Pic of the Week (late)-- Lions and Tigers and Satyrs... OH MY.

Alright, kiddies. I'm sorry that I've been gone so long, but now that my tests are over, I'm here!

Anyway, to make up for my absence, these next two posts are going to cover some... um... interesting ground, to say the least.

Might I remind you that this blog is not for kids? Also, this particular post is NSFW. (That's "not safe for work" for those of you new to the internet) You have been warned...

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Y-yes... that's exactly what it looks like. It's a satyr balancing a cup on its penis. I would REALLY like to know the vase that this comes from, so if anyone figures it out, PLEASE tell me. To ensure that I'm using this as an educational opportunity and NOT just an opportunity to show you Greek porn, I believe that the cup he's balancing is called a Kantharos. You can tell by the shape, since it has a wide mouth and the handles extend pretty high above the mouth (... that sounds SO wrong...). It would have been used for drinking, so it's a pretty safe bet that he's at a drunken party. Also, this picture gives me the perfect opportunity to give you another vocabulary word: "ithyphallic." This word is from the Greek: "ithys" meaning "straight" and "phallos" meaning... well... "penis." Satyrs (half-man/half-goat, for those of you who can't tell) were known to be ithyphallic, and they always wanted to chase the girls around, since they were always afflicted with erections.

Now you know.

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!

I'm a bad blogger...

Okay, kiddies, here's the deal; I am RIDICULOUSLY swamped with work. Therefore, no blogs until Tuesday. Sorry, but that's the price of my being a student. Guh. I promise some good stuff for Tuesday, though! :D Expect ithyphalic satyrs and gay Roman men!

Modern Adaptation of the Week--Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Okay, that's it. I've done enough stuff that I hate. I need to move on to something that I really and truly love. Something like...

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS (by Rick Riordan)

For those of you who have never heard of this series, before, it's about a kid named Percy who finds out that he's a demigod, and he goes on adventures with his friends from Camp Half-blood, which houses other demigods, in order to save the camp and keep the gods from being completely destroyed. I was going to make March the Percy Jackson month, but unfortunately, I left my book 1 at home! Oh no! Well, if that's the case, then what I'll do today is sort of do a general overview of the series. You know, why I like the series as a whole. Next week, I'll review the first book, The Lightning Thief.

Also, I'll try to keep this post clean, because some little kid might run across this post while looking stuff up. This is, after all, a kid's book series. However, I beg all of you parents who let your tykes roam the internet, PLEASE keep them off this site! I really don't want to deal with angry parents wondering what sort of gig I have going on here. This is a blog for adults, not children.

Thank you.

And now, we sail off into...

SPOILERS AHOY!

(you know, one of these days, I REALLY need to change that catchphrase. It's sort of dumb, to say the least)

Pros:

+Lovable characters: This, more than anything else, is what draws me to the series. Even though I'm going to make an argument that this series is basically the Harry Potter of the Classical Studies community, the characters in this series are much more fleshed out. Honestly, I never felt that I could grow close to the characters in Harry Potter. The characters in Percy Jackson are a little different. Take Percy, for instance. He's not "The Boy Who Lived." He's this kid from inner city New York who keeps getting expelled from school, has both ADHD and dyslexia, has an abusive creep as a stepfather, and loves his mother a lot. I love the little things built into his personality, like his thing for blue foods. He's not perfect, and he's got an attitude, and I think that's what makes him lovable. More than Harry, he's more on our level. Also, the story is told from his point of view, which I think makes it more interesting. Actually, I love Percy so much that I even modeled a character off of him in one of my own stories, as far as the attitude goes.

Oh, did I mention that Percy has a satyr as a friend who loves enchilladas and is searching for the lost god Pan? I FREAKING LOVE GROVER!!! Grover's a sweetheart! If I ever found him, I would take him home and feed him enchilladas and tin cans and play boardgames with him. I think he's the Ron of the series, but he's SOOOOO cute! I think my favorite scene with Grover involves him at the Hotel of the Lotus Eaters--a play on the Island of the Lotus Eaters in the Odyssey--and he's playing a game where the deer shoot the humans instead of the other way around. As Percy and Annabeth try to drag him out, he starts screaming at them because he's so engrossed in the game. Truly, a brilliant scene.

And then, there's Annabeth. She's the Hermione of the series, right down to her intelligence (though I don't ever remember Hermione wanting to become an architect). She's the daughter of Athena, obviously. I'm not going to reveal who Percy's dad is, but because of his dad, she and Percy don't get along all the time, which makes for some funny scenes. However, they really are friends, and I personally am a Percibeth fan. (I DON'T KNOW THIS RACHEL ELIZABETH DARE GIRL, BUT I DON'T WANT PERCY TO HOOK UP WITH HER /endrant)

Beyond our main characters, there's a cast of all sorts of wonderful characters, from Chiron, to Mr. D, to Nico, to... LUKE.

Oh Luke. How could I ever forget about you? Oho, I won't spoil his character for you, but I'll say that he was my favorite for awhile. Mwahahaha...

+Clever use of source material: From the Hotel of the Lotus Eaters to the Labrynth, this book series makes an interesting use of the original Greco-Roman source material. As Chiron explains to Percy, the gods are actually following the "Heart of the West," so that wherever Western Civilization is, there the gods will be also. Where do the gods reside? The 600th floor of the Empire State Building. Where does Hades live? In Los Angeles. Really, it's all just very clever.

+Use of Greek/Latin: Yes, you can actually get a sampling of both Greek and Latin by reading this series! As far as I can recall, "Di immortales" (Latin) is used often, as well as "Erre eis korakas" (Greek). Actually, that Greek phrase is kinda funny, because while it literally means "Throw yourself to the crows" in Greek, it sort of equates to our "go to hell." Also, when I was a fledgling Greek student, I learned it as "Balle eis korakas." Eh, to each his own, I guess.

+Darkness/Heaviness of the series: I grew up on The Rats of Nimh and We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. (you all have been saved from an image of Professor Screweyes because I can't find one straight from the movie. I guess he's too scary for the internet...) We had some really horrifying stuff in our movies, and you know what? We're not any worse for it. Actually, I think we're the better for it, because we weren't as shielded as children nowdays are. Percy Jackson is sort of similar. I still remember the day when my mom and I were at the gas station and she asked me, "So, I was flipping through those books, and they seemed really dark. Are you sure that they're okay for your little brothers (probably around 11 at the time) to read?" My answer is "yes." Children need a dose of heaviness. They can take it, I swear. Also, I think the heaviness makes the series more enjoyable for adults, too. It's not dumbed down, so we can read it as a good action/adventure story.

Cons:

-Harry Potter: Author Rick Riordan didn't intend for his series to be very similar to Harry Potter. He simply didn't have it in mind while he was telling these stories to his kid in order to cope with his diagnosis of ADHD and dyslexia. However, in a world where Harry Potter is by far the most popular children's book, the parallel is unavoidable. Rick Riordan actually likes the comparason. Personally, I think it's actually a negative. I can't stand it that EVERY kid's book nowadays is being compared to Harry Potter, when personally, I feel that Harry Potter is okay. That's it; I don't see it as the literary masterpiece that everyone else sees it as. It has its moments, sure, and it's certainly not bad, but I don't think it's fair to compare every children's book since God to Harry Potter. Even Diana Wynne Jones, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien are being compared to J.K. Rowling, which pisses me off because all three of those authors were writing LONG before Ms. Rowling was. For those of you who have been living in a hole all these years, Ms. Rowling wasn't even a professional writer when she started. She hadn't published anything before Harry Potter. As a writer myself, DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS PISSES ME OFF?! So fine. I'm jealous. I've got a little green-eyed monster running around in my brain somewhere. Still.

... where were we? Oh yes, Percy Jackson. The parallels are unavoidable; Percy spends his summer at a camp for other demigods like him (Harry spends his school year at a school for other wizards like him). He has two friends, a boy and a really smart girl (Harry has two friends... yadda yadda yadda). He has really awesome fighting skills and is the center of a prophecy (Ditto for Harry). I was sort of misleading earlier when I said that Percy is no "boy who lived." While he's not as perfect as Harry can sometimes be, Percy DOES have some attention cast his way due to his daddy (I won't reveal who he is until next week!). Also, Percy talks to horses (Harry talks to snakes). Actually, this last point is sort of unfair. It makes it look like the parallel is obvious, when in fact, there's a VERY specific reason that Percy can talk to horses that is otherwise unrelated as to why Harry can talk to snakes.

But yeah. That's my only major downside to this series, and really, it's unfair. I think Rick Riordan is a fine stand-alone author, and doesn't need to have Ms. Rowling connected to his name.

~~~

For those of you who are more interested in checking out this series, I have some links for you!

Rick Riordan's Official Site

Rick Riordan's Blog

Hyperion's Site for Percy Jackson

If you know any kids, I'd highly encourage you to tell them about this series. It's truly a good series.

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!

Text of the Week--The Aeneid

Well, readers, for those of you who know me in real life (right now, I think that's all of you), you know that my past weekend sort of sucked monkey balls. Well, that's okay, right?! Because I'm going to review some text, I love, some text like--

"I sing of arms, and a man..."

...

Really? I'm reviewing that?! [sighs] This is all sorts of suck, isn't it?! Truthfully, when I read the Aeneid, I hated it. For those of you who have gone through the daunting task of translating ANY of the Aeneid, you know that it's a pain in the pa-tootey!

Don't quote me on that.

Anyway... oh dear. It's time we go down to...

SPOILERS AHOY!!!

Positives... positives... positives... uh...

+The Laocoon story: Okay, you've got to admit, being killed by GIANT SNAKES COMING UP FROM THE SEA AFTER WARNING THE TROJANS ABOUT GIFT-BEARING GREEKS is kinda epic. Then again, the Aeneid IS an epic...

Yep, that's all I got.

Cons:

-It's a bitch to translate: Did I mention that I hated translating this fucker?

-Treatment of women: You know, I don't normally complain how the ancient people treated women in their texts. I understand that it was simply a different culture (even if it IS wrong...). Yet, I cannot ignore the treatment of Dido in this text. I seem to recall that even the (supposedly) sexist Ovid treats Dido better in the Heroides. Vergil treats her like shit. He's basically like, "Haha, lookit stupid Dido, she fell in love with Aeneas even though she shouldn't have, and then she killed herself! What a bitch!" ARGH!!! Personally, I've always pitied Dido, in the same sort of way that I've always pitied Ophelia. They both committed suicide because of the shitty men in their lives.

This, my friends, is why Rome always hated Carthage; because that damned Roman walked out on his poor Carthaginian sweetheart.

-Flag Waving: AUGH!!! THAT'S ALL THIS TEXT CAN DO!!! "I love Rome! Rome hasn't been created yet... but did I mention that Rome is AWESOME?!" Nngh.

-Copycating the Odyssey: The Aeneid is often called the Roman Odyssey for a reason. Our story starts off around the fall of Troy, when the Trojans are finally being hacked-and-slashed by the Greeks after ten long years of fighting. As Laocoon is getting eaten by snakies, Aeneas is throwing his daddy dearest over his shoulder and high-tailing it out of Troy. After that, he gets a boat full of Trojans and goes on a bunch of rip-roaring adventures through the Mediterranian Sea. I suppose you could compare Dido to either Circe or Calypso, though I would be more comfortable comparing her to Calypso. Hell, there's even a scene were Aeneas has to go into the Underworld... just like in the Odyssey! Boy, we can't keep these ancient warriors out of the Underworld, can we? Unlike the Odyssey, however, the Aeneid has all that flag waving to take out some of the fun of the story. The Odyssey is just a great adventure, if a little boring at times. The Aeneid is just the preachy, Roman version of the Odyssey.

~~~

Yeah, so I sort of got on my pedestal for the Aeneid. Truthfully, it's been a long time since I've read it, and I don't want to read it again. I'm sort of picking at what I remember, since I haven't read it as many times as I've read Homer.

[sighs]

At any rate, so that I don't say that Vergil is a completely hopeless poet, I'll show you the most GENIUS thing the man ever wrote. Oh man... THIS is genius... I couldn't have done better myself.

"Wool shall no more learn to counterfeit varied hues, but of himself the ram in the meadows shall change his fleece, now to sweetly blushing purple, now to saffron yellow; of his own will shall scarlet clothe the grazing lamb." (from the fourth Eclogue. I wish I could find more about this)

... YES. Those are some motherfucking color changing sheep on my motherfucking plane. Or, in this case, utopia. When I first encountered this bit, I had to read it several times over just to make sure that I had read THAT AMOUNT OF AWESOMENESS. Holy shit. Color changing sheep. Mind=blown.

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!

Pic of the Week--Map!

Well, I was thinking about what I could do for this week's pic, and I decided to put a little something up of my own creation. Sort of. Meaning that I photoshopped it.
Ta-da~! A map of Odysseus' travels. How did I know that all the good stories are between books 9-12? Because I had to make this thingy-ma-bobber. Actually, when I first had to make this, the professor gave me the original picture (without all the fancy words on it), which I still have as a poster. Hiding in my closet. Because my mother painted my room pink and won't let me put it back up. [sighs] But I WANT to go to sleep remembering Odysseus' voyages! Oh well...

Modern Adaptation of the Week--Disney's Hercules

Honey, I think you mean Hunk-ules.

For those of us who grew up in the 90s, this film was a part of our childhoods. Heck, I even remember the Meg toy that I got in... some fast food meal or other. I would play with her all the time, though she wouldn't stand up properly.

Oddly enough, I never watched this film much as a kid. I never saw it in theaters, and my parents never bought it for me. I think it had something to do with the fact that they were still kind of pissy about Pocahontas, what with making her a pagan, and all. (but Dad... she really would have been, at that point...)

All that aside, I'll say that it was a pretty good film. It wasn't one of Disney's best films, but it was pretty good nonetheless. Why was it a good film? Well, let's begin!

SPOILERS AHOY! (yeah, I know; if you haven't seen this film, there's something wrong with you. Spoiler warning nonetheless)

Pros:

+The Invocation to the Muses: Alright, I'm stretching it, since the Muses are sort of the way the story gets progressed throughout the film. Of course the film would start with them. However, it's totally appropriate in an epic poem to begin with an invocation to the muses. So appropriate, in fact, that I've heard arguments saying that neither the Epic of Gilgamesh nor Beowulf should be considered epic poems proper because they're both missing that element.

+The Music: This film is no Lion King. However, the music in this film is still pretty good, definitely among Disney's higher ranking quality songs (the lower ranking ones are all in sequals and in a good number of their animal films such as Fox and the Hound). My favorites are probably "Go the Distance" and "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)." That second one is especially fun to sing. I would probably say that my least favorite song--and really, the only one that I don't particularly care for--is "One Last Hope."

+The Jokes: Before the Disney Renaissance of the late 80s, early 90s (starting with The Little Mermaid, I believe), Disney didn't really seem to do jokes all that well. By the time Hercules rolled around, everyone had some sort of witty one-liner. There are a few jokes that actually stand out to me: (a)at the beginning, when Hermes says, "I haven't seen so much love in a room since Narcissus discovered himself" (or something like that...), (b)The scene with the Nemean Lion, who is actually Scar from The Lion King, and (c)When Hercules and Meg come from the theater, Hercules says something like, "And that Oedipus guy! Boy, I thought I had problems!" [awkward pause].

+The Character Performances: There are a few characters in this movie that I thought were done extremely well. Before I sat down to watch this film, again, I was thinking, "Please, PLEASE don't let my nostalgia goggles be knocked off!" I was pleased to find that it wasn't.

Hades (voiced by James Woods): I feel he's one of Disney's most likable villains. Where a whole lot of them are just pure, serious evil, Hades has a pretty strong sense of humor, which, as any girl can tell you, is always a plus when a guy is looking to snag a lady. And talk about not missing a beat! He reads his lines so naturally! If anyone reading this has done any acting, you know how impressive that is, especially considering how easy it would be to mess up on his lines. "But they have like, HOW many takes to do this in?!" Yeah, but there can still be some pretty bad voice acting out there. Hades is absolutely not one of them.

Meg (voiced by Susan Egan): Like Hades, she never misses a beat. Boy, you can believe that THOSE two have been hanging with each other for awhile. Actually, what I like about her character is that she's one of the strongest-willed female heroines of any Disney film. Even though by her own admission she's a "Damsel in Distress," I never really got that feeling from her. She seemed determined to get her own way out of the deal with Hades throughout the entire film, and if she couldn't get out, then she would roll with the punches and deal with it. It seemed like the only thing keeping her from seriously whooping up on Hades was her mortality. If she could have been a goddess, she would have stopped Hades from all of his evil plans a loooong time ago. Sadly, she's not that great in the original story. She's Hercules' wife for a while, but then, he kills her in a random fit of rage. Oops. Not so Disney, is it?

Pegasus: Yeah, I know Pegasus wasn't a vocal performance. However, the directing on Pegasus was very good. I always got the impression from Pegasus that he was Hercules' old pal from grade school, and now, they've met up at their frat and they're out just to have a good time. I thought the bird thing was pretty clever, too. Most people, I think, would make Pegasus a noble, serious character, but Disney opted for funny, and I think it worked in this movie. While a lot of Disney's sidekick characters can be annoying, this one isn't.

-Sneaking in the 12 Tasks: This film is FAR from being historically accurate. However, it still manages to sneak in a good deal of Hercules' twelve tasks that he has to perform (I'll let YOU look for them!). Sneaky, Disney, very sneaky.

Cons:

-Historical Inaccuracy: This one doesn't bother me, really. I'm only putting this in here for the people who really want to complain about it. However, it's Disney; they're going to rape the original story. Believe me, if you go into it knowing that, it becomes more like... consensual sex, rather than rape. (okay, horrible analogy, I know.)

-The Characters: While there were some pretty strong characters, a few fell sort of weak, for me.

Philoctetes (voiced by Danny Devito): I know... other people probably really like his character. There's nothing wrong with Mr. Devito's performace; he plays the character well. However, I just don't like Phil as a person. I thought he was borderline obnoxious sidekick (even though he was actually a mentor character), but that was really more of an impression than a real critique of the film.

Pain and Panic (voiced by Bob Goldthwait and Matt Frewer): Okay, these guys WERE obnoxious sidekicks. Their only purpose throughout the whole film was just to annoy me. To me, they felt sort of like what would have happened if Banzai, Shenzi, and Ed from The Lion King would have been played wrong. "If... if is good!" always sort of reminded me of a hyena line that just never made it into The Lion King and got stuck in this film. I think of every character in this film, their performances were the weakest, perhaps because Disney was losing the ability to write good sidekick characters. To be honest, I like it more when I can respect the sidekick characters (eg, every sidekick in the first Aladdin film) rather than look down on them.

-The Disney Formula: At around some point during the Disney Renaissance, they succeeded in creating a certain formula for the perfect story. I swear, this movie had almost every one, except for the one where one of the parents has to be dead. Surprisingly, there are no dead parents in this film (I suppose even Disney can't kill an Olympian god!). However, there was the opening baby bash (Sleeping Beauty, Lion King), the misfit hero who has to prove himself (Aladdin, Mulan), the trade-off-of-skills (The Little Mermaid), etc etc.

~~~

Overall, it was a pretty good film. The complaints that I had were not enough to deter me from enjoying this film. The only thing that saddens me about this film is the fact that the only really good Disney films that came after it were Mulan and the Emperor's New Groove. Oh Disney. If only you'd kept it up.

(P.S.-- you almost didn't get a post, today, because I'm feeling pretty under the weather. Ick. So, if this review felt weak, that's why.)

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!!!

Text of the Week--The Odyssey

Alright, I'll admit; the Odyssey may not be my absolute favorite of all time, but I still have a strange obsession with it, right down to my Odyssey collection. I have the Stanley Lombardo edition, the Richmond Lattimore edition, and the Robert Fitzgerald edition. That's not to mention the fact that every year, our Classical Studies club at our school reads the entire Robert Fagles edition. I'm the one famous for wearing funny hats to the readings.

For today's discussion, I'll be using the Essential Homer, with the Japanese picture on the front cover. After all, it's just been sitting here in my room ever since my last review...

At any rate, let's begin, shall we?

SPOILERS AHOY!

Pros:

+Complex story: The Iliad was a pretty straight forward story, with a pretty straightforward, chronological plot. Not so much with the Odyssey. Even though the Odyssey is about "I AM THE SMARTEST MAN EVER!!!" Odysseus, the story starts off with his son, Telemachus. Poor Telemachus is upset with his mother's suitors, as is his mother, and he really needs to do something about it. In comes Athena, one of the most prominent gods in the book (the other one is obviously Poseidon). The story with Telemachus is one of growing up, aided by Athena; he grows from a little boy who's been bullied by his mother's suitors to a fine young man, ready to aid his father against the horrors that have occured since he sailed off for war so long ago. There's more to the story. As I mentioned, the story is about Odysseus. In book 5, we meet up with Odysseus, again, and he's in trouble, stuck at Calypso's place. Alone. With just her. Wait, wait, wait! What about the bits where he has the crew?! Like with the Cyclops, or with the Circe, who turns the sailors into pigs. Where have those parts gone? Of course, that's what everyone remembers from grade school, because those are the only parts that anyone has to read. All of those parts are couched within books 9-12 as a flashback that Odysseus tells to this guy named Alcinous. The rest of the book concerns Odysseus' last leg of the journey home, as well as beating up on the suitors. As I said, not such a straightforward story...

+The exiting bits: You have to admit, when this story is exciting, it's exciting. I mean, a man eating Cyclops! Beautiful, deadly Sirens! Lotus-Eaters who can't tell when time is passing! A witch who turns people into animals! One-eyed one-horned flying purple people eaters! Wait... nix that last one...

+Penelope and other portrayals of women: You've got to love Penelope. I mean, where else in a Greek text will you get a woman who's smarter than the men? She tricks them all several times (I'll let you read to see what I mean!), and at the end, she's able to keep up with the best of Odysseus' scheming. I suppose the only downside to her character is that she's not there for a lot of the rip-roaring action at the end. I suppose that would be a little much to ask of the Greeks.

The other female portrayal that I like is Calypso, simply for the fact that she brings up an interesting point. In book 5, in lines 118-143, she complains to Hermes that it's not fair that gods can take whatever mortal woman they want for a lover, but that goddesses can't turn around and do the same thing. It's an interesting point to bring up, especially in a culture that's so anti-feminist.

+The "puppy scene:" I call it thus because it's this part that I like to read every year with the group. Here's the lines (emphasis mine):

His hands
Reached out, seized two of them, and smashed them
To the ground like puppies. Their brains spattered out
And oozed into the dirt. He tore them limb from limb
To make his supper, gulping them down
Like a mountain lion, leaving nothing behind--
Guts, flesh, or marrowy bones. (9.280-286)

There's something about that description that makes me belive that the Greeks have some understanding of what it's like to brutally slaughter puppies. Beyond that, that's just a brilliant description of all the gore. Mmm...

+The story of Argus: As strange as it sounds, this scene is perhaps one of the most poignant in the whole story. It's in book 17, from lines 317-354. It's about Odysseus' faithful dog, Argus. That poor dog was so abused while Odysseys was away that it's stuck in manure and infested with lice, so old and abused that he can barely move. Odysseys, upon seeing the dog, cries, but he can't go out and greet it. Instead, he asks the swineherd that he's with, Eumaeus, to tell him about the dog, so Eumaeus does. The last mention of Argus is when Argus dies upon seeing his master return home. Truly, this scene deserves the manliest of tears.

Cons:

-The boring scenes: Remember when I said that most of you only read books 9-12 of the Odyssey in high school? There's a reason for that. Apart from the final battle scene with the suitors, the rest of the book is a little... boring, to say the least. I mean, behold, this scene where Nausicaa plays with a ball.

... Truly, the stuff of legends.

-Anti-climactic ending: For such an epic story, this story ends really... weird. So, after Odysseus kills all the suitors, he goes and has a nice chat with his dad. Well, that's nice! But oh-ho, what's that on the horizon?! The families of the suitors are pissed?! Whatever shall we do, Odysseus?! Aha, we must get prepared for battle! Quick, to arms, to ar--HOLY SHIT, IS THAT ATHENA?! Oh look all of a sudden, everyone sees the error of their ways and are no longer mad. We may all live happily ever after except for Odysseus, who has to do that thing with his oar that Tireseus told him to do in book 11.

... I shit you not, this is how it ends.

-The word "brazier:" I don't think that the Lombardo version uses that word. The Fagles one does. During my first Homerathon, I was challenged with that word up on the podium. I had never seen it before, and my first inclination was to pronounce it like "brassier," the underwear. As soon as I walked off the stage, one of the men there gave me a very stern look and said, "It's pronounced 'BRAY-zee-er.'" Needless to say, I was highly embarrassed, so embarrassed that the next year, I took that same part, again, just so that I could read that word correctly.

-The recognition scene: In book 19, Eurycleia, Odysseus' old nurse, recognizes Odysseus by the scar on his leg. I don't think I've ever read a favorable review of this particular scene. In general, it's depicted as being a weak scene in the Odyssey, due to its simplicity. Personally, I have no particularly strong feelings towards it, but I add it in the cons due to the critic's reactions. As far as I'm concerned, at least it's better than the scene in the Libation Bearers by Aeschylus when Electra identifies her brother Orestes, whom she hasn't seen for YEARS, by the fact that his hair and foot size is the same as hers. Wait... now THAT scene truly confuses me! I have some brothers, and I have to say that my hair and feet are nothing like theirs. In fact, this scene confused the Greeks so much that Euripdes parodied it in his Electra play.

... yeah. At least the recognition scene in the Odyssey isn't as bad as THAT.

~~~

I know that my last two reviews were a little bit far off to one side, to say the least. I think this one straddles the middle pretty well, and in my opinion, the Odyssey is really a middle-of-the-road read. Perhaps not as fun as the Iliad, but at the same time, not as bad as, say, Thucydides.

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!

Homer. The Essential Homer. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2000.