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  • RanaldCloustonRanaldClouston@fediscience.org
    Sep 26, 2026, 2:07 AM

    My first foray into classical Graeco-Roman literature (I've read a bit of viking stuff like Beowulf before). I can see why Hollywood is attracted to this one; it builds through a series of smaller adventures into a satisfyingly brutal scene of action and violence. Also a very interesting insight into the mores and beliefs of the ancient world, with the gods helping or harming people according to their tastes and moods rather than any moral standards. The translator #EmilyWilson provides an interesting introduction, which like most introductions, would be better read after you've read the actual story. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

    The Odyssey, by Homer. Translated by Emily Wilson.
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  • bsmall2bsmall2@fedibird.com
    Sep 26, 2026, 7:58 AM

    @RanaldClouston @bookstodon
    I like Wendell Berry's reading of Oddyssey. His essay is in _The Unsettling of America_. He writes that after the brutal massacre climax Odysseus goes to see his father. The old kings shows that in times of disorder one can survive as a peasant. The old man was caring for a young tree in the selfless way peasants ("survivors" as John Berger writes) care for the future. Odysseus later walks inland far enough where neither he nore his oar are recognized, he plants the oar. The movie sounds like a Western.

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  • DahmoniumDahmonium@mastodon.social
    Sep 26, 2026, 8:47 AM

    @RanaldClouston @bookstodon After seeing the movie "Troy" and "Odysseus" I read Pat Barker's "Silence of the girls" (Dutch version). As in the movies, Troy has a central role in the book. The difference, in the book the story is told through the eyes of a woman, Briseïs from Lyrnessus, captured by the Greeks.

    Characters in the movies are often depicted as heroes, this book shows those characters seen through women's eyes were far from being heroe-like.

    A good way to calibrate one's viewpoint.

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