Litsy

Happy Tuesday! Here are today's questions. I'll tag a few Littens to get us started. Hope your day is beautiful!

My answers:
📘 I would like to learn Greek.
📘 Tagged

Play? @dabbe @AnnCrystal @DebinHawaii @Eggs @Kshakal @TheBookHippie @peaKnit @BethM @AmyG @Susanita @julesG @InkedBookworm13 @PageShifter @Cupcake12 @Blueberry @Texreader @Born.A.Reader @BookmarkTavern

dabbe Will do; thanks for the 🏷️! 😘 3w

TheSpineView @dabbe 👍🤩🌞 3w

AnnCrystal Greek 🆒 Thanks for the tag! 🥳👌🏼💝. 3w

TheSpineView @AnnCrystal 😘🥰😊 3w

43 likes4 comments

Andrea313

The Illiad | Homer

pick

Emily Wilson's translation gets a HUGE standing O from me, and Audra McDonald's audiobook narration is unbelievably moving and deeply emotional. It's a long listen (took me 4 weeks to get through), but it's worth the commitment. And the quote here from Wilson's introduction could not be more true. The loss throughout the story is staggering in scale, brutal and overwhelming- yet the grief described is so human and so cathartic. Bravo all around.

willaful Oh interesting, they use this same theme in “Hadestown.“
(edited) 4mo

Andrea313 @willaful Another piece of art I love!!! 4mo

25 likes2 comments

Robotswithpersonality

An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic | Daniel Mendelsohn

2024 Non-Fiction Favourites: Some stellar memoirs, great art collections, fantastic works on horror, and a whole, heaping helping of why prison should be abolished, as well as some other highly educational material on topics near and dear to me.

10 likes

AnishaInkspill

The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander | Homer

#SundayFunday @BookmarkTavern

This is one of the many which I have, along with the Iliad: A New Translation by Peter Green. Before I had discovered these books, I did not know that they were around to make these old works an easier read. At first, they were tough but the extras that these books come with, really helped, it's been amazing, I'm reading books that I always thought would be out of my reach, I am truly grateful to these books.

BookmarkTavern Wonderful pick! Thank you for sharing! 6mo

15 likes1 comment

Robotswithpersonality

An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic | Daniel Mendelsohn

pick

A favourite of 2024, for sure. So many things about this just worked so well for me. A richer, more patient examination of the Odyssey than I've previously encountered in the flurry of four years of a Greek and Roman Studies BA; a focus on its language and its themes, occasionally dipping into the original Greek in a way I never had the chance to encounter; the significance of the original word choice. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? A memoir focused on a relationship between father and son, an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of the father, through recollections and informal interviews; a collection of wonderful moments in classroom discussions of the Odyssey and the professor reflecting on the father's contributions to the discussion; a segment that sees father and son travel to certain locations covered in the Odyssey; 7mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? a magnificent paralleling/interweaving of the journey of the Odyssey and the author's, and the author's father's lives. I really enjoyed my time with this book. Can highly recommend the audiobook in tandem with the print. Truly loved having the words in front of me and the audio narrator adding to my focus, and adding character to the voices of those people featured in the book. 7mo

Robotswithpersonality 4/4 If you find yourself constantly craving a touch of modern sensibilities with your Ancient Greek tales, if you are among the many adult children who recognize the ebb and flow of understanding your parents better, of coming to grips with their aging and mortality, I think you'll love this. 7mo

kspenmoll What a wonderful & thorough review! I have had this book for ages but never cracked it open.now I need to sooner rather than later. 7mo

Robotswithpersonality @kspenmoll Happy to influence the TBR order priority. Hope you enjoy! 😊 7mo

12 likes5 comments

RowReads1

The Odyssey: A Dramatic Retelling of Homer's Epic | Simon Armitage

This looks crazy. https://youtu.be/FuOQXSyFcP0?si=7bYvn4M7xSYp24Id

TieDyeDude I've heard mixed reviews, but I just want to watch Goldblum chew up some scenery! 9mo

22 likes1 comment

Robotswithpersonality

Iliad: (the Stephen Mitchell Translation) | Homer

This post contains spoilers

show me

so-so

The gods made me do it! 🙄
How is it I never remember that the Iliad does not end with the fall of Ilium (Troy), not even the fall of Achilles, but rather the funeral rites for Patroclus and that poor bastard Hector? Kind of a let down from a narrative perspective. The whole thing feels like it's building not just to a showdown between Achilles and Hector, but also to whether Troy will be spared or destroyed, and the book ends before you have 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? an answer! If memory serves, I think the Odyssey covers the aftermath, but it's not a very satisfying reading experience to recognize you need to read another epic to compete the tale. You know how I feel about cliffhangers.
Also from an 'all Greek myth has gotten jumbled in my head perspective' it doesn't help that the beginning of the Iliad does not start with the reasons for this conflict, the story is very much in media res, 9mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? the campaign has been going on for years, you find out why every one is mad and fighting as it goes along.
The text is fairly heavy handed in putting forth what were the societal values of the day: honouring your host, and they honouring your solemn requests in turn, not being lost to pride or rage, affording the proper honours to the gods and the dead. 9mo

Robotswithpersonality 4/? I'm sure the text has been mined many times for what it has to say about the culture, trade, every day customs of ancient times - with the proviso of anything with this many immortal participants can't be considered too factual. Do NOT get me started on how women (that includes goddesses) were represented and treated in the text. Talk about enforcing the values of the time. 😑 9mo

See All 8 Comments

Robotswithpersonality 5/? Speaking of the text, I can appreciate the plain language, how easy it was to comprehend, but maybe some of the poetry of this epic has been lost in this particular translation? Granted I don't have a professor to explain the more complex bits this time 'round, so for a public library edition it's probably for the best!
Regardless of translation, two things stood out to me: 9mo

Robotswithpersonality 6/? Metaphors/similes for battle are heavy on the power of nature, group of soldiers like wave, stampede, etc, also hunting scenes, either men hunting prey, or predatory animals hunting prey. It's one form of violence describing another at the end of the day, but it's a solid reminder for how brutal those times likely were, how brutal war always is. 9mo

Robotswithpersonality 7/? Another heavily repeated theme were stories of families, particularly a focus on lineage, frequent digressions in the text, to prove the honour of this or that soldier is to cite their history, to introduce a new player is to mention who they're related to.
Speaking of, I know it was a good strategy to have whole sections of text repeated if you're going to have to remember to perform this whole thing orally back in the day, 9mo

Robotswithpersonality 8/? but it feels kind of ridiculous reading a copy paste of two paragraphs ago all over again. I would be completely on board for a radical reduction of the text along the lines of 'and Isis delivered the message as Zeus had dictated' END OF SCENE.
You'd drop a good chunk off the word count without harming the narrative, I daresay improving the flow. Alas, Homer is hallowed ground these days, and I think most would pitch a fit at the idea of 9mo

Robotswithpersonality 9/9 edited reproduction. That's why retellings exist. 😉

⚠️Domestic abuse, slavery, ableism, animal death, gore, misogyny 9mo

2 likes8 comments

Robotswithpersonality

Iliad: (the Stephen Mitchell Translation) | Homer

New plan: Greek myth-sci-fi-fantasy fusion; can someone please write a story about the golden handmaids of Hephaestus?
I now have a mighty need for ancient Greek robot narratives! 💛🤖🏛️🏺

8 likes

Robotswithpersonality

Iliad: (the Stephen Mitchell Translation) | Homer