The Greatest Literature of All Time

This one has it all. The Odyssey is not only a great romantic, adventure epic, but it's terribly realistic in its depiction of human nature and a brilliantly crafted narrative. Authors today could learn from seeing how Homer lays out his plot and plays the characters off against each other for maximum reader involvement.

Of course it was composed almost three thousand years ago and our sensibilities have changed rather drastically in those centuries. So the Odyssey doesn't exactly go down as smooth like the latest John Grisham novel. You have to work a bit at putting yourself in the ancient mindset and understanding it, especially when your copy of The Odyssey is translated as poetry. But when you do make that effort, you'll find it it starts coming easier and easier, and it ends up seeming not so ancient or foreign after all. It eventually sucks you right into the tale. Which is more than you can say about a lot of "classics" of more recent vintage.

Homer is way ahead of his time in the indirect route he takes in telling the story. Instead of setting off with Odysseus (also translated as Ulysses) at the fall of Troy and following his ten-year journey home from the war, he starts near the end. We're shown the state of Odysseus's home and family, with suitors for his wife Penelope despoiling his estate. His son Telemachus is sent by the gods to find his father, and has several adventures of his own over the first four chapters. (It's thought by some scholars that the Telemachus story was once a separate work that was joined with the Odysseus tale, but others think Homer is using this diversion to intentionally build up anticipation and show the roles of the gods in the story to come.) But with the help and hindrance of various gods, Odysseus escapes from the island, is almost drowned and is washed up in another land where he stays anonymously.

Eventually he reveals his identity and he starts—in the ninth chapter—recounting all that happened to him since the Trojan War to bring him to this point. Here we get the adventures we've heard before: visiting the land of the Lotus-Eaters, fighting the Cyclops, escaping the cannibals, descending into Hades, outsmarting Circe who turned his crew to swine, evading the Sirens who lure sailors to their death, passing between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, being held captive on the island of Calypso.... Told over four action-packed chapters, this brings us up to present.

The rest of the tale concerns the homecoming of Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, and his bloody revenge on the interlopers. Plus a little extra excitement at the end as a civil war erupts before the gods impose a peace.

It's all exciting stuff. But significant too in how it depicted a hero. Odysseus is not just an honest, just, god-fearing action hero, but crafty, a trickster. At times his morality is repugnant to a modern audience—he displays the vengeful anger and self-righteousness that you also find in the Old Testament. Mixed with promiscuity, greed, and single-minded self-interest. And tenderness, especially in regard to his wife and son. It's a complex mix but it all works. Much more interesting than the more self-righteous characters of the Iliad, in my opinion.

Another nice thing about this tale, contrasted with the Iliad, is that the gods are relatively laid-back. Except for Athene, who gives Odysseus a hand now and then, most of them are not constantly interfering, leaving the mortals to work out their problems in their own bloody and lovable ways.

Again, the translation one reads can have a great effect on how much you get from this story. You can check the commentary on Odyssey translations for a brief comparison.

One thing that may put you off is Homer's use of certain stock phrases. The water is always "the wine-dark sea", daybreak is always "rosy-fingered dawn", certain characters always come with the same adjectives before their names. Not all translations retain this repetition, but if you do find it, bear in mind that these stories were meant to be recited or performed from memory rather than read, and the repetitions helped to fix certain images and characters in both the storyteller's and the audience's memories. Try reading it aloud to yourself and, at least with some translations, you may discover how much more understandable and enjoyable it is.

— Eric

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