The Confessions of Odysseus

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Author :
Publisher : St. Augustine's Press
ISBN 13 : 9781587311376
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (113 download)

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Book Synopsis The Confessions of Odysseus by : Nalin Ranasinghe

Download or read book The Confessions of Odysseus written by Nalin Ranasinghe and published by St. Augustine's Press. This book was released on 2021-04-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nalin Ranasinghe undertakes the monumentally brash assignment of accusing man and then offering his defense, precisely as Homer does of Odysseus in the Iliad. Odysseus is portrayed as a human being deserving of both. For this reason and Homer's perceptive descriptions, Ranasinghe claims Homer's epic is the cornerstone of Western civilization. The central insights herein compel Ranasinghe to admit the necessity of heeding its lessons today, of minding its characters and seeing them in action off the page and in our own world. Predrag Cicovacki in his indispensable preface to the book, elucidates: "In Ranasinghe's view, Odysseus is both the first recognizable human being and a model of curious and concupiscent human rationality that constantly strives toward the virtues of self-knowledge and moderation. Homer leads us to believe that the cosmos leans toward virtue, although its fundamental truths may be inherently unspeakable. This is the line of thought that Ranasinghe believes was further developed by Socrates, Plato, and Jesus, while being obscured by Aristotle, Augustine, and their followers. Homer's later epic and his central insights are, according to Ranasinghe, the most fertile soil on which a humane civilization can grow and flourish." Yet Ranasinghe ultimately says it best. "Homer must be read as the wisest Greeks did, not for fantastic tales of the Olympians but because his myths reveal eternal constants of the human state: the soul's ruling passions and the possibility of knowing and educating these false gods. Wrestled with thus the Iliad becomes a cautionary tale, not one urging literal reading or mindless mimesis. It may always be that for the few who grasp Homer, many more will obey his gods or imitate his antiheroes; but the Odyssey hints that while its poet sees this potential for misuse, he is willing to take a noble risk and hope that eros can listen to and educate thumos. This faith is implicit in his tale of Achilles and the Trojan War. It is vital today that we see how the West's end resembles its angry origins, as depicted in the Iliad. This is why Homer is said to be as fresh as the morning newspaper. His wisdom may outlive our literacy."

The Iliad & The Odyssey

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1627931457
Total Pages : 927 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (279 download)

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Book Synopsis The Iliad & The Odyssey by : Homer

Download or read book The Iliad & The Odyssey written by Homer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-04-29 with total page 927 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Iliad: Join Achilles at the Gates of Troy as he slays Hector to Avenge the death of Patroclus. Here is a story of love and war, hope and despair, and honor and glory. The recent major motion picture Helen of Troy staring Brad Pitt proves that this epic is as relevant today as it was twenty five hundred years ago when it was first written. So journey back to the Trojan War with Homer and relive the grandest adventure of all times. The Odyssey: Journey with Ulysses as he battles to bring his victorious, but decimated, troops home from the Trojan War, dogged by the wrath of the god Poseidon at every turn. Having been away for twenty years, little does he know what awaits him when he finally makes his way home. These two books are some of the most import books in the literary cannon, having influenced virtually every adventure tale ever told. And yet they are still accessible and immediate and now you can have both in one binding.

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

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Author :
Publisher : Random House Digital, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 0345501861
Total Pages : 492 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (455 download)

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Book Synopsis The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by : C. W. Gortner

Download or read book The Confessions of Catherine de Medici written by C. W. Gortner and published by Random House Digital, Inc.. This book was released on 2010 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leaving her native Florence to marry Henry II of France, Catherine de Medici embarks on an unanticipated destiny of religious warfare, thwarted leadership and psychologically charged royal machinations. By the author of The Last Queen.

Homer and the Poetics of Hades

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019878726X
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis Homer and the Poetics of Hades by : George Alexander Gazis

Download or read book Homer and the Poetics of Hades written by George Alexander Gazis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique approach to the Iliad and the Odyssey explores the role and function of Hades as a poetic environment in which traditional exposition of heroic values may be subverted in favour of a more personally inflected approach to the epic past, giving rise to a different kind of poetics: the 'poetics of Hades'.

The Odyssey of Homer; Volume 1

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Author :
Publisher : Legare Street Press
ISBN 13 : 9781022659391
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (593 download)

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Book Synopsis The Odyssey of Homer; Volume 1 by : William Cullen Bryant

Download or read book The Odyssey of Homer; Volume 1 written by William Cullen Bryant and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic Greek epic poem follows the hero, Odysseus, on a long and perilous journey home after the fall of Troy. Along the way, he faces deadly monsters, treacherous gods, and the wrath of the sea. With vivid imagery and unforgettable characters, this timeless story has captivated readers for centuries. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Helen of Troy

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101218797
Total Pages : 632 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Helen of Troy by : Margaret George

Download or read book Helen of Troy written by Margaret George and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-08-03 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed author Margaret George tells the story of the legendary Greek woman whose face "launched a thousand ships" in this New York Times bestseller. The Trojan War, fought nearly twelve hundred years before the birth of Christ, and recounted in Homer's Iliad, continues to haunt us because of its origins: one woman's beauty, a visiting prince's passion, and a love that ended in tragedy. Laden with doom, yet surprising in its moments of innocence and beauty, Helen of Troy is an exquisite page-turner with a cast of irresistible, legendary characters—Odysseus, Hector, Achilles, Menelaus, Priam, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, as well as Helen and Paris themselves. With a wealth of material that reproduces the Age of Bronze in all its glory, it brings to life a war that we have all learned about but never before experienced.

The Shamanic Odyssey

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 159477501X
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (947 download)

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Book Synopsis The Shamanic Odyssey by : Robert Tindall

Download or read book The Shamanic Odyssey written by Robert Tindall and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-11-16 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the striking parallels between indigenous cultures of the Americas and the ancient Homeric world as well as Tolkien’s Middle Earth • Explores the shamanic use of healing songs, psychoactive plants, and vision quests at the heart of the Odyssey and the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien • Examines Odysseus’s encounters with plant divinities, altered consciousness, animal shapeshifting, and sacred topography--all concepts vital to shamanism • Reveals how the Odyssey emerged precisely at the rupture between modern and primal consciousness Indigenous, shamanic ways of healing and prophecy are not foreign to the West. The native way of viewing the world--that is, understanding our cosmos as living, sentient, and interconnected--can be found hidden throughout Western literature, beginning with the very origin of the European literary tradition: Homer’s Odyssey. Weaving together the narrative traditions of the ancient Greeks and Celts, the mythopoetic work of J. R. R. Tolkien, and the voices of plant medicine healers in North and South America, the authors explore the use of healing songs, psychoactive plants, and vision quests at the heart of the Odyssey, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Tolkien’s final novella, Smith of Wootton Major. The authors examine Odysseus’s encounters with plant divinities, altered consciousness, animal shapeshifting, and sacred topography--all concepts vital to shamanism. They show the deep affinities between the healing powers of ancient bardic song and the icaros of the shamans of the Amazon rain forest, how Odysseus’s battle with Circe--wielder of narcotic plants and Mistress of Animals--follows the traditional method of negotiating with a plant ally, and how Odysseus’s journey to the land of the dead signifies the universal practice of the vision quest, a key part of shamanic initiation. Emerging precisely at the rupture between modern and primal consciousness, Homer’s work represents a window into the lost native mind of the Western world. In this way, the Odyssey as well as Tolkien’s work can be seen as an awakening and healing song to return us to our native minds and bring our disconnected souls back into harmony with the living cosmos.

The Wanderings of Odysseus

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Author :
Publisher : Laurel Leaf
ISBN 13 : 0553494821
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (534 download)

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Book Synopsis The Wanderings of Odysseus by : Rosemary Sutcliff

Download or read book The Wanderings of Odysseus written by Rosemary Sutcliff and published by Laurel Leaf. This book was released on 2005-12-13 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Greek myth fans, those who can’t get enough of the D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, and readers who have aged out of Rick Riordan, this classroom staple and mythology classic is perfect for learning about the ancient myths! King Odysseus and the Greeks have triumphed over the Trojans. At long last, they are able to set sail for home and the loving family Odysseus left behind. But for the heroic king, the return voyage holds hazards far greater than any he faced during the war. Forced by treacherous winds into unknown seas, Odysseus and his crew must face deadly perils: the flesh-eating Cyclops, Circe and her deadly enchantments, and the soul-chilling Land of the Dead and more. Rosemary Sutcliff’s reimagining of the classic epic The Odysseus is woven through with a spectacular cast of men, magicians, and monsters. Odysseus’ harrowing journey home to his family and kingdom tests the limits of his strength, and the power of his will. Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time and Rosemary Sutcliff stays true to the classic tale and characters in this authentic retelling rich with drama, magic, and heroism. Don’t miss Black Ships Before Troy, the companion to The Wanderings of Odysseus, and follow Odysseus and his crew as they fight in the epic battle against the Trojans.

Confessions of a Pagan Nun

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Publisher : Shambhala Publications
ISBN 13 : 0834823756
Total Pages : 171 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (348 download)

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Book Synopsis Confessions of a Pagan Nun by : Kate Horsley

Download or read book Confessions of a Pagan Nun written by Kate Horsley and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2002-09-10 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A druid-turned-nun writes of faith, love, loss, and religion in this “beautifully written and thought-provoking book” set at the dawn of Ireland’s Christian era (Library Journal) Cloistered in a stone cell at the monastery of Saint Brigit, a sixth-century Irish nun secretly records the memories of her Pagan youth, interrupting her assigned task of transcribing Augustine and Patrick. She revisits her past, piece by piece—her fiercely independent mother, whose skill with healing plants and inner strength she inherited; her druid teacher, the brusque and magnetic Giannon, who introduced her to the mysteries of the written language. But disturbing events at the cloister keep intervening. As the monastery is rent by vague and fantastic accusations, Gwynneve's words become the one force that can save her from annihilation. “As a slant of sunlight illuminates jewels long buried, Kate Horsley's novel brings words to an ancient silence and a living, vivid presence to people who lived in that time of great changes and estrangements we call the Dark Ages.” —Ursula K. Le Guin

Awakening to One's Conscience

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Publisher : AEON PRESS, Halifax, NS, Canada
ISBN 13 : 1990060234
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Awakening to One's Conscience by : Art Aeon

Download or read book Awakening to One's Conscience written by Art Aeon and published by AEON PRESS, Halifax, NS, Canada. This book was released on with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Awakening to One’s Conscience: Inner Journey into Human Nature {3} by Art Aeon is a fictional narrative poem in the tercet stanza. It unfolds imaginary dialogues between the character Homer-Outis, the bard of The Odyssey, and the character Odysseus, the protagonist of The Odyssey, in a numinous dream of the epic poet. Following Helen’s crucial revelation of the human causes of the Trojan War at her death, Odysseus and Penelope take on intrepid adventures to the ruins of Troy. On the way, they meet the characters Idomeneus in Crete, Diomedes at sea, Chryseis in Thebe, Tecmessa, and Telamon in Troy. Overcoming many formidable adversities, Odysseus and Penelope eventually fulfill Helen’s last wish to be united with Paris in Troy, even as ashes. But they are captured by the new Trojan king, Helenus. In magnanimous foresight, Helenus sets free his worst foe Odysseus to serve Aethon, a holy sage at the shrine in Mt. Ida. Odysseus pursues a new life as a humble hermit with sincere repentance of his past life. Penelope becomes a trusty friend to the queen Andromache in Helenus’s new kingdom. Eventually, Odysseus finds a lad, who is identified as the son of Helen by Paris, called Ganymede. He succeeds to Helenus’s kingdom. After Aethon’s death, Penelope succeeds him as the new spiritual leader in Mount Ida. Odysseus leads an international school in Mount Ida, dedicated to training young future leaders of peoples for enlightenment, peace, and prosperity of humanity. Odysseus relates to Homer-Outis what he and Penelope learned from wise Aethon about the wisdom and theology of ancient Egypt. They realize that personified deities are not real entities but mere wishful illusions, invented by humans in their minds. Eventually, Homer-Outis becomes enlightened; he confesses to Odysseus that he has been misled in proud vanity to follow guileful minstrels who abused hoax ‘muses’ as their poetic conceits to justify their travesties of absurd divine affairs. He vows to sing of the plain truth deep from his pure conscience without the poetic conceit of hoax ‘muses.’ Odysseus and Homer-Outis become mysteriously transfigured into one enlightened being. At this moment, the earnest and conscientious bard Homer-Outis wakes up from his spiritual dream, inspired afresh to write a new epic: Inner Journey into Human Nature.

The World of Odysseus

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Publisher : New York Review of Books
ISBN 13 : 1590170172
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The World of Odysseus by : M. I. Finley

Download or read book The World of Odysseus written by M. I. Finley and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2002-09-30 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The World of Odysseus is a concise and penetrating account of the society that gave birth to the Iliad and the Odyssey--a book that provides a vivid picture of the Greek Dark Ages, its men and women, works and days, morals and values. Long celebrated as a pathbreaking achievement in the social history of the ancient world, M.I. Finley's brilliant study remains, as classicist Bernard Knox notes in his introduction to this new edition, "as indispensable to the professional as it is accessible to the general reader"--a fundamental companion for students of Homer and Homeric Greece.

In Search of Truth. Augustine, Manichaeism and Other Gnosticism

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Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004189971
Total Pages : 769 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis In Search of Truth. Augustine, Manichaeism and Other Gnosticism by : J. van (Johannes) Oort

Download or read book In Search of Truth. Augustine, Manichaeism and Other Gnosticism written by J. van (Johannes) Oort and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011 with total page 769 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume in honour of Prof. Dr. Johannes van Oort offers a rich variety of in-depth studies on Augustine, Manichaeism, and other Gnostic currents, thus reflecting the rich variety of the honorand’s research interests.

Penelope's Web

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Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 0857902520
Total Pages : 747 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (579 download)

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Book Synopsis Penelope's Web by : Christopher Rush

Download or read book Penelope's Web written by Christopher Rush and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2015-09-24 with total page 747 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A book about war that, like The Naked and the Dead or Catch-22, manages to be about very much more” (Brian Morton, author of Starting Out in the Evening). Odysseus is returning to Ithaca after nearly twenty years—half of it spent as a soldier and the other half as a soldier of fortune. During his absence, his wife, Penelope, has remained faithful, despite Odysseus being missing and presumed dead. But when her husband suddenly reappears, he confronts those who have been trying to seduce his wife and kills them all. Based on Homer’s ancient epics, this is a novel about war and peace—and about how returning soldiers can find peace more horrible than war and home more hellish than the battlefield. “The narrative of the novel drives along fast, and Odysseus’s adventures on his long journey home are vividly presented. Readers already familiar with them are unlikely to be disappointed; many who come to them fresh will be enthralled.” —The Scotsman “Startlingly original.” —The Times

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

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Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 0547527543
Total Pages : 580 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (475 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by : Julian Jaynes

Download or read book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind written by Julian Jaynes and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2000-08-15 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry

Odyssey: Book X (Classic Reprint)

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780365854142
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (541 download)

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Book Synopsis Odyssey: Book X (Classic Reprint) by : Homer Homer

Download or read book Odyssey: Book X (Classic Reprint) written by Homer Homer and published by . This book was released on 2018-05-04 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Regimes of Historicity

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231538766
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Regimes of Historicity by : François Hartog

Download or read book Regimes of Historicity written by François Hartog and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-24 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: François Hartog explores crucial moments of change in society's "regimes of historicity," or its ways of relating to the past, present, and future. Inspired by Hannah Arendt, Reinhart Koselleck, and Paul Ricoeur, Hartog analyzes a broad range of texts, positioning The Odyssey as a work on the threshold of historical consciousness and contrasting it with an investigation of the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins's concept of "heroic history." He tracks changing perspectives on time in Chateaubriand's Historical Essay and Travels in America and sets them alongside other writings from the French Revolution. He revisits the insights of the French Annales School and situates Pierre Nora's Realms of Memory within a history of heritage and today's presentism, from which he addresses Jonas's notion of our responsibility for the future. Our presentist present is by no means uniform or clear-cut, and it is experienced very differently depending on the position we occupy in society. We are caught up in global movement and accelerated flows, or else condemned to the life of casual workers, living from hand to mouth in a stagnant present, with no recognized past, and no real future either (since the temporality of plans and projects is inaccessible). The present is therefore experienced as emancipation or enclosure, and the perspective of the future is no longer reassuring, since it is perceived not as a promise, but as a threat. Hartog's resonant readings show us how the motor of history(-writing) has stalled and help us understand the contradictory qualities of our contemporary presentist relation to time.

The Odyssey

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451674198
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis The Odyssey by : Homer

Download or read book The Odyssey written by Homer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Stephen Mitchell, the renowned translator whose Iliad was named one of The New Yorker’s Favorite Books of 2011, comes a vivid new translation of the Odyssey, complete with textual notes and an illuminating introductory essay. The hardcover publication of the Odyssey received glowing reviews: The New York Times praised “Mitchell’s fresh, elegant diction and the care he lavishes on meter, [which] brought me closer to the transfigurative experience Keats describes on reading Chapman’s Homer”; Booklist, in a starred review, said that “Mitchell retells the first, still greatest adventure story in Western literature with clarity, sweep, and force”; and John Banville, author of The Sea, called this translation “a masterpiece.” The Odyssey is the original hero’s journey, an epic voyage into the unknown, and has inspired other creative work for millennia. With its consummately modern hero, full of guile and wit, always prepared to reinvent himself in order to realize his heart’s desire—to return to his home and family after ten years of war—the Odyssey now speaks to us again across 2,600 years. In words of great poetic power, this translation brings Odysseus and his adventures to life as never before. Stephen Mitchell’s language keeps the diction close to spoken English, yet its rhythms recreate the oceanic surge of the ancient Greek. Full of imagination and light, beauty and humor, this Odyssey carries you along in a fast stream of action and imagery. Just as Mitchell “re-energised the Iliad for a new generation” (The Sunday Telegraph), his Odyssey is the noblest, clearest, and most captivating rendition of one of the defining masterpieces of Western literature.