Just finished listening to The Odyssey. I understand that it's a translation of an oral, pre-writing, work. That's why it's so repetitive. But, if I hear "child of Morning, rosy-fingered Dawn" or "Tell me, and tell me true," one more time I may flail, foam, and thrash about the room.
I had read an abbreviated version. But I wanted to read the real thing. Plus, I thought it'd be interesting to hear it. After all, that's how it was supposed to be presented. But it drove me up the wall. The pacing is, by the standards of a video age, excruciatingly slow. The first quarter, maybe third, of the work doesn't even follow Odysseus. It's all about his son Telemachus, and how badly his home is treated by Queen Penelope's suitors, and his travels to Sparta seeking word of his father. Even after Odysseus enters, almost all of his story before his actual return to Ithaca is told in flashback. Every narrative is interrupted by digression -- even the digressions. No action takes place without extensive dialog. Mid-fight, someone will stop spearing to exclaim about the wickedness of his opponent, the number & type of sacrifices he'll offer, which Gods will be receiving those sacrifices, the various offenses committed by the villain and the punishments merited by each, the male-ancestors of all combatants, and then the opponent will respond in kind.
I did learn the answer to a question that's bugged me since I first read the Odyssey. Odysseus returns in disguise. Penelope, inspired by the Gods, holds a contest to decide which suitor she'll wed. Odysseus left his massive bow at home when he went to Troy. Anyone who can string it, which no one but he has ever accomplished, and shoot an arrow through 12 iron axe-heads, as he used to do to exhibit his skill, will win. Of course, they can't string it. He can. Does. Wastes an arrow shooting it through the 12 axe-heads, then begins slaughtering suitors. My question: Odysseus went to Troy -- the largest, most-important fight of the Age, involving Continental-scale armies in a time when a dozen-man sheep-stealing raid merited a ballad, and he left without a bow that can throw an arrow through a dozen axe-heads?!? That's like the US Army deciding to engage in urban combat, but leaving all the snipers State-side. Turns out, the bow was a gift from a dear friend of his youth. He considered it an heirloom of his house more than a weapon, and feared losing it. Which probably says as much about the difference between then & now anything else in the book.
I'm going to have to buy a bunch more timber and stakes. India dug out, again, a week-or-so-ago. This time, she broke through a buried 2x6. The wood's been in the ground long enough to rot. We've not had time to do anything about it. We've been letting India out for only brief periods. As often as she's escaped, she's never do so immediately after being let into the yard. Last night, she disappeared through the existing hole within 10 minutes. She didn't return until 7 this morning. She's currently taking a post-bath nap.
Oh -- interesting website: sensibleunits.com.
I had read an abbreviated version. But I wanted to read the real thing. Plus, I thought it'd be interesting to hear it. After all, that's how it was supposed to be presented. But it drove me up the wall. The pacing is, by the standards of a video age, excruciatingly slow. The first quarter, maybe third, of the work doesn't even follow Odysseus. It's all about his son Telemachus, and how badly his home is treated by Queen Penelope's suitors, and his travels to Sparta seeking word of his father. Even after Odysseus enters, almost all of his story before his actual return to Ithaca is told in flashback. Every narrative is interrupted by digression -- even the digressions. No action takes place without extensive dialog. Mid-fight, someone will stop spearing to exclaim about the wickedness of his opponent, the number & type of sacrifices he'll offer, which Gods will be receiving those sacrifices, the various offenses committed by the villain and the punishments merited by each, the male-ancestors of all combatants, and then the opponent will respond in kind.
I did learn the answer to a question that's bugged me since I first read the Odyssey. Odysseus returns in disguise. Penelope, inspired by the Gods, holds a contest to decide which suitor she'll wed. Odysseus left his massive bow at home when he went to Troy. Anyone who can string it, which no one but he has ever accomplished, and shoot an arrow through 12 iron axe-heads, as he used to do to exhibit his skill, will win. Of course, they can't string it. He can. Does. Wastes an arrow shooting it through the 12 axe-heads, then begins slaughtering suitors. My question: Odysseus went to Troy -- the largest, most-important fight of the Age, involving Continental-scale armies in a time when a dozen-man sheep-stealing raid merited a ballad, and he left without a bow that can throw an arrow through a dozen axe-heads?!? That's like the US Army deciding to engage in urban combat, but leaving all the snipers State-side. Turns out, the bow was a gift from a dear friend of his youth. He considered it an heirloom of his house more than a weapon, and feared losing it. Which probably says as much about the difference between then & now anything else in the book.
I'm going to have to buy a bunch more timber and stakes. India dug out, again, a week-or-so-ago. This time, she broke through a buried 2x6. The wood's been in the ground long enough to rot. We've not had time to do anything about it. We've been letting India out for only brief periods. As often as she's escaped, she's never do so immediately after being let into the yard. Last night, she disappeared through the existing hole within 10 minutes. She didn't return until 7 this morning. She's currently taking a post-bath nap.
Oh -- interesting website: sensibleunits.com.
