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 | THE ODYSSEY Professor Fagles responds... March 13, 1997 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:
What is Odysseus' moral compass, and why are most of his lessons learnt at home ? How much of the Odyssey is history, and how much is poetic fiction? How do we know that Homer was blind? How has James Joyce's "Ulysses" effected your reading of the "Odyssey"? Is a son incomplete without his father in much of Ancient Greek literature? ADDITIONAL COMMENTS Tom Collins of Freetown, MA, asks: I've always been astounded that such a beautiful oral poem does not have many colors in it. Could you comment on this notable lack of what we deem so important today. Does your translation use colors?
Professor Robert Fagles of Princeton University responds:
Homer's lack of descriptions.. strange, isn't it, and I have no explanation, except to suggest that color -- in the sense of vividness, energy, and kinetic power -- runs all through his poems and becomes their hallmark. I've tried to keep my translation, by the way, as free of color -- in the primary sense of color -- as Homer's poems are themselves.
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