The Odyssey

Absolutely gorgeous. This was my first time reading The Odyssey and at first I was disappointed by how seemingly plain the poetry was. I have always fallen so easily for poetry that fans out its peacock feathers, delights in its elegance, and dances along the wind. Not to say that I am not a fan of simpler writing like Bukowski, Hemingway, and so on, but going into this book with the preconception that it would be an epic tale from thousands of years past, from one of the most famous poets of history, I had the assumption that the writing would fit my preconceived notions of grandeur. When this didn't pan out, I was sad and even considered not finishing it. I am so glad that I did. Once I had become accustomed to Fagles' and Homer's simple but fierce style of speaking, delighting in emotions and wonders and twists and turns, I fell in love. Though there is a lot of old-school sexism and masculinity baked into this story (along with their grossly casual acceptance of slave labor; yes, I know this is “how things were back then.” It does not make it less disturbing), this is not the sort of nonsense machismo with which we are inundated today. Men cry in this book, frequently. Goddesses rally men to battle while also serving as voices of reason. The bard, the song, the dance, are all placed in equal importance to the farmer, the laborer, the warrior. When the family is whole again at the end of the novel, I found myself tearing up along with all of the heroes of the story.

In terms of dealing with the gross stuff, I would compare reading this to reading John Milton. There is a lot of lip service paid to the backwards attitudes of the time, but more often than not the characterization contradicts this. Characters will talk about the inconstant hearts of women or such other misogynistic things, yet the characters thrown into the spotlight (such as Penelope and Eurycleia) not only debunk these ideas, they make the consideration of them a folly. Much like real life, characters will try and predict the actions of a person based on a group they belong to, only to be proven wrong because every character in this poem feels like a truly individual human.

tl;dr A wonderful translation of a wonderful story. Some parts are more upsetting to us today than they would have been when this poem was once performed, but the majority of the story is still incredible. I cried happy tears at the end.