Product Description
A new prose rendering of Homer’s Odyssey by Wesley J. Callihan, containing all 24 books of this great epic.
Includes
- All 24 books of Homer’s Odyssey, in a new prose rendering by Wesley J. Callihan based on the 1879 translation of Samuel Butcher and Andrew Lang.
- Preface
- Introduction
- The Importance of Homer
- The Historical Background of the Story
- The Nature of the Poem
- How to Read the Odyssey
- What to Read Next
- The Story: Contents and Structure of the Odyssey
- Xenia: the Guest-Host Relationship in the Odyssey
- Major Characters in the Odyssey
- Maps of the Odyssey
This prose rendering by Wesley Callihan of Homer’s great epic is based on the 1879 translation of Samuel Butcher and Andrew Lang. Although accurate, the storytelling of the older translation is obscured, sometimes to the point of incomprehension, by the archaic Elizabethan and Sir Thomas Mallory diction and style. This new rendering attempts to preserve the accuracy but make the story far more readable. The text has been revised into contemporary American English while preserving much of the syntactical structure and style. The reading is plain and direct, but still noble; you will find no attempt at casual, much less slangy, diction. This version of the Odyssey is more than just a revision—it is a new version based on that older one.
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