hey what if we Tried
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@Tulpa what do you think of fagles, that’s who they had us read in college iirc
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Out od all those excerpts, I felt drawn to Pope the most, but I’m not sure what the effect would be like over hours of reading. I think it has more invention, but maybe it just seems that way.
Chances are I wind up reading Fitzgerald’s.
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I just feel like reading somethin I haven’t before it’s not that deep. in fact nothing I do is deep. I’m just here so I can get more cultural references from my friends and make jokes based on words we’ve read. if this works out we’re doing book of the new sun next cuz i haven’t read enough of that hhaha. 2025 is the year of the book for me
no one’s allowed to talk about which version is better until they start actually reading HMPH 
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not a fan!
Now stripping back his rags Odysseus master of craft and battle
vaulted onto the great threshold, gripping his bow and quiver
bristling arrows, and poured his flashing shafts before him
loose at his feet, and thundered out to all the suitors:
“Look – your crucial test is finished, now, at last!
But another’s target’s left that no one’s hit before –
we’ll see if I can hit it – Apollo give me glory!”
Still prefer it to Lattimore (I really don’t like Lattimore) but Fagles is like… college student poetry to my ear.
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poured his flashing shafts 
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homeric epithets like “the wine-dark sea” and “zeus, whose voice is thunder” are great for that imo
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I only read The Odyssey once in college for an elective I took one semester. I think it was the Lattimore translation. If I were going to read it again I don’t know which other translation I’d use.
Everyone should just read whichever translation they like. Would be a very interesting book club.
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I think that’s the plan! Everyone’s reading their translation of choice
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conclusion: people who read the odyssey dont lose count
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Are we doing this like, now, I just want to know if I should start reading
im starting as soon as i go on my trip. im flying down to oakland on the 14th but i dont mind being behind
I’m planning on starting in January
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I have lost count but have read the odyssey between 7 and 10 times so I went with the option that happened to be in the exact right range
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shhh shhh you dont lose count youre an odyssey reader its science now you cant argue shhhhhhh
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In the time between that poll and now I’ve read it eight more times hence my original vote is invalid.
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but you have strengthened my ‘odyssey readers know how to count’ theory
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I read Odyssey in full in high school for a myth class but absorbed way more from adapted media + tired discussions of the heroes journey. My memory of it is clouded with annoyance that the teacher clearly did not like me. I tried to have an interesting reading about Telemachus being gay, dumb in many ways but hell, can’t be the worst take from a high schooler. Much later reading their book I remember thinking the Adorno and Horkheimer essay was fun (if dense but what else would u expect from that dynamic duo).
I think one of the nicer things about ‘classics’ is how deranged they can be. This included. Picking a translation is low stress cuz I imagine if I wanted to have a stronger take “I can always reread a different one” . Also it’s fun to read the shit talking in translators intros. No idea which one I read before but of the excerpts here the Pope translation appeals most to me, he’s word gaming. I own (but haven’t read) the Lattimore Iliad so i can always back that guy up for dull accuracy if I wish. But if im reading this thing at this point I’m reading it for fun.
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I hate when adaptations cut out the heroic psychopathy and try to make the people more “normal”
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They made us translate the Aeneid in school which put me off epic poetry for a long time until I read an old version of the Odyssey inherited from my grandad in my late 20s, after he passed but I don’t recall the translator. I think I’ll audiobook it if I can. The version I read was very straight in its prose and didn’t really preserve any poetic style - mostly a literal summary - so I’m leaning Popewards.
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