The Odyssey

ISBN-13: 9780199925889 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 488 str.

Barry B. Powell

Opis

Sing to me of the resourceful man, O Muse, who wandered
far after he had sacked the sacred city of Troy. He saw
the cities of many men and he learned their minds.
He suffered many pains on the sea in his spirit, seeking
to save his life and the homecoming of his companions.

Odysseus--soldier, sailor, trickster, and everyman--is one of the most recognizable characters in world literature. His arduous, ten-year journey home after the Trojan War, the subject of Homer's Odyssey, is the most accessible tale to survive from ancient Greece, and its impact is still felt today across many different cultures.
This lively free verse translation, from one of today's leading Homeric scholars, preserves the clarity and simplicity of the original while conveying Odysseus' adventures in a modern style. By avoiding the technical formality of earlier translations, and the colloquial and sometimes exaggerated effects of recent attempts, Barry B. Powell's translation deftly captures the most essential truths of this vital text. Due to his thorough familiarity with the world of Homer and Homeric language, Powell's introduction provides rich historical and literary perspectives on the poem. This volume also includes illustrations from classical artwork, detailed maps, explanatory notes, a timeline, and a glossary. Modern and pleasing to the ear while accurately reflecting the meaning of the original, this Odyssey is a superlative translation for twenty-first-century readers.

Recenzje

Barry Powell, the master of classical mythology, has done it again - a powerful translation of the poem that started European literature. His muscular verses are faithful to the original Greek but bring the characters to life. This is a page-turner, bound to become the new standard.

O autorze

BARRY B. POWELL is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Classics Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught for thirty-four years. He is the author of the widely used textbook Classical Myth (8th edition, 2014). His A Short Introduction to Classical Myth (2001, translated into German) is a summary study of the topic. Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet (1991) advances the thesis that a single man invented the Greek alphabet expressly in order to record the poems of Homer. Writing and the Origins of Greek Literature (2003) develops the consequence of this thesis. Powell's critical study Homer (2nd edition, 2004, translated into Italian) is widely read as an introduction for philologists, historians, and students of literature. A New Companion to Homer (1997, with Ian Morris, translated into modern Greek) is a comprehensive review of modern scholarship on Homer. Powell's Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization (2009, translated into Arabic and modern Greek).