Thank you for all your work in writing these weekly guides! This was my first time going through The Odyssey (and The Iliad earlier this year) and I found them so helpful.
Matthew, this has been such a pleasure reading The Odyssey all of these weeks. Your detailed leadership in the book discussions shares nuances I might have missed and connections that are so very valuable to essentially all human relationships.
I am in the camp that the final book is truncated but how does one tie off a story that has weaved themes and ambitions otherwise. Considering the overall take-aways of relationships, acknowledgement of wrongs, acceptance of consequences, even with difficult compromises, and grief - its depth, does allow one to pause long enough to look at the world just a little differently.
Afterlife, the walking towards its inevitably in, "... the fields of asphodel where the dead, the burnt-out wraiths of mortals, make their home" (393) is fascinating to me. How Homer and the Greek mythology shares a space for those stories gives additional bereavement, misery even, to our individual choices, intentionality, and purposefulness. Maybe what The Odyssey suggests is a self-accounting of how one wants to be remembered?
The description of Hermes leading the suitors' shades into the underworld is some of the most haunting language I've encountered in some time, particularly the likening the shades to bats flitting about with their thin cries and reaching the spot where "burnt-our wraiths of mortals make their home." Such evocative imagery! I understand Fagles modernized classical Homer somewhat. It would be interesting to know how much of this language is directly translated from the Greek and how much is Fagles' creativity.
I agree Book 24 ends somewhat abruptly, but in the absence of divine intervention, an organic resolution would have required more killing. But what pupose would such killing have served other that perpetuating cycles of retribution? Who would have prevailed in another of battle, and regardless of who prevailed, how would that have lead to a satisfactory conclusion? Book 24 and the divine intervention teaches us that endless cycles of revenge lead nowhere good. A good modern example of this is the catastrophe in Sudan where tribalism, endless cycles of revenge and crimes against humanity continue to spiral with no end in sight. This situation begs for forceful intervention to put a stop to the untold human suffering that is occurring there.
Hi Matthew, I just finished the fall term of the Catherine Project, reading The Iliad and The Odyssey, and I just came back to read through your reflections. It was a wonderful way to look back on reading these great works! Wishing you and your family a joyful holiday season.
Thank you for all your work in writing these weekly guides! This was my first time going through The Odyssey (and The Iliad earlier this year) and I found them so helpful.
Matthew, this has been such a pleasure reading The Odyssey all of these weeks. Your detailed leadership in the book discussions shares nuances I might have missed and connections that are so very valuable to essentially all human relationships.
I am in the camp that the final book is truncated but how does one tie off a story that has weaved themes and ambitions otherwise. Considering the overall take-aways of relationships, acknowledgement of wrongs, acceptance of consequences, even with difficult compromises, and grief - its depth, does allow one to pause long enough to look at the world just a little differently.
Afterlife, the walking towards its inevitably in, "... the fields of asphodel where the dead, the burnt-out wraiths of mortals, make their home" (393) is fascinating to me. How Homer and the Greek mythology shares a space for those stories gives additional bereavement, misery even, to our individual choices, intentionality, and purposefulness. Maybe what The Odyssey suggests is a self-accounting of how one wants to be remembered?
The description of Hermes leading the suitors' shades into the underworld is some of the most haunting language I've encountered in some time, particularly the likening the shades to bats flitting about with their thin cries and reaching the spot where "burnt-our wraiths of mortals make their home." Such evocative imagery! I understand Fagles modernized classical Homer somewhat. It would be interesting to know how much of this language is directly translated from the Greek and how much is Fagles' creativity.
I agree Book 24 ends somewhat abruptly, but in the absence of divine intervention, an organic resolution would have required more killing. But what pupose would such killing have served other that perpetuating cycles of retribution? Who would have prevailed in another of battle, and regardless of who prevailed, how would that have lead to a satisfactory conclusion? Book 24 and the divine intervention teaches us that endless cycles of revenge lead nowhere good. A good modern example of this is the catastrophe in Sudan where tribalism, endless cycles of revenge and crimes against humanity continue to spiral with no end in sight. This situation begs for forceful intervention to put a stop to the untold human suffering that is occurring there.
Thank you for leading this shared experience and all the effort of your weekly reflections
Hi Matthew, I just finished the fall term of the Catherine Project, reading The Iliad and The Odyssey, and I just came back to read through your reflections. It was a wonderful way to look back on reading these great works! Wishing you and your family a joyful holiday season.