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The Odyssey
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The Odyssey Paperback - 1997

by Homer; Retold by Geraldine McCaughrean

A modern retelling of the Homerian classic. The Trojan War is over, and Odysseus must now face the hungry one-eyed giant Polyphemus, the vengeful sea-god Poseidon, the sorceress Circe, and many other dangers on his long and perilous journey home.


About this book

Listen, O Muse, and hear my song, Of the great adventures that took so long, Of the noble Odysseus, king of Ithaca, Whose journey was filled with many a setback.


The tale begins with the end of the Trojan War, When the Greeks set sail from the Trojan shore. Odysseus and his men faced many a danger, From the wrath of the gods to the Cyclops' anger.


They sailed through storms and fought with beasts, But despite all odds, they made it to their feast, And there, in the halls of the goddess Circe, Odysseus learned of the dangers he'd soon see.


He sailed on to the land of the dead, To hear from the spirits what lay ahead, And learned of Scylla and Charybdis' might, And the Sirens' song that would lead to his plight.


But he pressed on, through trials and strife, And with the help of Athena, he saved his life. He arrived home to Ithaca, his wife and son, But his troubles were far from done.


His kingdom was overrun with suitors bold, Who sought to claim his wife and gold, But with cunning and strength, he won the day, And all the suitors were slain or driven away.


And so ends the tale of Odysseus' quest, His trials and tribulations put to rest. But his story lives on through the ages, A masterpiece of literature on history's pages.


Published in ancient Greece so long ago, By Homer, a poet whose name we all know, "The Odyssey" remains a classic work of art, A testament to the human spirit and heart. - 


The Odyssey - a summary in poetry by Chatgpt


The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems (along with The Iliad) attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature, also important because it is still studied and read widely today. Originally written around the 8th or 7th century BC in Homeric Greek, The Odyssey was passed down mainly by oral tradition. The text was used in schools and studied by scholars as early as the 4th century. Scholars in Alexandria organized the 12,000-line poem into 24 books. The first English translation of The Odyssey was produced in the 16th century.

Summary

The Odyssey (Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon. Indeed it is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature. It was probably composed near the end of the eighth century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek-speaking coastal region of what is now Turkey. - [Wikipedia][1] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey

From the publisher

The epic journey of Odysseus, the hero of Ancient Greece... After ten years of war, Odysseus turns his back on Troy and sets sail for home. But his voyage takes another ten years and he must face many dangers - Polyphemus the greedy one-eyed giant, Scylla the six-headed sea monster and even the wrath of the gods themselves - before he is reunited with his wife and son. Brilliantly retold by award-winning author, Geraldine McCaughrean.

First line

The war lasted so very, very long.

First Edition Identification

The first printed edition of The Odyssey was produced in 1488 by the Greek scholar Demetrios Chalkokondyles and printed in Milan by a Greek printer named Antonios Damilas.

George Chapman's English translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad, published together in 1616, enjoyed widespread success. Since then, there have been many translations of the poem. 

Robert Fitzgerald's translation of Homer's Odyssey, first published by Doubleday in 1961, is the best and best-loved modern translation of the greatest of all epic poems. W. W. Norton & Company released a highly regarded translation by Emily Wilson in 2017, the first English translation by a woman. 


More about the "A 3,000 Year Publishing and Translation History of the Iliad and the Odyssey" can be found in Philip H. Young's book The Printed Homer. 

Details

  • Title The Odyssey
  • Author Homer; Retold by Geraldine McCaughrean
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition International Ed
  • Pages 112
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Puffin Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Date 1997-12-01
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Illustrated, Maps
  • ISBN 9780140383096 / 0140383093
  • Weight 0.2 lbs (0.09 kg)
  • Dimensions 7 x 5.05 x 0.4 in (17.78 x 12.83 x 1.02 cm)
  • Ages 10 to UP years
  • Grade levels 5 - UP
  • Reading level 890
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: Ancient (To 499 A.D.)
  • Library of Congress subjects Mythology, Greek, Odysseus (Greek mythology)
  • Dewey Decimal Code 883.01

Media reviews

Citations

  • Outside, 10/01/2013, Page 97

About the author

Geraldine McCaughrean has written over 160 other books, including A Little Lower Than Angels, which won the Whitbread Book of the Year Children's Novel Award in 1987, A Pack of Lies, which won the Guardian Prize and Carnegie Medal in 1989 and Gold Dust, which won the Beefeater Children's Novel Award in 1994. She has written retellings of notoriously tricky classics including El Cid, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Moby Dick and The Pilgrim's Progress. In 2004, she won a competition to write the sequel to J M Barrie's Peter Pan. And in 2006, Peter Pan in Scarlet was published to great acclaim.
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