The Iliad / The Odyssey - Homer

Finally! After having read abridgments, simplifications and paraphrases of the tales in these works since I was about five, I got the full translation!

And I also noticed that there's no thread about it here... so I thought I'd start one...

Well we had to read what I assume was a simplification of it in school, and I found it incredibly dull and boring. LotR is one of the few books from about 50 years ago or earlier than I don't find boring

Hey wait, does that mean you found the Oz books boring?

No, I liked those. But I find most "classics" to be tedious. (Dickens, Twain, etc.)

What about Shakespeare... I think we have a shakespeare fan among us, don't remember his name...

we have several shakespeare fans - i think Elanor & Hernalt are, & i bet we have more.

there's this attitude around most "classics" that presents them as old & stuffy, & implies that they should be read not for enjoyment but "because all educated people must read this book." the only "classics" i've really enjoyed are those that i picked up & read on my own, or were presented to the class as "just another book" & not as a "classic".

aryne *

I read the Iliad when I was 12 years old and I liked it.

arynetrek, I agree with you completely. I read a lot of classics just because I want to and I enjoy them very much.

Haven't read the Iliad or the Odyssey (Those are on my want to read lists though) I read summaries of both in Edith Hamiliton's Mythology Book though. As for Classics I love them and the Literature section is usually where I look for books to buy. Right now I am reading Crime and Punishment. I haven't really gotten into it yet but I am only 60 pages along.

Yeah, I think everyone knows the stories contained in the Odyssey, but I just didn't like the thick, dull, way in which the stories were presented in the actual Odyssey

I found Shakespeare to be unbearably boring also, except when it was "translated from English into English"

Makes me feel a little stupid, since common people a long time ago understood it, but I'm one of the best readers in my school so I guess it represents a downward trend in readers

I like reading old English. I think it is very beautiful though it took some time to get into. The same was true when I read the Iliad.

After reading Shakespeare during my second year in high school I thought he was very boring. It took Star Wars discussions on the JC and a few Kenneth Branagh (sp? ) films to get me interested in reading his works again.

That's impressive, emilsson, especially considering you're Swedish

I guess what it comes down to is in this age where I can get information instantly over the Internet or by watching television, books that take a long time to get interesting just aren't worth most people's time. A lot of my friends couldn't even get into The Hobbit, let alone LotR

the first Shakespeare i read was Midsummer Night's Dream, & i loved it. so now i expect shakespeare to be good, or at least worth reading.

aryne *

i personally don't think the common people back in the bard's time understood what the actors were saying....who goes around speaking like that?? correct me if i'm wrong, but i think that the people who attended shakespeare's play were not as highly educated as he was...they were mostly poor to middle class people out to have a fun time for a couple hours. hence, the dramatic content in the plots and the numerous "funny" scenes in his plays.

::we now return you to our regularly scheduled topic::

i cannot stand the odyssey. i've read all versions of it, prose and poetry, abridged and unabridged, and i have come to the conclusion that odyseus is a pig. i dunno how he got out of not being turned into one. i like the aenied better.

Though Shakespeare vocabulary is the largest you can find in English literature, i donñt think we can say that his plays were in a too "cult language".

i´ll say more: if now we may find it difficult to understand is mostly because he often introduced vulgar terms. The rest is not that difficult...

BTW, Shakespeare link in my sig

hmmm, and i agree about Odissey: too boring (save perhaps if you can read Greek). But i´m often tempted to read the Aeneid

I haven't read either the Iliad or the Odessey yet. I do know that I missed out on reading the Oddessey in ninth grade simply because the class I was in was the only one not to read it, though. Add those to the books I want to read but haven't gotten to it yet.

I read the Odyssey in school and loved it! And I had a veeery boooring teacher, too! I especially liked the scenes where they had the gods talking in that high, noble speech. I love Shakespeare for the same reason. Elizabethan English is so beautiful, even if you have to read the same passage several times to understand it. I was in A Midsummer Night's Dream as the voice of Titania, and that was one of my favorite productions.

Both the Illiad and the Odyssey are great stories. To read them all the way through in one sitting can be a bit much, but I enjoyed it at the time. Now, how many of you have read other classics, such as Herman Wouk's War and Remembrance? Great book with a great intro with War and Peace. Awesome. But back to the Illiad and the Odyssey, I think that is what brought me to my great love of Greek Mythology. They have some really interesting stories in there that are pretty good to read.