Authors: Homer, George Herbert Palmer
ISBN-13: 9780486406541, ISBN-10: 0486406547
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: December 1998
Edition: Special Value
Ancient Greek poet Homer established the gold standard for heroic quests and sweeping journeys with his pair of classic epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey.
Homer's account of the adventures of Odysseus has stood at the center of classical literature for centuries. It is a sweeping story of a great warrior who wanders the world, but also an intensely domestic tale of a loving husband's struggle to protect an enduring union with his faithful wife. Meticulously studied and commented upon by innumerable scholars, The Odyssey remains, nonetheless, a uniquely personal literary experience, startling each new generation of readers with its excitement, its drama, and its remarkably contemporary hero.
Susan Sarandon reads an introduction by Tom Palaima as well as synopses of each book, all of which are included in a useful little booklet. Lombardo, a veteran of many performances of his translation, delivers the poem himself in a well-modulated, walnutty voice that occasionally roars out dramatically to handle the more exuberant, even bumptious, passages.
Translator's Preface | ix | |
Introduction | xix | |
1 | Trouble at Home | 3 |
2 | A Gathering and a Parting | 16 |
3 | In the Great Hall of Nestor | 28 |
4 | With Menelaos and Helen | 43 |
5 | A Raft on the High Seas | 67 |
6 | Laundry Friends | 81 |
7 | The Warmest Welcome | 91 |
8 | Songs, Challenges, Dances, and Gifts | 101 |
9 | A Battle, the Lotos, and a Savage's Cave | 118 |
10 | Mad Winds, Laistrugonians, and an Enchantress | 135 |
11 | The Land of the Dead | 152 |
12 | Evil Song, a Deadly Strait, and Forbidden Herds | 171 |
13 | A Strange Arrival Home | 184 |
14 | The House of the Swineherd | 197 |
15 | Son and Father Converging | 213 |
16 | Father and Son Reunited | 229 |
17 | Unknown in His Own House | 243 |
18 | Fights in the Great Hall | 261 |
19 | Memory and Dream in the Palace | 274 |
20 | Dawn of the Death-Day | 292 |
21 | The Stringing of the Bow | 304 |
22 | Revenge in the Great Hall | 317 |
23 | Husband and Wife at Last | 332 |
24 | Last Tensions and Peace | 343 |
Notes | 359 | |
Names in the Odyssey | 409 | |
Bibliography | 417 |