Core texts of the TWT yearlong "Homer" reading project. Top, l to r: The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson; The Iliad by Homer, translated by Caroline Alexander; Homeric Hymns attributed to Homer, translated by Sarah Ruden. Middle, l to r: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood; Memorial: A Version of Homer's Iliad by Alice Oswald; An Oresteia: Agamenon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides, translated by Anne Carson. Bottom, l to r: The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason; War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad by Christopher Logue; The War That Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander.
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Some short reports of initial readings of these core texts.
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The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
A terse and taut translation that seems much more faithful to the spirit of Homer's Greek than prior translations, in so many ways. This is the first translation into English by a female translator and it is welcomed with open arms. Wilson's rendering of Homer's dactylic hexameter into the preferred meter of English epic poetry, iambic pentameter, makes this version truly sing.
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The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
This book is trying too hard to prove a point and/or push a particular viewpoint. This is unfortunate because the premise is intriguing. Many of the chorus chapters are especially horrible, written in uninspired, insipid lines of poetry and presented in forced, awkward rhymes.
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The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason
As imaginative as the original, these short stories serve as alternate tales of Odysseus and some of the the other characters of The Odyssey and The Iliad. Imaginative, existential, playful, postmodern, thought-provoking. This is what The Penelopiad should have been.
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The Iliad by Homer, translated by Caroline Alexander
This translation of The Iliad has longer and looser lines than Wilson's Odyssey, but it is still poetic and faithful, although also questioning.
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Memorial: A Version of Homer's Iliad by Alice Oswald
This is less translation than reimaginings of the death scenes of each warrior interspersed with the similes of the poem, the latter of which are mostly represented in a repeated double format. Stripped of the narrative pieces of its source material, this is a completely different beast. Quite fascinating.
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War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad by Christopher Logue
A radical reimagining of large sections of the poem by a practicing poet. Logue brings his own voice to Homer's story while still packing a punch. The death of Patroclus at the hand of the god Apollo is especially striking. (pun intended)
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Homeric Hymns attributed to Homer, translated by Sarah Ruden
The Homeric Hymns, as translated by Sarah Ruden, do truly sing to the Muses. Her eleven-syllabled lines are quite pleasant on tongue and ear.
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An Oresteia: Agamenon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides, translated by Anne Carson
I have a complicated relationship with Anne Carson. I absolutely love some of her work and loathe some of the rest. At one time I wasn't sure of these translations of plays about members of the House of Atreus. I've grown to love Carson's translations.
Carson plays a bit loose at times with these texts and their translations, but the contemporary language and colloquial phrasing usually work.
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The War That Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander
This is the book that Alexander wrote regarding the history and narrative of The Iliad, and which prompted her to eventually translate the poem. It is well-researched and well-written.
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