Read more
Zusatztext "A splendid achievement outstripping all competitors."--Anthony A. Long! author of Hellenistic Philosophy "With real poetic power...his book is one no lover of living poetry should miss."-- The New York Times Book Review Informationen zum Autor Homer was a Greek poet, recognized as the author of the great epics, the Iliad , the story of the siege of Troy, and the Odyssey , the tale of Ulysses’s wanderings. Allen Mandelbaum was born in 1926 and died in 2011. His translations of Homer, Dante, Virgil, Quasimodo, and Ungaretti were all published to great acclaim. His rendering of The Aeneid won the National Book Award. He was the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Humanities at Wake Forest University, North Carolina. Klappentext Homer's epic chronicle of the Greek hero Odysseus' journey home from the Trojan War has inspired writers from Virgil to James Joyce. Odysseus survives storm and shipwreck! the cave of the Cyclops and the isle of Circe! the lure of the Sirens' song and a trip to the Underworld! only to find his most difficult challenge at home! where treacherous suitors seek to steal his kingdom and his loyal wife! Penelope. Favorite of the gods! Odysseus embodies the energy! intellect! and resourcefulness that were of highest value to the ancients and that remain ideals in out time. In this new verse translation! Allen Mandelbaum--celebrated poet and translator of Virgil's Aeneid and Dante's Divine Comedy --realizes the power and beauty of the original Greek verse and demonstrates why the epic tale of The Odyssey has captured the human imagination for nearly three thousand years. Book I To the Muse. * The anger of Poseidon. * In Poseidon's absence, a gathering of the gods in Zeus' halls on Olympus. Athena's plea for help for the stranded Odysseus; Zeus' consent. * Athena in the guise of Méntës visits Ithaca. Her advice to Telémachus: he is to confront the Ithacan elders with the problem of the suitors and to leave Ithaca to search for news of his father. * Penelope's appearance among the suitors. Her silencing of Phémius the singer. Telémachus and the suitors: their sharp exchange. * Nightfall: Telémachus and his old nurse, Eurycle*¯¯a. Muse, tell me of the man of many wiles,* the man who wandered many paths of exile* after he sacked Troy's sacred citadel.* He saw the cities-mapped the minds-of many;* and on the sea, his spirit suffered every* adversity-to keep his life intact;* to bring his comrades back. In that last task,* his will was firm and fast, and yet he failed:* he could not save his comrades. Fools, they foiled* themselves: they ate the oxen of the Sun,* the herd of Hélios Hypérion;* the lord of light requited their transgression-* he took away the day of their return.* Muse, tell us of these matters. Daughter of Zeus,* my starting point is any point you choose.* All other Greeks who had been spared the steep* descent to death had reached their homes-released* from war and waves. One man alone was left,* still longing for his home, his wife, his rest.* For the commanding nymph, the brightest goddess,* Calypso, held him in her hollow grottoes:* she wanted him as husband. Even when* the wheel of years drew near his destined time-* the time the gods designed for his return* to Ithaca-he still could not depend* upon fair fortune or unfailing friends.* While other gods took pity on him, one-* Poseidon-still pursued: he preyed upon* divine Odysseus until the end,* until the exile found his own dear land.*...
