MN Readalong : Homer’s The Odyssey in 2026

Interesting comments in the Guardian today by Emily Wilson on the film - she is clearly not a fan!

@Stowickthevast- I think the impression of a long journey is because the retellings I read as a child tell the story in chronological order & condense the Telemachus part. This means that the Calypso & Nausicaa episodes are told as part of his journey, whereas here they are part as the present action.

I think Homer’s way of narrating it is clever as it means the story doesn’t drag as you have the present action for both Telemachus & Odysseus & both looking back. It also separates the Circe & Calypso episodes which are similar (aside from the pigs).

[I noticed this because I’ve just reread A Town like Alice which uses a similar structure & was struck by how that made for quite a pacy read.]

@RomanMum I'd also forgotten quite how many pigs Eumaeus is in charge of! Though he is also a slave. Seems pretty unlikely that Ithaca could support that many pigs, but on the podcast they talk about how the Homeric heroes eat nothing but meat as a way of showing their status, whereas in reality the diet at that time would mostly have been vegetables, grain and fish.

@Stowickthevast that sounds amazing!

Thanks for the reminder @EineReiseDurchDieZeit. I enjoyed these last two chapters but felt the Eumaeus bit dragged, no need for yet another shaggy dog story from Odysseus, he just can’t help lying about his past can he? Also the chapter in my version is called In Eumaeus’ Hut, but it turns out he has quite the pig empire, rather than being a simple swineherd as suggested.

I also felt very sorry for the Phaeacians who displayed good guest friendship and yet were turned to stone by Poseidon, who really knows how to hold a grudge. He’s rapidly becoming my least favourite god.

I’m hoping to see the film next weekend, and am looking forward to it.

Thanks for the reminder. I finished books 13 &14 last week and really enjoyed them. For some reason, I thought Odysseus took longer to get home, so was quite surprised to find we're in Ithaca with 10 books to go.

I felt quite sorry for the Phaecians who had helped Odysseus and then got turned to stone and possibly a mountain hiding their city.

I did find the parts wth Eumaeus a bit odd, there's lots of twisty story telling going on.

The Mary Beard analysis sounds great @ShackletonSailingSouth I'll have a look for it.

I think I'm going to power on through to the end now as I want to watch the film. And am I'm Kefalonia on holiday looking over at Ithaca, so seems like the right time to finish it. I'll still tune in for the monthly catch up if they continue.

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit
I loved books 13 with Odysseus making it back to Ithaca and meeting Athena. I like how they almost seem like equals and the descriptions of the nymphs cave. Then Odysseus meeting Eumaeus the swineherd in book 14 where there is a lot of dramatic irony, a bit over the top I thought. Why does Homer address the swineherd as You? That was strange.

I'm also enjoying the Instant Classics book club podcast with Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins where they go through the Odyssey book by book. I haven't caught up to book 14 yet but it's good stuff. You have to pay for it though.

I saw the movie today and agree with you @EineReiseDurchDieZeitwell worth the watch despite the focus and things cut. Found that Odysseus wasn’t proud enough and was sad Nestor was cut (who I love) but some of the effects and the acting was top notch. The Circe section was jaw-dropping.

Thanks for the Radio BBC sounds recommendation!

Thanks Eine - that sounds better than I was expecting. Looking forward to it!

I've fallen a bit behind but have been enjoying reading the comments here. With the film about to be released I am determined to get back into the book and with that in mind thought I would share this article for anyone else who's struggling😊A voyage of discovery: an idiot’s guide to reading The Odyssey | Books | The Guardian

Oh thanks Eine

I fell of the thread ages ago as have been reading The Odyssey in conjunction with Ulysses so had to work on a different timeline but was wondering if anyone has heard much about the movie? DH and I just booked tickets for Sunday.

Haven't had the time to get too far into the audiobook (sad face). However seeing this in my TRiH feed reminded me of this thread and I thought some may enjoy this.

I see there’s a dramatisation of The Odyssey on R4 Extra. It’ll be interesting to see how it compares.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I hope you're feeling better? Shall we do 25 July for Books 13-14?

@Stowickthevast- Telemachus & Circe really is weird - especially as I have vague memories that Odysseus & Circe have a son. Surely that would lead to Oedipus- style tragedy?

I found the part in the underworld where Odysseus is talking to his friends moving especially as he didn’t know that Agamemnon was dead. Also the part about Ajax being unable to forgive Odysseus about the armour. Then there’s the advice to Odysseus where he hopes that it will help him save his men, but the reader knows from the story so far that he might have failed.

@Stowickthevast- great name for a nightclub (you were definitely ahead of me as I remember reading the myth & having no idea how to actually pronounce Charybdis).

@Stowickthevast interesting!! I always remembered poor Elpenor too, it's a sad little tale. Telemachus marry Circe?! Too wrong!!

That's a very interesting Reddit thread for a Greek geek like me, thanks! The upshot for anyone else interested is that the phrase we were discussing ('speaks in human tongues') is a formula that appears several times -so i personally would put less weight on that as to some extent it's a bit of a filler to make up the syllables in the line. Apparently the relevant word (audao) in Greek means "speaks" but it's used only of non-humans (Achilles' horse, Ino, Circe, and Calypso according to one poster) and there's a scholarly debate about what it implies.
I'd love to meet Emily Wilson in person, she'd never get away 😃

I've just caught up @ShackletonSailingSouth. Agree these were great chapters. I remember learning about Scylla and Charybdis at school and wanting to run a nightclub called Charybdis!

Poor Elpenor - first falling from the loft and then being left unburied. At least he finally gets his burial. Meeting the dead and various children/wives whom the gods had affairs with was interesting. Thought it was a bit odd that he mentions Leda being Castor and Pollux' mother but not Clytemnestra and Helen's. Also personally I always supported Clytemnestra killing Agamemnon who seemed like a total tool, but Homer seems to disagree.

The bit where the ship is destroyed is very dramatic. I can picture that working well in the movie. Another slightly odd simile there at the end of ch12 about Charybdis belching up the mast "as one who spends the whole day judging quarrels between young men, at last goes home to eat". Not sure what he's eluding there.

I was interested in the human tongues part you mentioned Shackleton and found this:

Homer describes Circe's island as a place of mystery and danger. Her home is described as a grand stone palace, befitting a Mycenaean king, yet it stands isolated on an island. Circe herself is introduced as a "dread goddess of human voice," a description that highlights her unique position in the Greek pantheon - divine yet accessible to mortals.

I also found this Reddit thread which discussed human voice in Homer:

www.reddit.com/r/AncientGreek/s/JIsJNQdVD8

Also as an aside, Telemachus possibly ends up marrying Circe after Odysseus dies which is interesting in itself. ( not in Homer)

Thanks for the comments @ShackletonSailingSouth. Busy time at work but I’m still in and trying to catch up. My edition doesn’t have line numbers but I’ll watch out for the references when I get there.

How did you get on with books 11-12 @Benvenuto @Stowickthevast @EineReiseDurchDieZeit @RomanMum and anyone else still in!
I thought these were a great read. Book 11 is really emotional when Odysseus travels to the underworld. Lots of cameos of famous characters so I'm imagining this book went down well in performance.
Puzzled by line 6 describing Circe as "the goddess who can speak in human tongues". Making me wonder - do the other gods NOT speak greek? Hermes and Calypso obviously do. Curious.
Book 12 I enjoyed more adventures on the sea. The bit where the dead cows start mooing is pretty grim and gives us that sense of the supernatural we get throughout the Odyssey. I was also excited to get another extended similes (there are so few in the Odyssey and so many in the Iliad) at line 250, talking about the men who were snatched by Scylla being like little fishes caught by a fisherman. I like to imagine the similes show us the real world of Homer.
Great stuff!