Review: The Odyssey by Homer

The Odyssey by Homer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

George Herbert Palmer (March 9, 1842 – May 7, 1933) was an American scholar and author. He was a graduate, and then professor at Harvard University. He is also known for his published works, like the translation of The Odyssey (1884) and others about education and ethics, such as The New Education (1887) and The Glory of the Imperfect (1898).

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. 

It's amazing to think that 'The Odyssey Of Homer' was written over 3,000 years ago, yet its plot is still engaging to modern readers, with so many of its themes (justice, loyalty, jealous, betrayal etc) being relevant to today's readers. This book has made me realise how humanity hasn't really changed over the many centuries, as the motivations and goals of the majority of the characters are still understandable, despite the significant gap in time.

Initially, I thought this book would be hard to read as it's written in verse, and is a translation (originally written in Ancient Greek) but the plot reads wonderfully, almost as if it was originally written in English. (The copy I have was translated by Richard Lattimore).

However, I did find that parts of it went on a bit, and there was quite a bit of repetition and loads of background information, but this is understandable, due to the time that it was written, as there would have been few things The Odyssey would have had to contend with as an entertainment source. Split into 24 books, it would have likely been performed on 24 separate occasions, with audience members most likely looking forward to attending the readings for ages. As a modern reader, these book divisions helped make reading it more manageable.

I'd highly recommend this book to everyone. It's plot was intriguing and covered a wide range of topics. And, to think, that it is one of the first texts that was written (and has survived), just makes this book even more incredible!