The Odyssey of Homer Paperback by Homer

Product Details

• Publisher: Bantam Classics (1991-09-01)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 560 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780553213997
• Item Weight: 260.82 grams
• Dimensions: 6.85 x 4.12 x 1.2 cm

A stunning verse translation of Homer’s epic tale about one man’s decade-long struggle to return home after years on the battlefields of Troy, from National Book Award–winning translator Allen Mandelbaum

“Muse, tell me of the man of many wiles . . .”

So begins one of the greatest adventures of world literature. Homer’s epic chronicle of the Greek hero Odysseus’ journey home from the Trojan War has inspired writers from Virgil to James Joyce. Odysseus survives storm and shipwreck, the cave of the Cyclops and the isle of Circe, the lure of the Sirens’ song and a trip to the Underworld, only to find his most difficult challenge at home, where treacherous suitors seek to steal his kingdom and his loyal wife, Penelope.

Allen Mandelbaum’s brilliant verse translation realizes the power and the beauty of the original Greek and demonstrates why the Odyssey has captured the human imagination for nearly three thousand years.

About the Author

Homer was a Greek poet, recognized as the author of the great epics, the Iliad, the story of the siege of Troy, and the Odyssey, the tale of Ulysses’s wanderings.

Allen Mandelbaum was born in 1926 and died in 2011. His translations of Homer, Dante, Virgil, Quasimodo, and Ungaretti were all published to great acclaim. His rendering of The Aeneid won the National Book Award. He was the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Humanities at Wake Forest University, North Carolina.