Brendan’s Reviews > The Odyssey > Status Update
Brendan
is on page 340 of 552
“Of mortal creatures, all that breathe and move, / earth bears none frailer than mankind. What man / believes in woe to come, so long as valor / and tough knees are supplied him by the gods? / But when the gods in bliss bring miseries on, / then willynilly, blindly, he ensures. / Our minds are as the days are, dark or bright, / blown over by the father of gods and men. / So I, too, in my time thought to be happy;
— Sep 07, 2025 09:05PM
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Brendan’s Previous Updates
Brendan
is on page 280 of 552
“Attend me quietly, be at your ease, / and drink your wine. These autumn nights are long, / ample for storytelling and for sleep. / … /
…we’ll drink on, you and I, / and ease our hearts of hardships we remember, / sharing old times. In later days a man / can find a charm in old adversity, / exile, and pain….”
— Sep 07, 2025 10:37AM
…we’ll drink on, you and I, / and ease our hearts of hardships we remember, / sharing old times. In later days a man / can find a charm in old adversity, / exile, and pain….”
Brendan
is on page 146 of 552
“Where shall a man find sweetness to surpass / his own home and his parents? In far lands / he shall not, though he find a house of gold.”
— Sep 04, 2025 07:34PM
Brendan
is on page 56 of 552
Menelaus laments the toll of war on its survivors:
“How gladly I should live one third as rich / to have my friends back safe at home!—my friends / who died on Troy’s wide seaboard, far / from the grazing lands of Argos./ But as things are, nothing but grief is left me / for those companions. While I sit at home / sometimes hot tears come, and I revel in them, / or stop before the surfeit makes me shiver.”
— Sep 01, 2025 03:35PM
“How gladly I should live one third as rich / to have my friends back safe at home!—my friends / who died on Troy’s wide seaboard, far / from the grazing lands of Argos./ But as things are, nothing but grief is left me / for those companions. While I sit at home / sometimes hot tears come, and I revel in them, / or stop before the surfeit makes me shiver.”
Brendan
is on page 2 of 552
Beginning the Odyssey again, this time in the Fitzgerald translation.
“My word, how mortals take the gods to task! / All their afflictions come from us, we hear. / And what of their own failings? Greed and folly / double the suffering in the lot of man.”
— Aug 31, 2025 11:07AM
“My word, how mortals take the gods to task! / All their afflictions come from us, we hear. / And what of their own failings? Greed and folly / double the suffering in the lot of man.”
Brendan
is on page 273 of 552
“Of all creatures that breathe and walk on the earth there is nothing / more helpless than a man is, of all that the earth fosters; / for he thinks that he will never suffer misfortune in future / days, while the gods grant him courage and his knees have spring / in them. But when the blessed gods bring sad days upon him, / against his will he must suffer it with enduring spirit.”
— Nov 10, 2022 08:11PM
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Sep 07, 2025 09:06PM
…but far and rash I ventured, counting on / my own right arm, my father, and my kin; / behold me now. No man should flout the law, / but keep in peace what gifts the gods may give.”
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