[ book tip by Hannah Barnsley ] A liar and a cheat, who refuses to grieve for the death of his ship's crew until he's fed his belly – this is the ingenious and morally ambiguous hero at the centre of Homer's epic, The Odyssey. In order to make his way home from the Trojan War to reclaim his wife and kingdom, Odysseus must learn that the martial heroism of Troy is useless when confronted with supernatural creatures, lawless savages and deceptive sorceresses. In the dangerous worlds he encounters, disguise, trickery and charm become the weapons of this enduring war hero. Even the established order of the civilised world is not to be trusted. Odysseus' own Ithaka descends into chaos in his absence as the unruly suitors abuse his home and court his grieving wife. Odysseus must learn to harden his heart and trust nobody, not even his own family. However, he learns that true love and loyalty endure and his gradual transformation from a feral wanderer back to a warm husband and father after suffering a ten-year absence is deeply moving.
     
The style is rich and varied as the story celebrates the art of oral storytelling itself, incorporating characters' accounts of the war, mythology, previous folkloric traditions and the tall tales of sailors. Homer weaves together the lives of kings, beggars, gods, servants and bards to depict an extensive and complex society. Richard Lattimore's highly acclaimed prose translation is fluid and warm. Thought to be the second work of European literature, and a continuing influence in over two millennia of art, Homer's Odyssey is a vital read, as well as a thoroughly enjoyable one

[ Favourite quote ] 'But the heart in me is torn for the sake of wise Odysseus,
Unhappy man, who still, far from his friends, is suffering,
griefs, on the sea-washed island, the navel of all the waters,
a wooded island and there a goddess has made her dwelling place;
she is the daughter of malignant Atlas, who has discovered
all the depths of the sea and himself sustains the towering
 columns which bracket earth and sky and hold them together.
This is his daughter, she detains the grieving, unhappy
 man, and ever with soft and flattering words she works to
 charm him to forget Ithaka;and yet Odysseus,
 straining to get sight of the very smoke uprising
 from his own country, longs to die.   

[ book info ] Homer, : The Odyssey. (Book language: English (translated from Ancient Greek)) Translated by Richard Lattimore. Harper Perennial, New York, 2007 (1965). ISBN: 978-0-06-124418-6.