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Cover for "The Odyssey of Homer"

The Odyssey of Homer

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Book Overview

The standard translation into modern English of Homer's Odyssey. Lattimore's translation of Homer's epic Greek poem captures its fast-moving narrative and vigorous language. The volume features an extensive introduction summarizing the story and analyzing the text and the controversies surrounding it as well as a comprehensive glossary."In this Odyssey, Professor Lattimore has achieved his chef d'oeuvre as a translator. . . . A dazzling and well-nigh...

Customer Reviews

4 ratings

perfect

exactly what you want when thrifting homer

Disappointed in condition

I bought a copy in “very good” condition to get it covered in another person’s annotations. Extremely disappointed as I needed a copy quickly for school.

Book listed as in far better shape than it is.

Every single page has extensive underlining and writing. Let's hope this came from a good student and doesn't steer my student wrong.

5 stars for being unique and comfortable in its own skin.

Most everybody knows about the Odyssey of Homer (the story and all that), so this review is about this particular translation by Stanley Lombardo. You have the classic English verse translations (Chapman, Pope, Cowper) and the classic prose translations (Butcher and Lang, Palmer), then you have the twentieth century crowd (Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Mandelbaum, Fagles, Rieu, Rouse, Shewring etc...) Some of these are verse and some prose, some literal and some poetic. Some are easy to read and some more difficult. Lombardo's translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey are somewhat unusual in that they are both verse and very clear and easy to read. Very much modern-day speech. Not that Fagles or Fitzgerald or Mandelbaum, for instance, (all verse translations) are difficult to read, but Lombardo's verse translation is really in a different category. His translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey sort of stand alone in their simple style and may be worth reading for that reason alone. I think also there is an unselfconsciousness in Lombardo's effort - and attitude - as well as a "very well then hang me, devils" confidence that comes through. Fresh, quick, engaging, spare, alive (typical words used by professional/academic reviewers for this translation...) An interesting touch by Lombardo is whenever Homer goes into one of his celebrated similes or metaphors Lombardo puts them into italics and sets them apart in the text. There are more of these in the Iliad than the Odyssey, but it is interesting to read them separate this way. He uses very much 'man on the street' expressions, and his verse reads very quickly, or, 'lightly' like a clear stream flowing easily over stones. I don't want to give the impression these are simplified versions of Homer's epics. They are real, unabridged translations. Serious translations, and though they are relatively new they seem to occupy a unique position in the gallery of English translations of Homer. They are worth aquiring for their uniqueness alone if you have the usual abiding interest and curiosity in new translations of Homer that most people develope who are drawn to these two epic poems.

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