Odyssey

Odyssey
by Eric Flint

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About Book

The New York Times Book Review, Chris Hedges
He has brought his laconic wit and love of the ribald, as well as his clever use of idiomatic American slang, to his version of the Odyssey.

Douglass Parker
"'This is wonderful, to listen to a singer / Such as this. . . ' So Odysseus on the bard Demodocus. And the singer, the oral poet, the 'aoidos', is what Lombardo embodies in his Homer. With a line and a language hammered out 'in public performance,' he has made a verse that can move his audience to tears and even to laughter. At first glance, the simplicity startles - spare syntax, the highest proportion of short word in modern English poetry, colloquialism in the saddle, sudden and direct contact with the matter. But then the wonders of how he works become evident. So much was already to be seen/heard in Lombardo's version of the Iliad [Hackett, 1997]. But his Odyssey [Hackett, 2000] moves beyond, its verse widening its range to everything in between tears and laughter, able to present a storm, a battle, a chiding, a fable, a tale, and a whine with equal deftness. No version of the Odyssey is more immediate. No version shows better one of Homer's essentials: the oral poet at work. The persona is there, and it's real."

Paolo Vivante, McGill University
"Lombardo has the simple gift of summoning up a Homeric flavor wherever he turns. He may even blend contemporary colloquialisms with an antique epic grandeur, and the effect remains unimpaired. As Lombardo tells us, he recites and performs, he impersonates the poem as if he were the bard. We follow, we explore, plunging into 'medias res'. Homer arises before him as an encompassing reality. Lombardo moves at ease through this Homeric world, without artifice or rhetoric, attuning his verse to Homer's composition. Homer is here a vindication of poetry."

Joseph Russo, Haverford College
"Lombardo has created a Homeric voice for his contemporaries: fresh, quick, and verbally engaging to the modern ear, as the original was to the ancient. His characters come alive as real people expressing real feelings with urgency and verve. I very much like the language and the pace of this version, and would welcome it for classroom use."

Douglass Parker, University of Texas at Austin
"'What could be finer / Than listening to a singer of tales / . . . with a voice like a god's?' So Odysseus on the bard Demodocus. And the singer, the oral poet, the 'aoidos', is what Lombardo embodies in his Homer. With a line and a language hammered out in public performance, he has made a verse that can move his audience to tears and even to laughter. At first glance, the simplicity startles-spare syntax, the highest proportion of short words in modern English poetry, colloquialism in the saddle, sudden and direct contact with the matter. But then the wonders of how he works become evident. So much was already to be seen/heard in Lombardo's version of the Iliad. But his Odyssey moves beyond, its verse widening its range to everything in between tears and laughter, able to present a storm, a battle, a chiding, a fable, a tale, and a whine with equal deftness. No version of the Odyssey is more immediate. No version shows better one of Homer's essentials: the oral poet at work. The persona is there, and it's real."

Book Description
Lombardo's Odyssey offers the distinctive speed, clarity, and boldness that so distinguished his 1997 Iliad. From the translation:

"And when the wine had begun to work on his mind,

I spoke these sweet words to him:

'Cyclops

You ask me my name, my glorious name,

And I will tell it to you. Remember now,

To give me the gift just as you promised.

Noman is my name. They call me Noman-

My mother, my father, and all my friends too.'

He answered from his pitiless heart:

'Noman I will eat last after his friends.

Friends first, him last. That's my gift to you.'"

About the Author
Stanley Lombardo is Professor of Classics, University of Kansas.

Excerpted from Odyssey (Hackett Publishing Co.) by Homer, Stanley Lombardo. Copyright © 1903. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
From the Odyssey: "And when the wine had begun to work on his mind, I spoke these sweet words to him: 'Cyclops You ask me my name, my glorious name, And I will tell it to you. Remember now, To give me the gift just as you promised. Noman is my name. They call me Noman- My mother, my father, and all my friends too.'

He answered from his pitiless heart:

'Noman I will eat last after his friends. Friends first, him last. That's my gift to you.'"

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