When was odysseus written

Some of them have been recorded over a period of 20 years, and they've told the same story in almost the same words. Most of us can't remember a single phone number nowadays, because they're all in the phone memory. Yet buried deep in us is this ability to remember important things. And one of the things about poetry and the rhythmic, heightened language of poetry is that it makes it easy to remember.

You can sing a story more easily than you can tell it. You traveled to many of the sites associated with Homer for your research. Tell us about some of the high five moments. In my mind this book is called Homer By Easy Jet [laughs]. It's fantastic the way you can fly off to different spots, very cheaply, like the Trojan plain , in the northwest corner of Turkey, where the Dardanelles comes out of the Sea of Marmara. It's still astonishingly like Homer describes it.

There's this incredible Bronze Age tumulus where Achilles is buried, with a white, limestone cap, which makes it visible from the sea. They all went there to pay homage to Achilles. But today almost nobody visits it—so it's as if you're discovering it for yourself. In a way it made me grow up. Homer's look at the truly bad aspects of life, in The Iliad especially, is a deeply sobering thing. And he doesn't hold out any kind of consolation. There's no heaven waiting for the warriors when they're killed, most of them in the most horrible way.

They all go down to Hades. But the point Homer wants to make is that in this world of difficulty and suffering, the really beautiful thing is love—that despite the realities of violence, love is a possibility. Simon Worrall curates Book Talk. Follow him on Twitter or at simonworrallauthor.

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Travel A road trip in Burgundy reveals far more than fine wine. Travel My Hometown In L. Subscriber Exclusive Content. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? How viruses shape our world. The era of greyhound racing in the U. As a woman, Wilson believes she comes to the Odyssey with a different perspective than translators who have gone before her.

Part of the way Wilson challenges previous readings of the Odyssey is with style. Her translation made a splash months before it was published, when an excerpt ran in the summer issue of the Paris Review. Those choices show up clearly in her treatment of Penelope. But small details can tell us something about even the most frustrating of characters. Recent events have led to a widespread debate over how audiences should consume the work of people we know to be abusers of women.

This is intertwined with the question of how we should consume art that has racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted elements. Often elided from this conversation is the fact that people of color and women of all races have been consuming racist and sexist art in America for generations in many classes on Western literature, for instance, they have had little choice , and developing their own responses to it, responses that are often deeply nuanced.

It is a version of the Odyssey that lays bare the morals of its time and place, and invites us to consider how different they are from our own, and how similar. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all.

Please consider making a contribution to Vox today to help us keep our work free for all. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Historically, men translated the Odyssey.

Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Why does Odysseus kill the suitors? How does Penelope test Odysseus? What is happening at the beginning of The Odyssey? Why does Athena help Odysseus so much? Why does Nestor invite Telemachus to the feast before knowing his identity?

Why does Calypso allow Odysseus to leave her island? Why does Odysseus sleep with Circe? Why does Odysseus travel to Hades? Why does Odysseus fail to reveal his identity to Penelope when they are first reunited? Does Penelope really intend to marry one of her suitors? How do Odysseus and Telemachus defeat the suitors? Previous section Movie Adaptations.