The Odyssey

Aristotle did not think that people should study philosophy too early in life, and perhaps that is also true of reading Homer. Part of me feels that we make a mistake in our education systems by making students read THE ODYSSEY before they are in a position to appreciate it. If one looks through the reviews here, a very large number of very negative reviews by a lot of high school students can be found. I find this unfortunate. In part I regret that we are forcing younger readers to read this book before they have fully matured as readers. Perhaps the book and the students themselves would be better served if we allowed them time to grow a bit more as readers before asking them to tackle Homer.

THE ODYSSEY is so enormously enjoyable (at least for this adult reader) that it is easy to forget just how very old it is. What impresses me is how readable it is, despite its age. There are very, very few widely read works older than THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY. And the gap between how entertaining these works are and those that come before them is gigantic. Try reading THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH or even THE HESIOD and then turning to THE ODYSSEY, and one can grasp my point. This is a very, very old work of literature, but it wears its age lightly. In the end, the greatest praise one can pay THE ODYSSEY is the fact that it can be read for fun, and not just because it is a classic.


An arty, odd translation. And where are the epithets?   May 17, 2003
93 out of 105 found this review helpful

Most reviewers love this translation, but after reading it, and comparing it to others (and to the Greek), I don't see why. It claims to be modern and energetic, but in fact its language is quite odd and hard to read -- excessively jaunty, with word order distortions entirely uncharacteristic of Homer. One wonderful thing about Homer is the smoothness and straightforwardness of his sentences. That's completely gone in this translation.

In addition, Fagles radically distorts one of the distinctive features of Homer's verse -- the repetitive and famous epithets: "wily Odysseus", "much-suffering godlike Odysseus" etc. Many of them are just gone, but others are transformed beyond all recognition. The repeated formula "polumetis Odysseus" ('resourceful Odysseus'), for example, which ends 68 different lines in the Odyssey, turns out (by my count) to receive 48 different translations, only 12 of which have the form Adjective+Odysseus! Fagles did this on purpose: he wanted a modern-sounding text. If you like it, fine. But don't think this is a translation of the Odyssey! It's something between a translation and a retelling, and (in my view) a clumsy one at that.


Robert Fagles is the man   October 5, 2001
knottedcordsuntying (Michigan)
33 out of 40 found this review helpful

Ever since I started learning Koine Greek I keep having the thought that I must at some point pick up Classical Greek in order to read Homer in the original. Thoreau said that all men must read Homer in the original. Maybe he is right. I don't know.

If Homer is half the poet that Robert Fagles's translation makes him out to be--it will be well worth the effort. In his book "How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry," Edward Hirsch says that poems are like messages in bottles that make their way unseen across oceans of time and culture to unforeseen readers. When I uncorked this bottle I was blown away by the song it sang.

Fagles has impeccable descriptive power, which he blends with stunning imagery and timing. I recommend this book highly...come, be swept along on the heroic tides of this wine-dark sea. Experience the Odyssey the way it was meant to be.


masterful   December 13, 1999
rkroll@princeton.edu (Princeton, NJ United States)
31 out of 36 found this review helpful

Fagles' Odyssey is what Homer (the man, the organization, the woman -- whatever you believe Homer WAS) certainly intended the Odyssey to be. It is translated as poetry, and Fagles' experience in writing his own work and translating others' comes through here. Dactylic lines ('fast') pull you through the text at surprising speed, and spondaic lines ('slow') force you to slow down. The Greek comes shining through as never before, with more of its intricacies intact. For example, when a young Odysseus is described in the beginning of book 19, the phrase "a young boy on a mission" is given its own line. It DOES NOT have its own line in Greek, but it is, however, an enjambment (in which a word or short phrase "hangs over" in the following line for effect). This device might not have as much power in English, and might not strike the reader so heavily -- but it is meant to. We are meant to see a vignette of a young man, all alone and braving the world. Instead of mushing it in with another line, Fagles uses his poetic sense to make a whole line for the little "picture" of Odysseus. The liberties that Fagles DOES take with the text have a purpose, and a purpose that is achieved fully. Imagine this much attention being given to each line, and you might have an idea of why this is such a good translation. The second aspect of Fagles' translation that is truly excellent is his "ear" for Homer. the Odyssey was made to be PERFORMED, and not READ. Read aloud any other translation and you will find it does not have the same clarity or energy. I sincerely hope that this translation will live on. Fagles captures the genius and richness of Homer better than any other translator I have read in English. A huge majority of people who dislike Homer say they do because he is "so boring." I can't believe how someone who picks this up and reads it seriously might be unable to appreciate the intricacy and beauty, the care and precision with which every line is translated, and with which it was originally written.


An excellent book.   June 20, 2001
Frank Bierbrauer (Cardiff, Wales, UK)
31 out of 33 found this review helpful

As noted on earlier reviews these two, the first "The Iliad", and now "The Odyssey" have become the translations read for pure enjoyment. No longer does one `know' of the classics but never read them, now we read them too. Thankfully, Robert Fagles has produced a translation worthy of the original sense of Homer's great poem. It captures well the suffering and tragedy Odysseus went through in his journey full of trials and tribulations from the great ogre, the Cyclops, to the beautiful Calypso and finally one of his greatest tests, the suitors seeking his wife's approval after 20 years absence from his homeland.

As usual the introduction by Bernard Knox (NB my earlier mistake in the review on The Iliad) is highly informative and shows real depth of understanding of Homeric poetry, an invaluable aid in the full comprehension of the poem. In addition the extra maps of the Homeric word as well as a glossary of terms and a section detailing some of the characters in more depth provide an excellent background which may be missing in a non-classical education. Certainly this is the transaltion to use when teaching of classic poetry in schools since the child is captivated by the flow of the story and the fast pace which keeps one glued to the book, although not as pacy as The Iliad it is a different sort of story. Unlike the Iliad which is replete with battles and war, The Odyssey is the story of a journey and is of a different tune. I once tried to read an earlier translation of The Odyssey a few years ago and found it stuffy and staid, this is no longer true of Fagles work, were it only the case of other great classics. I felt throughout that Fagles kept to the aura of the original even when substituting more modern expressions for the older ones eg "holding nothing back" is obviously a modern phrase but it captures what the poem is saying and that is what is important ie capturing the poem as a whole. This has been ably achieved. An excellent book.