With an introduction to the oral tradition which lay at the source of the Homeric epics and a discussion on the reception of the Homeric poems in Antiquity, this volume explores the mysterious figure of Homer, an author about whom little is known. Ruth Webb's translation is a revised and much expanded version of the original French text.
This rich interpretation of Homer's "Odyssey" is unique among modern readings of the poem in its detailed book-by-book approach and in its deeply humanistic voice. According to George E. Dimock, what gives the "Odyssey" its unity is Homer's overarching theme of the meaning of pain and suffering in human life. In Dimock's reading, Homer presents Odysseus -- whose name translates as "Man of Pain" as the greatest sufferer of pain and evil. But it is precisely because Odysseus accepts this challenge that he eventually wins a happiness which would have been unattainable without such testing. His suffering is not only crucial to his coming home and the establishment of his identity, but also allows him to experience what home and self mean with an intensity that would have been otherwise impossible. -- From publisher's description.
In The Pity of Achilleus, Jinyo Kim examines how the major themes of the Iliad--Achilleus' 'wrath, ' heroic values such as honor and glory, and human mortality and suffering, to mention the most widely recognized--are connected to each other in a way that reveals the poem's structural coherence and unity. Kim asks whether Achilleus' pity toward Priam at the poem's close is, as is widely believed, a poetic deus ex machina. In other words, is the conception of Achilleus' pity an expression of a 'later' and 'more civilized' era, as a way of 'correcting' the warlike savagery that is an undeniable and significant part of the poem? She concludes, rather, that Achilleus' final reconciliation with the old king of Troy-- his 'enemy' according to the warrior ethos in the Iliad-- represents the integral and ultimate resolution of the theme of Achilleus' 'wrath' that is announced in the poem's opening lines. This book will be valuable for students and scholars of classical literature and classical civilization.
The Odyssey is one of the oldest works of Western literature, dating back to classical antiquity. Homer’s epic poem belongs in a collection called the Epic Cycle, which includes the Iliad. It was originally written in ancient Greek, utilizing a dactylic hexameter rhyme scheme. Although this rhyme scheme sounds beautiful in its native language, in modern English it can sound awkward and, as Eric McMillan humorously describes it, resembles “pumpkins rolling on a barn floor.” William Cullen Bryant avoided this problem by composing his translation in blank verse, a rhyme scheme that sounds natural in English. This epic poem follows Ulysses, one of the Greek leaders that brought an end to the ten-year-long Trojan war. Longing for home, he travels across the Mediterranean Sea to return to his kingdom in Ithaca; unfortunately, our hero manages to anger Neptune, the god of the sea, making his trip home agonizingly slow and extremely dangerous. While Ulysses is trying to return home, his family in Ithaca is also in danger. Suitors have traveled to the home of Ulysses to marry his wife, Penelope, believing that her husband did not survive the war. These men are willing to kill anyone who stands in their way. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.
This is the long-awaited work on Homer's Odyssey by one of our foremost teachers and scholars of the classics--John H. Finley, Jr. Already, generations of students at Harvard have benefited from his knowledge and understanding of Homer's words and world. Now his thoughts on the Odyssey are woven together in this remarkable volume. Finley begins by arguing the unity of design in the Odyssey, and shows the connection between the actions of three main characters: Telemachus' maturity brings Penelope to her long-delayed decision for remarriage, which, by producing the bow as marriage-test, gives the unknown Odysseus his means of success against the suitors. Finley also suggests that the poem is a kind of half-divine comedy. About an older man's glad return, it contrasts to the Iliad's story of young man's death far from home. It is a comedy to the Iliad's tragedy and, like Shakespeare's Tempest, it brings the absent king to knowledge which, though initially unwelcome, proves his and others' happiness. Throughout his book, Finley applies a lifetime's learning to a work that is universally recognized as one of the highest achievements of our civilization. At a time when Homer is in danger of being swallowed by specialists, it is important to recognize and uphold the poet's basic concern for life and myth and legend. Such sympathy combined with knowledge is Finley's fine achievement.
With half a million copies in print, How to Read a Book is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader, completely rewritten and updated with new material. A CNN Book of the Week: “Explains not just why we should read books, but how we should read them. It's masterfully done.” –Farheed Zakaria Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Readers will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text. Also included is instruction in the different techniques that work best for reading particular genres, such as practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science works. Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests you can use measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension, and speed.
Since their composition almost 3,000 years ago the Homeric epics have lost none of their power to grip audiences and fire the imagination: with their stories of life and death, love and loss, war and peace they continue to speak to us at the deepest level about who we are across the span of generations. That being said, the world of Homer is in many ways distant from that in which we live today, with fundamental differences not only in language, social order, and religion, but in basic assumptions about the world and human nature. This volume offers a detailed yet accessible introduction to ancient Greek culture through the lens of Book One of the Odyssey, covering all of these aspects and more in a comprehensive Introduction designed to orient students in their studies of Greek literature and history. The full Greek text is included alongside a facing English translation which aims to reproduce as far as feasible the word order and sound play of the Greek original and is supplemented by a Glossary of Technical Terms and a full vocabulary keyed to the specific ways that words are used in Odyssey I. At the heart of the volume is a full-length line-by-line commentary, the first in English since the 1980s and updated to bring the latest scholarship to bear on the text: focusing on philological and linguistic issues, its close engagement with the original Greek yields insights that will be of use to scholars and advanced students as well as to those coming to the text for the first time.