The Odyssey (Penguin Classics). Questo articolo non è disponibile.The Odyssey (Penguin Classics)

L'Odissea è un poema di piaceri straordinari: è un tesoro di racconti incrostato di sale, sballottato dalla tempesta, scuro come il vino, con molti colpi di scena, come la vita stessa. Guardian Il racconto epico di Odisseo e del suo viaggio di ritorno di dieci anni dopo la guerra di Troia costituisce una delle prime e più grandi opere della letteratura occidentale. Confrontato con minacce naturali e soprannaturali (naufragi, battaglie, mostri e l'implacabile inimicizia del dio del mare Poseidone), Odisseo deve usare il suo coraggio e la sua astuzia per raggiungere la sua patria e superare gli ostacoli che, persino lì, lo attendono. La traduzione di EV Rieu dell'Odissea è stata il primo classico Penguin ad essere pubblicato e ha raggiunto lo status di classico. Tradotto da EV RIEU Traduzione riveduta da DCH RIEU Con un'introduzione di PETER JONES.

Homer was probably born around 725BC on the Coast of Asia Minor, now the coast of Turkey, but then really a part of Greece. Homer was the first Greek writer whose work survives.

He was one of a long line of bards, or poets, who worked in the oral tradition. Homer and other bards of the time could recite, or chant, long epic poems. Both works attributed to Homer – the Iliad and the Odyssey – are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Homer must have had an amazing memory but was helped by the formulaic poetry style of the time.

In the Iliad Homer sang of death and glory, of a few days in the struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Mortal men played out their fate under the gaze of the gods. The Odyssey is the original collection of tall traveller’s tales. Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War, encounters all kinds of marvels from one-eyed giants to witches and beautiful temptresses. His adventures are many and memorable before he gets back to Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope.

We can never be certain that both these stories belonged to Homer. In fact ‘Homer’ may not be a real name but a kind of nickname meaning perhaps ‘the hostage’ or ‘the blind one’. Whatever the truth of their origin, the two stories, developed around three thousand years ago, may well still be read in three thousand years’ time.

E. V. Rieu was a celebrated translator from Latin and Greek, and editor of Penguin Classics from 1944-1964. His son, D. C. H. Rieu has revised his work.

D. C. H. Rieu is the son of E. V. Rieu, celebrated translator from Latin and Greek and Editor of Penguin Classics from 1944-1964.

Peter Jones is former lecturer in classics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.