like it was easier for me to understand because I have read the novel before. Anyway, this book is about a man called Odysseus's journey to go back to his family and his son Telemachus trying to find him. Seriously, everybody should read it.:)

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read the original version of The Odyssey, but I very much enjoyed this. Loved the watercolor. It's inspiring me to seek out some more graphic novels. Anyone have any suggestions?

Read this for my Journey Narratives class.

[Stacia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book a few months ago. Generally, graphic novels aren't really my thing. This was fine, though; I can see the appeal especially for YAs who may not be into reading but who want or need an intro to some facets of the Odyssey. In the back of the book, Hinds mentions that he took certain liberties with the story (as well as it being quite abbreviated obviously), but he did use some of the actual wording from Fagels, Fitzgerald, and Rieu translations on some pages. Hopefully this would be a springboard into someone reading/learning more about the Odyssey.