The Odysseys of Homer


Lu par Phil Schempf

(4 stars; 14 reviews)

The Odysseys are a collection of stories about Ulysses' journey home from the war at Troy purportedly written in the 8th century BCE by Homer, a blind poet thought to have lived in the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, possibly at Smyrna. The events described are thought to have occurred centuries before being recorded by Homer, handed down orally since the twelfth century BCE, the golden era of the Greek Bronze Age when the world was populated by heroic mortals and often visited by the Gods. This verse translation in couplets by George Chapman was originally published in 1616, the first translation from the ancient Greek directly to English, although likely influenced by previous Latin translations. Chapman's translation has been admired by many, including John Keats and others. Many of these stories are familiar to us, Ulysses and the Sirens, Circe turning his crew to swine, their escape from the Cyclops on the bellies of his sheep, but Chapman's version includes violent episodes and suggestive innuendo that I don't recall from my childhood days. (Introduction by Fritz) (14 hr 42 min)

Chapitres

First Book 36:20 Lu par Phil Schempf
Second Book 33:35 Lu par Phil Schempf
Third Book 36:33 Lu par Phil Schempf
Fourth Book, Part 1 26:47 Lu par Phil Schempf
Fourth Book, Part 2 36:32 Lu par Phil Schempf
Fifth Book 37:46 Lu par Phil Schempf
Sixth Book 27:56 Lu par Phil Schempf
Seventh Book 25:46 Lu par Phil Schempf
Eighth Book 43:07 Lu par Phil Schempf
Ninth Book 41:21 Lu par Phil Schempf
Tenth Book 37:10 Lu par Phil Schempf
Eleventh Book 44:37 Lu par Phil Schempf
Twelfth Book 34:16 Lu par Phil Schempf
Thirteenth Book 34:21 Lu par Phil Schempf
Fourteenth Book 39:53 Lu par Phil Schempf
Fifteenth Book 37:34 Lu par Phil Schempf
Sixteenth Book 33:34 Lu par Phil Schempf
Seventeenth Book 41:25 Lu par Phil Schempf
Eighteenth Book 31:39 Lu par Phil Schempf
Ninteenth Book 42:05 Lu par Phil Schempf
Twentieth Book 29:48 Lu par Phil Schempf
Twenty-first Book 29:51 Lu par Phil Schempf
Twenty-second Book 33:39 Lu par Phil Schempf
Twenty-third Book 27:30 Lu par Phil Schempf
Twenty-fourth Book 39:09 Lu par Phil Schempf

Critiques

A couple of updates


(4 stars)

I love this work. I've not listened to this translation yet but it's description contains a serious pet peeve of mine (you know, the type that makes you shout at phones & kindles when you see it!!) so I just have to explain that the imperfect "hero" of Homers Odyssey (& a notable understudy in its prequel, "The Iliad") was actually called Odysseus. Ulysses is that name Latinised, most notably in Virgil's Aeneid. The other point isn't a peeve but an 'update'. Many scholars believe that Homer, rather than being one momentous poet, is actually a collection of poets who each added to the collated works of the pseudonym "Homer". I hope my explaining my peeve hasn't offended anyone.