Review: The Odyssey of Homer
Madeline’s rating: 4/5 stars.
[Please note, this is only a quick review, as this was one of the books that I had to read for core reading for my degree course, and not a review requested by an author, therefore I do little of the ‘technical’ reviewing.]
It’s amazing to think that ‘The Odyssey Of Homer‘ was written over 3,000 years ago, yet its plot is still engaging to modern readers, with so many of its themes (justice, loyalty, jealous, betrayal etc) being relevant to today’s readers. This book has made me realise how humanity hasn’t really changed over the many centuries, as the motivations and goals of the majority of the characters are still understandable, despite the significant gap in time.
Initially, I thought this book would be hard to read as it’s written in poem form, and is a translation (originally written in Ancient Greek) but the plot reads wonderfully, almost as if it was originally written in English. (The copy I have was translated by Richard Lattimore).
However, I did find that parts of it went on a bit, and there was quite a bit of repetition and loads of background information, but this is understandable, due to the time that it was written, as there would have been few things The Odyssey would have had to contend with as an entertainment source. Split into 24 books, it would have likely been performed on 24 separate occasions, with audience members most likely looking forward to attending the readings for ages. As a modern reader, these book divisions helped make reading it more manageable.
There were some beautiful parts in this book, and wonderful imagery had been employed in several places. My favourite character was the goddess Athene, as she almost ‘pulled the strings’ of many of the main characters, meaning she was definitely in control.
I’d highly recommend this book to everyone. It’s plot was intriguing and covered a wide range of topics. And, to think, that it is one of the first texts that was written (and has survived), just makes this book even more incredible!
