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The Odyssey (Signet Classics)
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Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Author: Homer
Publisher: Signet Classics
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $5.95
You Save: $ ( % )
In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Author: Homer
Publisher: Signet Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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The Odyssey (Signet Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 883.01
EAN: 9780451527363
ISBN: 0451527364
Label: Signet Classics
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 304
Publication Date: 1999-08-01
Publisher: Signet Classics
Studio: Signet Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 883.01
EAN: 9780451527363
ISBN: 0451527364
Label: Signet Classics
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 304
Publication Date: 1999-08-01
Publisher: Signet Classics
Studio: Signet Classics
Editorial Review of The Odyssey (Signet Classics)
A story encompassing the entirety of human emotion, The Odyssey remains one of the greatest literary works in the history of the world. It is the story of the Trojan war hero Odysseus and his ten-year journey to return home to his family and kingdom. Having angered the gods with his pride after the Greek victory, he finds himself cast adrift at sea, facing dangers beyond measure and trials beyond understanding. Truly a staple of literature and an epic adventure.
Customer Reviews of The Odyssey (Signet Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Eh..
Review: The translations are okay, but they aren't in poem form as it was originally intended. the translation kills the story.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Completing the Odyssey
Review: Reading the Odyssey is an odyssey in itself. I spent months going through it at two pages a day, and read six or seven other books while slugging my way through this one. Not that the book is bad or anything. It's just really long, and since it's so old, even a really good translation is tough to read. Of special difficulty is the second half of the book that takes place entirely in Ithaca. I was under the impression that Odysseus wouldn't make it back to his homeland until the final chapter. The actual journey of Odysseus spans only from chapters five to thirteen, while the first four chapters focus mostly on Telemachos, and the last twelve chapters focus on the plan to get the bullies out of Odysseus's house. Twelve chapters on that one plotpoint is quite a bit, even if the chapters are filled with hilarious scenes such as disguised beggar Odysseus winning an impromptu wrestling match, all the while enduring constant accusations of chronic laziness from crooked bums in his own home.
As long as you can endure both the vast amount of time Odysseus spends on false digressions and the repetition of the storylines designed to keep you up to speed, you yourself can make it through the odyssey of reading the Odyssey.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: War and Penelope
Review:
I hope that those who read my review will forgive me because I would like to talk mainly about Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. When I read the Odyssey for the first time, I thought it was a wonderful adventure book with beautiful and dangerous women and I laughed with that half-wit of a Polyphemus, one of the cyclops. But near the end something was missing, it was not what it should be. Odysseus came home. His son Telemachus and his swineherd were glad and his dog could finally die with the comforting knowledge that it's master was among the living. Why didn't Penelope make a joyful sound ? Why was she so silent ? I shrugged my shoulders and said:'women!'. It's only years later I began to understand a little. So many people died in the Trojan war. The many adorers of Penelope were slaughtered by Odysseus with no compassion at all. The silence of Penelope was a reproachful silence. She was wondering how many more dead people it would take before men could live in peace. We still ask that question.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The odyssey: a nerd's review
Review: This is one of the books, a Greek epic poem supposedly sung by a blind wandering minstrel over a thousand years ago, that first awakened me to the canon of Western literature. Personally, I found it at times rather redundant (I can't begin to ennumerate how many times the sentence "and they sacrificed a young bullock to the Gods" must have appeared) and over-rated (the frequent colloquialisms were also a source of annoyance) but the cumulative effect was certainly powerful and time, though I'm certainly no scholar, has allowed me to see "The Odyssey" for what it truly is: a spectacular adventure story, a commentary on ancient Greek life, an earthy piece of poetry, and a solid human drama (particularly the famous part about Penelope's lovers), whose insights and observations into the grotesque, wonderful and often fantastic realm of ancient Greek lore, as well as the psychology and behavior of the human mind, never seem dated with the passage of time. It even has moments of corny humor, as in the scene where a Goddess of the sea adresses the forlorn protagonist with the words: "Odysseus! You are odd, I see!"" (HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! Yeah.)
The story revolves around the trials and travails of a Greek soldier named Odysseus, who is stranded on an island after having fought in the legendary battle of Troy, with only a sexy and lascivious siren named Calypso for company, a siren whose enticements he continually resists while pining for his wife, Penelope, and his homeland of Ithaca. As the novel opens, the gods, (one part about "The Odyssey" which irked me at first was it's literalism, or the way the behavior of the gods always seems to mirror impeccably that of human beings; it's amazing how a people as wise and philosophically astute as the Greeks could have been so superficial as to believe that the gods actually went to sleep, argued, and had passionate love affairs. It's when I read about such impossible beliefs that I'm glad I'm a monotheistic Jew who can derive some solace from the fact that the God watching over me is a divine, inscrutable being who is as far removed from humanity as can possibly be)are engaged in a debate about whether to liberate Odysseus or leave him stranded on the island, where he is being held capive by a lonely witch of sorts.
Anyway, pretty much everyone is familiar with the more basic elements of this story, such as how Odysseus's son Telemachus goes to rescue his father with the help of the goddess Athena, and how the unfortunate Penelope is wooed by a slew of unseemly lovers.
There really isn't enough space here, and I really haven't the time, to go into detail about the subtler elements of "the Odyssey" (basically it's just a bunch of oddly named characters prancing around and hacking each other up); suffice it to say that if you like poetry and appreciate a good manly adventure story every now and then, replete with many beheadings and gruesome devourings (particularly the incident with Polyphemus the Cyclops), then chances are you'll more than enjoy Homer's marvelous epic.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Homer's World
Review: This book is written as a novel in easy lucid style that reads as a story and a good read. However, much of the writings themselves are poetry, where various ancient Greek reciters read such passages with in depth acting and poetic style, which is a separate study in itself, one I have not read nor am reviewing here.
A great novel and read after first reading the Iliad, a different story, and the continuing saga of Odysseus' journey. The theme of the Odyssey is that of Odysseus' household dilemma with the wooing of his wife, Penelopia, by would-be marriage mates and his son Telemachos' problem of holding the household together from these men in devouring all the goods. In the end, order, revenge and justice is restored. Both of Homer's novels are beneficial in learning about Greek mythology and I recommend reading Edith Hamilton's book on the history of mythology.
Like its predecessor, the Iliad, this story is two stories, the comic background to the tragedy below, yet in this novel the gods are that much more active in human affairs, half mortals, mortal descendants of and involvement. However, there are relatively few gods that are actively involved in the Odyssey compared to their totality in number.
What really makes this book so inspiring is the gods themselves. The Greeks transformed a world full of fear into a world full of beauty. The gods become human, lovelier and more powerful, immortal, but often acted in a way no decent man or woman would.
Greek mythology is not so much a religion as it is a way of actively dealing in the deeper meanings of life. Nor is the Odyssey a Greek kind of bible. While myths may have real religious meanings, they are more explanations of the deeper answers in nature. And the Greeks transformed a world of nonhuman fearful gods into humanly divine that actively engaged in human affairs.
"Each god, like the men, shows what manner of god he is; and the scenes are full of delicate comedy, which gives the relief necessary for the grim stories. The gods are really the most human of Homer's creations, and there is plenty of variety in their setting." p. 290
Review Summary: Eh..
Review: The translations are okay, but they aren't in poem form as it was originally intended. the translation kills the story.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Completing the Odyssey
Review: Reading the Odyssey is an odyssey in itself. I spent months going through it at two pages a day, and read six or seven other books while slugging my way through this one. Not that the book is bad or anything. It's just really long, and since it's so old, even a really good translation is tough to read. Of special difficulty is the second half of the book that takes place entirely in Ithaca. I was under the impression that Odysseus wouldn't make it back to his homeland until the final chapter. The actual journey of Odysseus spans only from chapters five to thirteen, while the first four chapters focus mostly on Telemachos, and the last twelve chapters focus on the plan to get the bullies out of Odysseus's house. Twelve chapters on that one plotpoint is quite a bit, even if the chapters are filled with hilarious scenes such as disguised beggar Odysseus winning an impromptu wrestling match, all the while enduring constant accusations of chronic laziness from crooked bums in his own home.
As long as you can endure both the vast amount of time Odysseus spends on false digressions and the repetition of the storylines designed to keep you up to speed, you yourself can make it through the odyssey of reading the Odyssey.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: War and Penelope
Review:
I hope that those who read my review will forgive me because I would like to talk mainly about Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. When I read the Odyssey for the first time, I thought it was a wonderful adventure book with beautiful and dangerous women and I laughed with that half-wit of a Polyphemus, one of the cyclops. But near the end something was missing, it was not what it should be. Odysseus came home. His son Telemachus and his swineherd were glad and his dog could finally die with the comforting knowledge that it's master was among the living. Why didn't Penelope make a joyful sound ? Why was she so silent ? I shrugged my shoulders and said:'women!'. It's only years later I began to understand a little. So many people died in the Trojan war. The many adorers of Penelope were slaughtered by Odysseus with no compassion at all. The silence of Penelope was a reproachful silence. She was wondering how many more dead people it would take before men could live in peace. We still ask that question.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The odyssey: a nerd's review
Review: This is one of the books, a Greek epic poem supposedly sung by a blind wandering minstrel over a thousand years ago, that first awakened me to the canon of Western literature. Personally, I found it at times rather redundant (I can't begin to ennumerate how many times the sentence "and they sacrificed a young bullock to the Gods" must have appeared) and over-rated (the frequent colloquialisms were also a source of annoyance) but the cumulative effect was certainly powerful and time, though I'm certainly no scholar, has allowed me to see "The Odyssey" for what it truly is: a spectacular adventure story, a commentary on ancient Greek life, an earthy piece of poetry, and a solid human drama (particularly the famous part about Penelope's lovers), whose insights and observations into the grotesque, wonderful and often fantastic realm of ancient Greek lore, as well as the psychology and behavior of the human mind, never seem dated with the passage of time. It even has moments of corny humor, as in the scene where a Goddess of the sea adresses the forlorn protagonist with the words: "Odysseus! You are odd, I see!"" (HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! Yeah.)
The story revolves around the trials and travails of a Greek soldier named Odysseus, who is stranded on an island after having fought in the legendary battle of Troy, with only a sexy and lascivious siren named Calypso for company, a siren whose enticements he continually resists while pining for his wife, Penelope, and his homeland of Ithaca. As the novel opens, the gods, (one part about "The Odyssey" which irked me at first was it's literalism, or the way the behavior of the gods always seems to mirror impeccably that of human beings; it's amazing how a people as wise and philosophically astute as the Greeks could have been so superficial as to believe that the gods actually went to sleep, argued, and had passionate love affairs. It's when I read about such impossible beliefs that I'm glad I'm a monotheistic Jew who can derive some solace from the fact that the God watching over me is a divine, inscrutable being who is as far removed from humanity as can possibly be)are engaged in a debate about whether to liberate Odysseus or leave him stranded on the island, where he is being held capive by a lonely witch of sorts.
Anyway, pretty much everyone is familiar with the more basic elements of this story, such as how Odysseus's son Telemachus goes to rescue his father with the help of the goddess Athena, and how the unfortunate Penelope is wooed by a slew of unseemly lovers.
There really isn't enough space here, and I really haven't the time, to go into detail about the subtler elements of "the Odyssey" (basically it's just a bunch of oddly named characters prancing around and hacking each other up); suffice it to say that if you like poetry and appreciate a good manly adventure story every now and then, replete with many beheadings and gruesome devourings (particularly the incident with Polyphemus the Cyclops), then chances are you'll more than enjoy Homer's marvelous epic.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Homer's World
Review: This book is written as a novel in easy lucid style that reads as a story and a good read. However, much of the writings themselves are poetry, where various ancient Greek reciters read such passages with in depth acting and poetic style, which is a separate study in itself, one I have not read nor am reviewing here.
A great novel and read after first reading the Iliad, a different story, and the continuing saga of Odysseus' journey. The theme of the Odyssey is that of Odysseus' household dilemma with the wooing of his wife, Penelopia, by would-be marriage mates and his son Telemachos' problem of holding the household together from these men in devouring all the goods. In the end, order, revenge and justice is restored. Both of Homer's novels are beneficial in learning about Greek mythology and I recommend reading Edith Hamilton's book on the history of mythology.
Like its predecessor, the Iliad, this story is two stories, the comic background to the tragedy below, yet in this novel the gods are that much more active in human affairs, half mortals, mortal descendants of and involvement. However, there are relatively few gods that are actively involved in the Odyssey compared to their totality in number.
What really makes this book so inspiring is the gods themselves. The Greeks transformed a world full of fear into a world full of beauty. The gods become human, lovelier and more powerful, immortal, but often acted in a way no decent man or woman would.
Greek mythology is not so much a religion as it is a way of actively dealing in the deeper meanings of life. Nor is the Odyssey a Greek kind of bible. While myths may have real religious meanings, they are more explanations of the deeper answers in nature. And the Greeks transformed a world of nonhuman fearful gods into humanly divine that actively engaged in human affairs.
"Each god, like the men, shows what manner of god he is; and the scenes are full of delicate comedy, which gives the relief necessary for the grim stories. The gods are really the most human of Homer's creations, and there is plenty of variety in their setting." p. 290