The Odyssey
Jun. 3rd, 2023 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avreliaI finally finished Odyssey in Emily Wilson’s translation. It was actually the first time I read the Odyssey from start to finish.
1) the structure is weird. I knew that, and yet knowing that and reading it strike very differently. The time moves in strange squiggles - The book starts after ten years passed, and most of that time Odysseus was stuck on one place or another. In fact during the time of the novel, Telemachus does as much actual travel as Odysseus, going to Sparta and back.
2) Telemachus seems a whiny annoying shit without much redeeming qualities. Odysseus for all his faults, is smart and engaging, and you just can’t help but want him succeed at everything.
3) the world of the Odyssey is breathtakingly beautiful and bright and rich, even the horrors are breathtaking and awesome. The heroes are “godlike” in appearance, there is gold and silver everywhere, the huge herds of cows, goats and pigs fill the spaces, and you are supposed marvel at the amazing world that existed just before, when gods walked among mortals.
4) gods do have to work hard to make mortals so what they need them to do. Mortals might be gods’ toys, but they do have their free will to mess up.
5) Athena has to resort to micromanaging Odysseus to bring him home safely. She is here, and she is there, she talks to all kinds of people, moving them into positions to help Odysseus. She usually appears as someone else, only letting know who is to Odysseus after he guessed.
6) Athena is the one who stops the story dead at the end. At some point all the fighting, all the mutual avenging back and forth must stop. And yes, it must stop when her favorite has avenged himself.
7) Penelope seems to be suffering from depression.
8) She is the one who suggested the archery contest to Odysseus when he pretended to be a beggar.
1) the structure is weird. I knew that, and yet knowing that and reading it strike very differently. The time moves in strange squiggles - The book starts after ten years passed, and most of that time Odysseus was stuck on one place or another. In fact during the time of the novel, Telemachus does as much actual travel as Odysseus, going to Sparta and back.
2) Telemachus seems a whiny annoying shit without much redeeming qualities. Odysseus for all his faults, is smart and engaging, and you just can’t help but want him succeed at everything.
3) the world of the Odyssey is breathtakingly beautiful and bright and rich, even the horrors are breathtaking and awesome. The heroes are “godlike” in appearance, there is gold and silver everywhere, the huge herds of cows, goats and pigs fill the spaces, and you are supposed marvel at the amazing world that existed just before, when gods walked among mortals.
4) gods do have to work hard to make mortals so what they need them to do. Mortals might be gods’ toys, but they do have their free will to mess up.
5) Athena has to resort to micromanaging Odysseus to bring him home safely. She is here, and she is there, she talks to all kinds of people, moving them into positions to help Odysseus. She usually appears as someone else, only letting know who is to Odysseus after he guessed.
6) Athena is the one who stops the story dead at the end. At some point all the fighting, all the mutual avenging back and forth must stop. And yes, it must stop when her favorite has avenged himself.
7) Penelope seems to be suffering from depression.
8) She is the one who suggested the archery contest to Odysseus when he pretended to be a beggar.
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