![]() ![]() But the structure of The Odyssey is unusual. ![]() We, however, are reading a translation by Samuel Butler in prose form because we are used to reading our epic stories as prose narratives (remember the Harry Potter novels?).Īs the Coen brothers’ remake ( O Brother, Where Art Thou?) acknowledges, in the end, The Odyssey is the story of a man trying to find his way back home, unlike other Greek myths featuring wondrous deeds (Perseus versus the Gorgon, Theseus and the Minotaur) or perilous quests (Jason and the Argonauts, the Caledonian boar hunt). The original poems were unusually lengthy and rhythmic with outré vocabulary (if you had to look up outré, the poem’s varied audiences also had to ask the meaning of some words). These stories were composed with a deliberate mixture of Greek dialects from various regions and different time periods (imagine Shakespeare rebooted with rap lyrics and a dash of sci-fi). Why, in a class on reclaiming the classical past, are we starting with perhaps the most stereotypically “classic” works of “classical” literature, The Iliad (or at least excerpts from it) and The Odyssey? Simply put, they are two of the oldest surviving written works of literature, along with the Gilgamesh epic, Babylonian hymns, religious and scientific writings from Egypt, and works from India and Asia.īoth The Iliad and The Odyssey are, as Emily Wilson notes, deliberately “epic,” in that they “tell” ( enn-epe) stories important to the collective memory of Greek-speaking world (Wilson 1). What is The Odyssey ? Why Are We Reading it? By Jessalynn Bird ![]()
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