Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey

Description

*From [Goodreads][1]:* "The identity of the poet Homer will always remain a mystery, but there is little doubt that the epic poems assembled under his name form the cornerstone of Western literature, feeding our imagination for over two and a half millennia. The Iliad and The Odyssey, with their incomparable tales of the Trojan War, brave Achilles, Ulysses and Penelope, the Sirens, the Cyclops, Helen of Troy, and the petulant gods, are familiar to most readers because they are so pervasive. From Plato to Virgil, Pope to Joyce, Dante to Wolfgang Petersen, the poems have been told and retold, interpreted and embellished. As Manguel writes, "In a very real sense, The Iliad and The Odyssey are familiar to us prior to opening the first page."" In this graceful and sweeping book, Alberto Manguel traces the lineage of the poems from their inception and first recording. He considers the original purpose of the poems, either as allegory of philosophical truth or as a record of historical truth, surveys the challenges the pagan Homer presented to the early Christian world, and shows how this "primordial spring without which there would have been no culture" spread after the Reformation. Following Homer through the greatest literature ever created, Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey above all delights in the poems themselves. [1]: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1344615.Homer_s_the_Iliad_and_the_Odyssey_A_Book_That_Shook_the_World

Description

"The stories of the Trojan war and Helen of Troy, Patroclus and Achilles, the Sirens and the Cyclops are embedded in western culture, yet readers are often unaware that they were made famous by two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and one blind poet: Homer." "Starting with their inception in ancient Greece, Homer's the Iliad and the Odyssey demonstrates these poems reverberate through the western canon, from the Rome of Virgil and Horace to Joyce's Dublin and Derek Walcott's Caribbean, via Dante and Racine. In this lyrical and graceful book, Alberto Manguel delights in the original, poems and celebrates their presence throughout history."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Series Statement

• Books The Shook The World