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 | THE ODYSSEY Professor Fagles responds... March 13, 1997 |
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Questions asked
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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? What explains the lack of colors in the Odyssey? Is a son incomplete without his father in much of Ancient Greek literature? ADDITIONAL COMMENTS Paul S. Atkins of Tokyo, asks: I saw your interview with Elizabeth Farnsworth on cable here and enjoyed it very much. After reading James Joyce's "Ulysses" a few summers ago, Homer's "Odyssey" has never quite been the same for me. I still find it a great book, but Joyce really has a grip on me. Did you experience any such anachronistic influences while you were translating "The Odyssey?"
Professor Robert Fagles of Princeton University responds:
A fascinating question. Yes, Joyce's "Ulysses" influences, and even reshapes, Homer's "Odyssey" in our mind. It's a fine case of "reverse English," and I think our reading is more valuable, richer and fuller, for every later masterwork that permanently alters an earlier masterwork. Joyce has been especially important to me as a translator of Homer. It's Joyce who realizes for us, all over again, just how "married" "The Odyssey" really is. The union between Molly and Bloom is more than a little topsy-turvy, or course, but they do manage to muddle through together—thanks to luck, and happy accidents, and even a kind of loyalty "in the fashion"—that may remind us that the union of Penelope and Odysseus was not exactly written in the stars. Their union—especially their reunion—takes some real human effort, as well as some dumb blind luck, to secure and maintain. And that may be why it's the most famous marriage in history, or in fiction.
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