Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey: A Biography

225 Pages·2009·1.42 MB·English

by  Alberto Manguel

Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey
A Biography

Alberto Manguel is a world-renowned writer, translator and editor of literary
anthologies. His works include A History of Reading, published in 1997 and his
novel, Stevenson Under the Palm Trees, in 2005.
Other titles in the Books That Shook the World series:

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First published in hardback in Great Britain in 2007 by Atlantic Books,
an imprint of Grove Atlantic Ltd.
This paperback edition published in Great Britain in 2008 by Atlantic Books.
Copyright © Alberto Manguel 2007
The moral right of Alberto Manguel to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright-holders. The publishers will be pleased to make
good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 84354 403 6
eISBN 978 1 78239 139 5
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
A Note on Translations and Editions

Introduction
1 Summaries of the Books
2 A Life of Homer?
3 Among the Philosophers
4 Virgil
5 Christian Homer
6 Other Homers
7 Homer in Islam
8 Dante
9 Homer in Hell
10 Greek versus Latin
11 Ancients versus Moderns
12 Homer as Poetry
13 Realms of Gold
14 Homer as Idea
15 The Eternal Feminine
16 Homer as Symbol
17 Homer as History
18 Madame Homer
19 Ulysses’ Travels
20 Homer Through the Looking-Glass
21 The Never-ending War
22 Everyman

Notes
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Several readers have helped me in my research: Antonio Basanta Reyes, Carmen
Criado, Silvia Di Segni Obiols, Lucie Pabel, Gottwalt Pankow, Arturo
Ramoneda, Marta Royo, Jean-Christophe Saladin, Guillermo Schavelzon, Takis
Théodoropoulos, Mario Claudio Vicario: to them my deepest thanks. Special
thanks to Louisa Joyner for her care, patience and enthusiasm, and to Meg
Davies for her precise and intelligent indexing. Also, to Toby Mundy of Grove
Atlantic for suggesting the book in the first place, and to Bruce Westwood and
the staff of WCA, who were the first enthusiastic emissaries.
A NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS AND EDITIONS
To simplify the reading, I’ve preferred to use common versions of the Homeric
names, ‘Ulysses’ rather than ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Achilles’ rather than ‘Akhilleus’.
As Samuel Butler noted, ‘Neither do I think that Hekabe will supersede Hecuba,
till “What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?” is out of date.’1 (Though in our
forgetful times, Butler may have to wait less time than he thought…)
I am aware that I use the term ‘Greek’ incorrectly. The allied forces against
Troy were composed of Achaeans, Danaans and Argives, not of homogenous
‘Greeks’, a name that was not invented until the expansion of the Roman
Empire. However, in the context of this book, I use ‘Greek’ as a kind of
shorthand. Neither does the word ‘Hellenic’ (which I have used once or twice)
properly cover the historical and geographical ground of Homer’s stories, only a
limited territory in southern Thessaly.
The numbering of Homer’s lines differs in the various translations.
Throughout the book, I have used the versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey
translated by Robert Fagles and published in 1992 and 2004 respectively by
Penguin Classics, which, to my taste, are among the best and most graceful.
Other translations of foreign works quoted, unless otherwise stated, are my own.
Concerning the task of a literary critic, A. E. Housman had this to say:
‘Knowledge is good, method is good, but one thing beyond all others is
necessary; and that is to have a head, not a pumpkin, on your shoulders, and
brains, not pudding, in your head.’ I have long had occasion to doubt whether I
fulfil either requirement.