sing to me, Muse.

[aamcnamara]

We're reading The Odyssey in my classics course this semester. Using the Fagles translation, which is lovely--from reading the introduction, the epic-poetry form of Greek used a lot of different registers and dialects to fit hexameter, which makes it seem appropriate that he uses phrases like "scot-free".

The course is about mythology--"Gods and Mortals"--and even just reading the first few books of the Odyssey it's clear that the relationships are very (very!) different than I see these days. Athena is helping Telemachus out; they're visiting a king, and Athena's like "well, gotta go see to the ship, guys", turns into an eagle, and flies off. The king goes "oh em gee, it's Athena!" and plans a sacrifice for the next day. And, the text tells us, "Athena came as well / to attend her sacred rites."

That's right. The goddess shows up to the sacrifice they're making to her. But she's not All-Powerful All-Seeing, in front of whom everyone should bow. Even though the sacrifice is in her honor, she's at most an afterthought--"oh, and Athena was there, too."

Rock on, dudes. Rock on.

(Also? The audiobook version of this translation is read by Ian McKellen. Which might well be worth the money.)

Comments

[epicrauko.livejournal.com]

Oh, I *adore* the Fagles traslation of The Odyssesy. Or anything translated by Fagles, really. I'm still terribly disappointed that he never did the Metamorphoses before he died. :(

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

It is indeed a shame! Hmm, maybe I should seek out other things translated by him. (Although I also have a sneaking desire to learn ancient Greek so I can read the originals.)

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

I first misread this as, "Using the Fraggles translation, which is lovely--"

Conjured up a *totally* different image.