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    The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation
    The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation
    The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation

    Written by Homer and D. S. Carne-Ross

    Narrated by Dan Stevens

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    "In classical Greece men called rhapsodes memorized and recited “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” My own rhapsode is the English actor Dan Stevens, whom fans of “Downton Abbey” will know as Matthew Crawley. He’s been performing the Robert Fitzgerald translation, and no Hellene could do it better." — Wall Street Journal

    Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey has been the standard translation for more than three generations of students and poets. Macmillan Audio is delighted to publish the first ever audio edition of this classic work, the greatest of all epic poems. Fitzgerald's supple verse is ideally suited for audio, recounting the story of Odysseus' long journey back to his wife and home after the Trojan War. Homer's tale of love, adventure, food and drink, sensual pleasure, and mortal danger reaches the English-language listener in all its glory.

    In keeping with the oral tradition of the time, Dan Stevens, whose many celebrated performances include Downton Abbey's Matthew Crawley, makes this epic tale come alive. The listener becomes totally immersed in the adventure and drama of the story – this is the way The Odyssey was meant to be experienced.

    Also included on the program is a portion of the poem read in ancient Greek so that listeners may experience the lyricism and music of the original language.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    TranslatorRobert Fitzgerald
    Release dateSep 16, 2014
    ISBN9781427229434
    Author

    Homer

    Although recognized as one of the greatest ancient Greek poets, the life and figure of Homer remains shrouded in mystery. Credited with the authorship of the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, Homer, if he existed, is believed to have lived during the ninth century BC, and has been identified variously as a Babylonian, an Ithacan, or an Ionian. Regardless of his citizenship, Homer’s poems and speeches played a key role in shaping Greek culture, and Homeric studies remains one of the oldest continuous areas of scholarship, reaching from antiquity through to modern times.

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    Reviews for The Odyssey

    4.5/5

    142 ratings82 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I'm glad that my library had this as an audiobook - I think it made me like the tale much more. Had I read it in paper the style would just make me bored and quit but the story fit well in an audio format.

      The writing style was mediocre and much repetitions to make the reader remember that it was Athena in a different shape etcetera. I wouldn't have liked this style at all in paper form. But it's heart-warming, thinking that someone back in the ancient days wrote this, that the humans had the same reactions and feelings back then. And the story in itself is a good adventure tale.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I read the Robert Fagles translation, which was fairly easy to navigate, and enjoyable to read. It was a wonderful story, all about making choices, understanding consequences, and accepting them. It was also about being brave in the face of adversity.Odysseus is an appealing character: Strong, smart and cunning, and able to rise above his apparent punishment by the gods to redeem his condition.
    • 4/5
      Preview…If you’re looking for a crash course in ancient Greek mythology, there is perhaps no better choice of reading material than the exciting epic poem “The Odyssey.” The details of Odysseus’ heroic journey home from the Trojan War were kept alive through oral tradition for hundreds of years before Homer ever set pen to parchment—which means every detail works together to weave a fascinating and rhythmic tale.Athena, goddess of wisdom, is on Odysseus’ side. Unfortunately, Poseidon, god of the sea, wants for his destruction. Every time Athena helps him gain some ground, Poseidon finds a way to introduce new difficulties to our hero. Odysseus faces angry gods, lustful goddesses and princesses, tempting sirens, the deadly Scylla and the Charybdis, the haunted underworld, the cursed cattle of the sun, a hungry Cyclops and oh-so much more.When he finally returns home, more than 10 years after the war’s end, he finds that a group of hostile suitors have taken over his palace in Ithaca. They are all vying for his wife Penelope’s hand; ultimately whoever she chooses will be made the new ruler. The suitors also have secret designs to murder Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, thus removing their last remaining obstacle.Penelope, the faithful wife, has through a variety of tricks and stalls been able to put off choosing a groom thus far. Will Odysseus make it home in time to save his family and the kingdom? Even if you already know how the tale ends, it’s so exciting getting there that you won’t want to pass up the opportunity to give “The Odyssey” another look or to read it for the very first time.You may like this book if…you like Greek mythology; you enjoy epic adventure tales, you like stories written in verse; the thought of gods meddling in the lives of mortals appeals to you; you’re intrigued by fantastic elements; you’re looking for something different than much of contemporary literature; you like reading books for free online.You may not like this book if…you don’t like stories that couldn’t really happen; poetry annoys or confuses you; it bothers you that the male gods can take on lovers whenever they want but when Calypso wants the very same thing she isn’t allowed to have it; you don’t like how Penelope remains faithful for so many years but Odysseus engages in a string of love affairs.
    • 5/5
      I'm not sure, but I think this was the edition I read & liked the best - I've read several over the years. I liked the 'full' or 'best translated' versions & the highly edited versions the least. There's a happy medium in there. The full versions have a lot characters & stuff going on that doesn't add to the story & just confuses me. When edited too much, the story loses its flavor. The story line, plot, can't be beat. Much of the motivation of the characters seems weak or over-used, but that's only because it is the great-granddaddy of so much of our current literature, of course.
    • 5/5
      I read the Odyssey in college (don't remember what translation) and even struggled through bits in Greek in a first-year language class, but I never got what the big deal was. I didn't like Odysseus--raised as I was in a cowboy ethos I took his celebrated cunning as a kind of weakness, believing that a true man delat directly and simply with everything.Some decades later, I am much more sympathetic. Scarred, bruised and broken in places with a head often barely screwed on, I've come to value a little forethought more than I ever did when younger, and come to sympathize with Odysseus' tormented wanderings and to celebrate his eventual triumph profoundly.Fagles' translation is true to the story, readable yet retaining the loftiness of spirit so crucial to the unfolding of the story. I'll be returning to this many times, I think.
    • 4/5
      This particular edition translated by Robert Fagles is by far the best translation that I have come across. This edition really makes it easy to enjoy the epic tale while other translations sometimes lets the reader muddle through the language barriers. I have read this for undergraduate level as well as reading this for pleasure this wins my 4 stars in both categories.
    • 4/5
      The Trojan War is over and one of our hero kings is lost. His son (Telemachus) travels to find any information about his father's fait. His wife (Penelope) must cunningly hold off suitors that are eating them out of house and home.If he ever makes it home, Odysseus will have to detect those servants loyal from those who are not. One absent king against rows of suitors; how will he give them their just deserts? We look to Bright Eyed Pallas Athena to help prophecy come true.Interestingly all the tales of monsters and gods on the sea voyage was told by Odysseus. Notice that no one else survives to tell the tale. Therefore, we have to rely on Odysseus' word.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely a classic and a must-read for anyone interested in pre-classical Greece.
    • 4/5
      I've always loved the Odyssey. Odysseus isn't my favourite hero -- he spends far too much time being tricksy for that. But I always enjoyed the stories.
    • 5/5
      This is a story that is so old so reminiscent of so many myths so insightful into the weakness and the strength of people I enjoyed it
    • 4/5
      The story was so well told in a way that was surprising, and amazing! I liked it very much.
    • 5/5
      A masterpiece, truly. A, must listen, especially if you love Greek mythology.
    • 4/5
      The OdysseyHomer, translation Robert FitzgeraldMay 22, 2010 I have had the intention of reading the Odyssey for years, left it on my shelf, and now, after finishing the work, wonder how I had not previously enjoyed this exciting tale. The structure is not what I expected, being mostly about the problems of Telemachus and Penelope in Ithaca, with the tales of Odysseus travels told as a long story in Phonecia, where he is awaiting aid to travel home. I have encountered all the stories before, the men turned into swine, the cyclopes, the danger of Scylla and Charibdys. I have not read them through, and find the poetry of Fitzgerald easy to read, exciting and muscular. Some quotes:Odysseus: “There is no part of a man more like a dog than a Brazen belly, crying to be remembered”The ghost of Agaemenon: “Indulge a woman never, and never tell you all you know”Odysseus: “By grace of Hermes the Wayfinder, patron of mortal tasks, the god who honors toil, no man can do a chore better than I can.”Penelope: “Friend, many and many a dream is mere confusion, a cobweb of no consequence at all.”Do not fail to read this book, if you consider yourself literate.
    • 5/5
      Odysseus! Always had a wonder for him. His story in the Odyssey and the Iliad is an amazing story of ancient worlds. I think i read this book twice since high school. this time i listen to the audiobook. its better. this is a story to be told and to be listen. love this Fitzgerald translation and Dan Stevens is a good narrator.
    • 5/5
      Found this vintage edition, published in 1900, for $1 in an antiques shop. Have not read this translation. I will add more later.
    • 5/5
      This is an amazing book, and one of the easiest classical Greek reads I've discovered.
    • 5/5
      Homer is the earliest surviving Greek "writer" - 10th century BC of the Aegaean coast of Asia Minor. Whether he was blind, or was a "she", is guess-work. While in the form of epic poem, the 1946 translator, R.E. Rieuw, gives the story in story form, although the translation appears fairly literal. While all the principal chiefs among the victors of the Trojan War are accounted for, Odysseus is selected as the one whose trip home to Ithaca is the theme of this great work of Wandering. All great story-telling is in Homer's shadow. This story begins with a conversation among the Olympian gods in the tenth year after the Fall of Troy when all other chiefs are home, and, and this is not passing coincidence, the goddess of the flashing eyes, Athene, takes up the conversation with Zeus...
    • 5/5
      Everything classic Greek literature should be.
    • 5/5
      Rated: A-The New Lifetime Reading Plan: Number 3Life as the journey.And thus he spoke among the immortals:"Ah, how quick men are to blame the gods!From us, they say, all their evils come,When they themselves, by their own ridiculous pride,Bring horrors on far beyond anything fateWould ever have done.For a better and a higher gift than this there cannot be, when with accordant aims man and wife have a home. Great grief is it to foes and joy to friends; but they themselves best know its meaning.Our lives are soon over. If one is unfeeling,And cruel in his thoughts, all men call down cursesUpon him while he is alive, and after he's deadThey mock and scorn him. but if one is kind-hearted and generous,Strangers carry his fame throughtout the worldAnd many are they who call that mortal good.
    • 4/5
      Great story and translated in a way that compares more with a modern written tale.
    • 5/5
      You must read a Robert Fagles' translation. Fagles makes the story come alive. Enjoy!
    • 5/5
      Perhaps the proof of a classic is that upon reading it one says: I can see why that's a classic. Whether one man or a compilation of storytellers actually wrote this tale, it clearly does well in its role as the first epic and a fundamental tale of early Greece. The struggle is man against god and man against man. It brings out the relationships felt between the early Greeks and their gods in a way none of the shorter myths possibly can. I have always heard of strong parallels between Christian stories and the Greek myths, but have never seen the comparisons as strong as here. Odysseus plays the role first of David, condemned to wander and suffer one setback after another because of the disfavor of Poseidon. And yet upon his return to his own land, the analogy transfers to the role of Christ, with Odysseus returning at a time unknown, with his prophecying it, and clearing his house of the wooers of his bride. He also tests the nature of each man and maid, slaying those untrue to him. Other events of note: his entrapment with Calypso, his leaving and being cast to the shores of the land of Alcinous, the Cyclops, the Lotus-eaters, the men turned to swine, the visit to the edge of Hades (and speaking with relatives, friends, and foe), the Sirens, the return to his own land, his ruse as a beggar, and the slaying of the wooers.
    • 5/5
      Experienced an unplanned event while traveling? Or feel like you are living through an epic of misfortune that will not end? Or just having a really bad day? If you answered yes to any of these questions then rush to your shelves and re-read a chapter of Odysseus’ travails on his way home. [Pause for you to finish reading chapter]. OK, deep breath, now your problems don’t seem so bad, do they? Recommended for all adventurers who need more perspective.
    • 5/5
      It's good to meet classics in person after being distant acquaintances who know one another just well enough to nod in passing. Now I can shake The Odyssey heartily by the hand when I meet it in other stories, hail-well-met. And meet it in other stories I will, this revered grandfather of the revenge story and the travelogue. Besides being a classic, The Odyssey is a fascinating tale in its own right of strange wonders and awful dangers, of the faithful and the faithless, of wrongs committed and retribution meted out. Odysseus, Achaean hero of the Trojan War, has been ten years fighting at Troy and another ten making his way home. Imprisoned by a nymph, shipwrecked, lost, waylaid — Odysseus, beloved of some gods, is hated by others. Meanwhile at home in Ithaca, many have despaired of his coming, including his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, who now suffer at the hands of Penelope's suitors, leading men of the Achaeans who wish to possess her. Odysseus will never return, they say, as they sit in his house eating and drinking up all his wealth. Telemachus is just a young man and cannot prevent their ravages. The situation is indeed desperate, as Penelope, worn out with mourning Odysseus, begins to accept her fate to become another man's wife. Once I got used to it, I loved the repetition of certain phrases and descriptions: "long-tried royal Odysseus," "discreet Telemachus," "heedful Penelope," "clear-eyed Athena," "the gods who hold the open sky," "rosy-fingered dawn," "on the food before them they laid hands," and more. It reminded me that I was hearing a poem (I listened on audiobook) and that it was originally memorized by the bard, not read off the page. The repetition is comforting. It was easy to fall into the rhythm of the story and the archaic language, surrendering to the storyteller's art. I find the interplay between the gods and men so interesting. I don't know if The Odyssey is an accurate picture of ancient Greek theology and I don't want to draw too many conclusions from what was understood even at the time to be mythological. But I had a similar experience listening to The Iliad — the gods are great and powerful and all that, but they are so very involved in human affairs, almost as if they can't bear to be left out... why should Athena care so much whether Odysseus ever gets home? Why is it that human affairs so concern the councils of Olympus? I suppose the simple answer is that these stories were made up by humans and since the thing that interests us most is ourselves, we can't imagine gods who aren't likewise fascinated.I listened to an older translation by George Herbert Palmer and I'm glad I did. My experience of The Iliad was marred by the fact that it was a modernized translation, the latest and greatest supposedly. But all that really means is that it was dumbed-down for lazy listeners, to the point where some of the heroic moments almost became comical in our modern parlance. No thank you! I'm no expert in translation, but this one presented no jarring moments of disconnect between the style and substance, and I thought it fitted the subject matter very well. The reader of this particular audiobook, Norman Dietz, has a low, smooth, calm voice that I quickly learned to like. This is an excellent story that never slackens its pace or lets you stop caring what happens to its hero. Don't be intimidated by its status as a classic — all that means is that it's a good story that has stood the test of time, delighting its hearers both in ancient days and now. I recommend it!
    • 3/5
      I'll never read it all, so I'll cheat and use David Bader's haiku version from One Hundred Books in Haiku (Viking 2005):The OdysseyAegean forecast –storms, chance of one-eyed giants,delays expected
    • 5/5
      Robert Fagles once again preserves the timeless nature of the human spirit in Homer's The Odyssey. Odysseus portray the the endurance of the human spirit against all odds. Although Odysseus is favored by the gods for his wit and courage, he is damned by Poseidon to roam the seas for 10 years before reaching his beloved home of Ithaca. During these ten years Odysseus encounters many entertaining conflicts and characters. The Odyssey accounts for the greek heroes famous journey and struggle to finally have peace at his home.
    • 4/5
      I got E.V. Rieu's prose translation because I wanted to absorb the story as easily as possible. Perhaps a verse translation would have been easy too, and perhaps I missed out on certain things by going for this version, but in any event, it did the job very well indeed; easy to read, gripping and with flashes of humour (some of it probably unintentional, but that doesn't matter much).
    • 4/5
      Still a classic translation although there are several more recent.
    • 5/5
      Rather unusual Swedish translation of Homer's Odyssey. It was on display in the window of an antiquarian bookseller, and as I was going to the annual meeting of the Swedish-Finnish James Joyce Society, it was … destiny.
    • 5/5
      Condensed version of the incredible epic, though Odysseus does not loose his luster even in Spanish. He continues to be a hero you wish to see home, but know he has many flaws that he needs to work on.