![]() ![]() One of these involves the structure, as I (like many other readers, I suspect) assumed that the book was mostly about Odysseus’ lengthy and perilous journey home. ![]() Yet as familiar as the experience can be, there are some surprises in store. All this makes trying The Odyssey less a new read than a voyage of rediscovery, with the book breathing new life into half-remembered stories. Certain aspects of the tale, such as the sirens and the cyclops have even made it into our language. The Odyssey is one of the founding tales of European culture, and it’s a story many of you will be familiar with even if you haven’t read it, as it has inspired other writers and artists. It’s an unbelievable story – and it’s not quite finished either… Before he leaves, though, there’s one last banquet, at which he’s asked to tell his tale. Having been freed from his captivity at the hands of the nymph Calypso, he has made his way to the land of the Phaeacians, who will help him return to Ithaca. Meanwhile, Odysseus himself is coming to the end of his lengthy exile. Her son, Telemachus, born just before his father’s departure for Troy, decides enough is enough and sets off on a journey to see what he can find out about his father’s fate, with a little help from the gods, of course. These are the suitors of Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, men demanding that after twenty long years she finally give him up for dead and take a new husband. We enter the dining hall of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, to see a horde of men feasting at their absent host’s cost. However, one of the Greek leaders still hasn’t made it home, and back at his palace, affairs are coming to a head. Others, such as Agamemnon, had a rather less successful homecoming, with a warm welcome conspicuous by its absence. Some of the Greek leaders (Nestor, Menelaus) have made it home safely, living in luxury with the wealth they looted. Where his Iliad focuses on a pivotal moment of the Trojan War, here we move on to see what happened after the fall of Troy. Rieu) is, of course, one of the absolute classics of western literature, written (or orated) by the Greek poet Homer in (possibly…) the eight-century BC. Grab a seat and settle down for a lengthy story – it’s a good one, I promise… In many ways, it was a familiar journey, and yet there were a few surprises along the way. However, it was always my intention to combine that reread with a first look at the book that underpins Ulysses, and today’s post examines how I got on with my trip around the Greek seas. Last week’s post on Terence Killeen’s Ulysses Unbound mentioned how the book pushed me into a reread of James Joyce’s epic-in-a-day, and I’m currently cruising nicely through that (although I fear I’m about to hit rougher seas). ![]()
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