Read all of The Odyssey by Richmond Lattimore.
Take as long as you need to read through it. Depending on your reading speed, it will take you between 8 to 12 hours of reading time. You’ll find the story becomes more enjoyable as you become used to the poetic style. There are 24 chapters (books) that follow the adventures of Odysseus. If you’ve never read a long poem like this, don’t be worried: teenagers have been reading (or hearing) this poem for over 2000 years. It’s a crowd pleaser.
Helpful hint: if you struggle to understand it by reading it silently, try reading it out loud to yourself.
There are many translations of the Odyssey available, but I like Richmond Lattimore’s translation for a number of reasons. It is a good balance between the majesty of the original Greek verse and the ease of a modern translation. Lattimore’s vocabulary and style are from an older generation (1960’s) so they bring a sense of distance and beauty that the poetic language should summon up in its hearers.
You don’t need to read Lattimore’s introduction. You can, of course read it if you want to, but I think you’ll appreciate it more after you’ve read the full story. It is a bit technical. Instead, just jump in and start reading Book I.
What if you come to unfamiliar characters and terms? Use your Reader’s Encyclopedia that I provided to you in the Research Materials step. You can purchase a physical version (recommended), or use a downloaded PDF, or use the online flip-book. In the PDF, you can search for a name to jump directly to it. Note, however, that Lattimore uses Greek spelling for some names such as “Kalypso” (normally “Calypso”) or “Athene” (normally “Athena”). Again, if you’ve never researched like this, it may be initially laborious, but you’ll get used to it. The process will be very rewarding.
Richard Lattimore also did an excellent translation of The Iliad, Homer’s poem that precedes The Odyssey. If you’ve never read The Odyssey before in any version, here is the opening section of the introduction he wrote to The Illiad. This provides the background story to The Odyssey. If you would like to read his full introduction, I’ve included a link to it at the bottom. It is a bit technical at points, but provides a fascinating look at the background of Homer’s poems.
A Side Note: In this class I often will provide you with more resources than you need. I am doing this for students who want to dig deeper into certain works of literature. I am naturally curious myself, so I’m simply including things that I find interesting. You are welcome to read them, or you can pass them by.
Background to the Odyssey
The Story of the Fall of Troy
The Greeks of the post-Homeric period, the ‘classical’ Greeks and their successors, that is, those Greeks who were literate and have left articulate records of their beliefs, considered that one of the episodes in the early history of their own race was the Trojan War. As to the details of this war, as to the interpretation of its causes and its meaning, there might be disagreement; but for most persons at least, it was a piece of history, not a piece of legend or myth; and the main characters and the essential course of events were matters of general agreement.
This essential story may be summarized as follows: Paris, also called Alexandros, was the son of Priam, who was King of Troy, a city in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. Paris on an overseas voyage was entertained by Menelaos in Sparta, and from there carried away, with her full consent, Helen, the wife of Menelaos. He took her back with him to Troy, where she lived with him as his wife. The princes of Greece thereupon raised a force of a thousand or more ships, manned by fighters, with a view to forcing the return of Helen. The armada was led by Agamemnon, elder brother of Menelaos, the King of Mykenai; it included many lords from the Peloponnese, Central Greece, Thessaly, and certain islands and each prince personally led his own following. The fleet sailed from Aulis in Boiotia and made for Troy. There the Greeks besieged the city but were unable to take the city. For nine years they raided various places in the vicinity. In the tenth year, Agamemnon, the powerful chief, quarrelled with Achilleus, his most powerful fighting man. Achilleus withdrew from the fighting, and kept his followers idle as well. In his absence, the Trojans, led by Hektor (a son of Priam and brother of Paris), temporarily got the better of their enemies and threatened to destroy the ships. Achilleus returned to the fighting, killed Hektor and routed the Trojans. Achilleus himself fell soon afterwards, but his death did not save Troy, which was presently taken. Most of the defenders were killed, the non-combatant population was carried into slavery, and the kingdom of Troy was obliterated. The lords of Greece made their way back, beset by weather, quarrels, and the hostility of those they had left at home years before. The destruction of Troy was brought about by the design and will of the gods.
Such is the basic story of Troy: and I call it ‘basic’ because, while further details or episodes may have found universal acceptance later, all Greek writers so far as we know accepted at least so much.
The Homeric Poems
The story outlined above derives its authority from the fact that everything in it is contained in the Iliad or the Odyssey of Homer. The Greeks regarded Homer as their first, and greatest, poet. They might speak of other names which pretended to greater antiquity, but they had no text to quote. For Homer they did. The Iliad and the Odyssey were unequivocally ascribed to him; other epics more doubtfully, as, for instance, ‘the Sack of Troy, by Homer or Arktinos’. For the Iliad and Odyssey, full and reasonably sound texts were available from at least the end of the sixth century B.C.; possibly, and I would say probably, from long before that.
Side by side with the transcription and dissemination of written texts went dissemination through recital, the business of professional reciters and interpreters of Homer, called rhapsodes.
At any rate, Homer, for the Greeks, stood at the head of their literary tradition. All knew him, few challenged his greatness. Hesiod, alone of the poets who have survived in more than name, was sometimes thought of as his contemporary and his equal; but Hesiod was far less widely quoted.
Of the two great Homeric epics, the Iliad deals with the story of Troy, the Odyssey with the homecoming of the Greek heroes after the capture of the city: in particular, the homecoming of Odysseus, the adventures, temptations, and dangers he went through before he made his way back to Ithaka and restored order in his own house. It thus concerns itself with heroic material chronologically later than that of the Iliad; and it has usually, in antiquity as in modern times, been thought of as the later of the two compositions.
Download the full introduction to Lattimore’s translation of The Illiad
The Best Companion to the Odyssey
Peter Jones wrote a unique line-by-line companion volume to Lattimore’s translation to the Odyssey. It is very detailed (and a bit technical at points), but does an excellent job explaining all the intricacies of the poem. This is certainly not required to understand it or even appreciate it, but I thought I would mention it for those who were extremely interested in The Odyssey.
It’s called Homer’s Odyssey: A Companion to the English Translation of Richard Lattimore
You can easily find used copies online as well as a new copy on Amazon.