BACKGROUND: Homer’s Odyssey is one of the oldest pieces of western literature. This 8th century CE poem was once passed down through oral tradition before being transcribed and becoming one of the most influential pieces in the wester n world. The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus’s long, arduous homecoming and the hardships he endured on account of his hubris. At the same time, The Odyssey tells the coming of age story of Telemachus, the young son Odysseus left in Ithaca. As the famed sequel of the Iliad, The Odyssey is more the just Odysseus’s tale. It tells us what happened after the ten-year long Trojan War: what befell the Grecian heroes, who made it home, who was lost at sea, and who could not find peace, even in his own home?
PACING: The pacing of this story can vary wildly depending on who is the focus. The story begins with Telemachus, son of Odysseus, who has spent the last 20 years growing up without a father. In the absence of Odysseus, his wife Penelope has now become the most eligible bachelorette. Suitors descend upon the castle, eating up Odysseus livestock, making a mess, and trying to woe Penelope into marrying one of them. All of this, has very little to do with the titular character Odysseus and can make the opening chapters (or books) seem unnecessarily tedious. To make matters worse, the book dumps a metric ton of exposition during those early chapters. The tedious nature of the opening chapters is only compounded by the endless soliloquies and tiring descriptions.
Thankfully, the epic poem soon introduces Odysseus and the pacing quickly speeds up. Despite classics being notoriously slow reads, The Odyssey’s graphic violent scenes and Odysseus’s unending misfortune keep the plot moving at a steady rate.
Unfortunately, this brisk pace is often slowed down by countless descriptions of meaningless characters. The loquacious prose in this epic only adds to the problem as Homer uses far too many words to answer the simplest of questions (the epic would probably be half the length of someone cut out all the purple prose). Although prose, exposition, and endless descriptions work against it, the epic manages to keep up a decent pacing and remain interesting throughout.
REVIEW: The Odyssey is another great classic that deserves a read. Before we get into this section, it is important to know that The Odyssey is graphic. It is not afraid to verbosely describe stabbing someone’s eyes with a flaming stake, castrating traitors, or ruthlessly murdering over fifty people.
While it is less descriptive with sex and nudity, there is plenty of it in the book raising questions about double standards for women. Throughout the book, Odysseus sleeps with several women, while his wife remains chaste and the several serving women who sleep around are hanged.
The faults in Odysseus’s character don’t end here. He is known for cunning, underhanded tricks, and persuasion. In addition, he is notoriously prideful, which raises question about the veracity of anything that comes out of his mouth. Despite pitfalls in his personality, he is lauded as a Greek hero, gaining the favor of Athena and his audience. However, his pride is ultimately his downfall as he spends ten years at sea trying to make his way home to Ithaca.
The only other character with some semblance of a personality is Odysseus’s son Telemachus. While Odysseus is trying to make his way home, Telemachus is trying to make his way in the world. He embarks on a quest to find news of his father, and along the way, experiences a coming of age character arc, which ultimately allows his to grow as a person.
Unfortunately, these are the only characters with personalities. Many of them are bland and one-dimensional, which is extremely irritating considering so much time is spent on their recounting their entire backstory. What it lacks in characters, it makes up for in storytelling.
The Richard Lattimore translation is full of extended similes and metaphors that (while they take up a vexing amount of time) truly convey a richness and color to the actions going on around. The repeated use of epithets like “godlike Odysseus” and “grey-eyed Athene” serve to enhance the legendary quality of this story. Because of the beautiful storytelling, this book has survived many millennia and became one of the most iconic pieces of literature with far reaching influence. From J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit to Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus, references to long journeys stretch across mediums. Fans of the Percy Jackson series or other popular Greek inspired chronicles can find the origin of many monsters and deities. Calypso, Circe, Polyphemus, and the Sirens all trace their origin to this epic poem.
VERDICT: As one of the western world’s earliest written stories, The Odyssey is a little dated (just a tad bit), but, despite that, it is still an amazing read. Although most western students will read it at some point in their secondary education, that doesn’t mean there isn’t value in reading the book of your own accord. One of the most readily used translations is by Richmond Lattimore, but other translations exist. I give this 359 page book 4 stars.