A time travel through literature | The Odyssey

Hi!

We want to start the project »A time travel through literature« because we want to present you some classics of the world literature. We think that it is very important to read these books because they influenced the history of writing a lot. In this post, we'll start in the ancient world with the epic poem »The Odyssey« of Homer, which is the sequel to the Iliad.

Homer was one of the first and greatest epic poets in Ancient Greece and the author of the first known literature in Europe. Therefore he had a big impact on the Western culture. The time when he lived is unknown, some people even doubt that he has ever lived. Nevertheless, »The Odyssey«, which was first written down in the 8^th century BC and later on translated into many modern languages of the world, is still attributed to him.

»A man who has been through bitter experiences 
and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings 
after a time.« 

The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus and his journey home to his wife and son after the war of Troy. He desperately wants to be with his family again but has to overcome many obstacles and to fight against many dangerous creatures, for example the cyclops Polyphemus that tries to eat Odysseus and his companions. We are sure that many of you'll know what Odysseus says to the cyclops before he escapes and blinds him: »My name is Nobody.«, which may be the most famous quote from this epic poem. Another well-known adventure of Odysseus is his encounter with the sirens, which is shown in the painting. While Odysseus sails through the whole Mediterranean Sea, his wife Penelope is thronged by more than 100 young suitors, who all want to marry her to become king of Ithaca. The goddess Athena, who is Odysseus' protector, wants to help him and sends his son Telemachus who is then 20 years old. He leaves Ithaca and looks out for news of his missing father.

We just wanted to write a short abstract of the book on our blog because the story is very intricate and extensive. So many things happen, which makes it hard to summarize it. That's why we wanted to concentrate on the style of writing, the author and eventually our recommendation. We enjoyed reading »The Odyssey« although it was very difficult sometimes. The style of writing is - of course - very old-fashioned and unfamiliar. But after some pages we got used to that and reading became easier. The characters are very interesting. The protagonist Odysseus is very clever, witty and always knows how to deal with a dangerous situation. He is a good leader although he sometimes is a bit impulsive. His biggest wish is to return to his family, who awaits him longingly. They also are very strong, especially Penelope who manages to keep tons of suitors at bay.

We think that many of you already know the plot of the story but we would nevertheless encourage you to read it if you're interested in Greek mythology. You'll get to know many famous Greek heroes, gods and goddesses if you accompany Odysseus on his amazing adventures. This is particularly interesting for Fans of »Percy Jackson« and the »Heroes of Olympus« or other books which refer to the ancient myths. It is really cool to read about the gods and other characters you already know and to get to know them from another point of view! 

We hope that you liked this post and want to continue traveling through the history of literature with us!

I will definitely dream of Odysseus' adventures, they are so exciting! ~Liv
I wish I could time travel to Ancient Greece! But I'm afraid that all this happened too long ago... ~Gwen

source: Wikipedia