A review by kbeucler
The Odyssey by Homer

adventurous slow-paced

3.0

Two translated books and one book about translation this month. I’ve read parts of The Odyssey before from other translations but this is the first time I’ve read it straight though. Emily Watson’s translation is quite new and comes with a more feminist lens which was super interesting. I enjoyed it. I liked that she kept it as a metered poem, which it is in the original Greek. Other translations translate it to basically a prose poem, keeping the line breaks, but losing the meter and form. I do think it’s a little too long and there’s too much time spent between Odysseus returning to Ithaca and finally confronting the suitors. Also I didn’t realize how much help he had from Athena. Like Odysseus had a great reputation for being so smart and a great warrior, but really he just had a lot of help.
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