We’re starting the Odyssey in my English class at school and my teacher assigns us a book or two a night. The thing is, I’m not exactly sure how I should read this. Since it’s a poem I don’t think I should just read it silently but I’m not sure if I should read it aloud, or what. So how have you read the Odessey or epic poems in the past and how do you suggest I read it?
Note: This isn’t meant to be a homework help thread, merely a way to understand and read the text in the best way possible.
Read it like a prose book, but pay special attention to the poetic devices that survive translation such as the epithets. It’s essentially impossible to translate Greek into English while keeping the meter, and I doubt the translation you’re using attempted it. In fact, I don’t know of any serious effort to do this for Homer, although I’m sure so-called “verse translations” that just translate lines on a one-to-one basis and limit innovation by the translator exist for this poem as they do for most translated epics.
You’d be better off finding a recording of a part of the poem read in Greek (or any poem read in dactylic hexameter) so you have an idea what it sounded like, then reading your English version straight in order to absorb content.
Greek can be confusing to read. Start with James Joyce’s simple translation.
I should have specified, but we’re not reading the actual Greek version. We’re reading the translation by Stanley Lombardo.
I would read it aloud with the following voices:
Odysseus: William Shatner
Poseidon: Truman Capote
Circe: Carol Channing
Penelope: Edith Bunker
Cyclops: Ralph Kramden
Telemachos: Bart Simpson
o/ A root in the mud can be more fun than Yentl, but sloppin's are a pig's beeeest frieeeend!o/
I would really like to hear some samples of ancient Greek lyric poetry to get a feel for the tempo. If anyone has some links, I’d appreciate it muchly.
Seconded.
Hah!
I’m not familiar with the Lombardo translation, but don’t forget that the Odyssey was created in a pre-literate society, and for centuries before being written down was recited orally by bards from memory. The translator of any decent verse version will have kept that in mind, and will have been very conscious of the sound of his words. So try reading at least the first book aloud, and read interesting passages aloud from time to time. Couldn’t hurt!
James Joyce’s Ulysses gains from this, too.
Permit me to say, “Bwahahaha!”
I’d suggest also using something like Sparknotes while reading the actual poem. The different names of characters can get confusing.