#no one loves the odyssey as much as I do

[gingermintpepper]

hi, i haven't read the iliad and the odyssey but want to - do u have a specific translation you recommend? the emily wilson one has been going around bc, y'know, first female translator of the iliad and odyssey into english, but i was wondering on if you had Thoughts

Hi anon! Sorry for the somewhat late response and I'm glad you trust me with recommendations! Full, disclosure, I am somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to translations of the source text of the Iliad + Odyssey combo wombo, which means I tend to prefer closeness in literal verbiage over interpretation of the poetic form of these epics - for that reason, my personal preferred versions of the Odyssey and Iliad both are Robert Fitzgerald's. Because both of these translations (and his Aeneid!) were done some 50+ years ago (63 for his original Odyssey tl, 50 flat for his Iliad and 40 for his Aeneid) the English itself can be a bit difficult to read and the syntax can get confusing in a lot of places, so despite my personal preferences, I wouldn't recommend it for someone who is looking to experience the Iliad + Odyssey for the very first time.

For an absolute beginner, someone who has tried to read one or both of these epics but couldn't get into it or someone who has a lot of difficulty with concentrating on poetry or long, winding bits of prose, I fully and wholeheartedly recommend Wilson's translation! See, the genius of Emily Wilson's Iliad + Odyssey isn't that she's a woman who's translated these classics, it's that she's a poet who's adapted the greek traditional poetic form of dactylic hexameter into the english traditional poetic form of iambic pentameter. That alone goes a very very long way to making these poems feel more digestible and approachable - iambic pentameter is simply extremely comfortable and natural for native english speakers' brains and the general briskness of her verbiage helps a lot in getting through a lot of the problem books that people usually drop the Iliad or Odyssey in like Book 2 of the Iliad or Book 4 of the Odyssey. I think it's a wonderful starting point that allows people to familiarise themselves with the source text before deciding if they want to dig deeper - personally, researching Wilson's translation choices alone is a massive rabbit hole that is worth getting into LOL.

The happy medium between Fitzgerald's somewhat archaic but precise syntax and Wilson's comfortable meter but occasionally less detailled account is Robert Fagles' Iliad + Odyssey. Now, full disclosure, I detest how Fagles handles epithets in both of his versions, I think they're far too subtle which is something he himself has talked at length about in his translation notes, but for everything else - I'd consider his translations the most well rounded of english adaptations of this text in recent memory. They're accurate but written in plain English, they're descriptive and detailled without sacrificing a comfortable meter and, perhaps most importantly, they're very accessible for native english speaking audiences to approach and interact with. I've annotated my Fagles' volumes of these books to heaven and back because I'm deeply interested in a lot of the translation decisions made, but I also have to specifically compliment his ability to capture nuance in the characters' of these poems in a way I don't often see. He managed to adapt the ambivalence of ancient greek morality in a way I scarcely see and that probably has a hand in why I keep coming back to his translations.

Now, I know this wasn't much of a direct recommendation but as I do not know you personally, dear anon, I can't much make a direct recommendation to a version that would best appeal to your style of reading. Ideally, I'd recommend that you read and enjoy all three! But, presuming that you are a normal person, I suggest picking which one is most applicable for you. I hope this helps! 🥰

[backpackingspace]

Wait going off the idea that Athena keeps things from her favorite people:

What does diomedes give her?

[koipalm]

i REALLY love stories where the main character can never go back they were someone else before but events have changed them so much they are someone else their friends and family will not understand who they have become because they were not there they did not experience it they did not see it happen

[dootznbootz]

Odypen definitely and equivalently adore each other BUT I weirdly can't see them as the type to actually say "I Love you".

They still definitely vocalize their love for each other but it's more so in "My Joy", and "Extraordinary Woman", "Strange Woman/Man", etc. And very cheesy lines (both say some cheesy shit in the Odyssey, and he definitely does in the Iliad as well. "Joy like a drowning sailor seeing land" bit???)

I could see "I adore you" but even then, that's probably during very specific moments but the actual "I love you"??? I just typed it just now for fic shit and... It weirdly just didn't feel right and I don't know why. 😅

Idk maybe it's kind of because I see them as over the top in ways, they love wordplay and riddles and I think they'd almost think "...That's not good enough >:( " about it??? I don't know???😂

[froschli96]

you know, i always find it really funny when dudebros complain about syndicate and odyssey being too "jokey" or not "taking its characters seriously" or whatever…

like, did y'all collectively sleep through "it's-a me, mario!", "i meant besides vaginas", ezio inventing the latte, bartolomeo's... just... *gestures vaguely* entire character, etc?

like, it's fine to have preferences of course, i myself prefer a more serious and grounded tone, but these are usually the same people who tout the ezio trilogy as "peak assassin's creed", call ac1 a glorified tech demo and hate on connor for being "too serious and boring", like? make it make sense!

[savage-rhi]

Fuschia/Magenta?

[heartsbind]

🎮🐶😁

shannon the yapper

🎮 — favorite video game(s)?

OOOOH favorite....... that's so hard omg. i have a handful of games that were so impactful i made muses for but i'd prob say my top two are mass effect and dragon age. for mass effect i loved the whole trilogy and writing about kaidan alenko going from being only romanceable by femshep to being romanceable by both sheps from me1 to me3 literally was like a huge part of my college thesis DSFKDSFDSF and i also met my husband in the me rpc (we both wrote kaidan and our first interaction was him sending me an ask telling me how much he loved my interpretation DKJFDSJKFDSF and i in turn love his 🥹🥹🥹)

dragon age was ALSO part of my thesis (really the thesis was just about "playing queer" in video games from like romance mechanics to character customization and also like applying queer theory (anti-capitalism / difference / living in opposition to "normal" / etc) to play etc etc etc) but yeah if i were to think about games that i just keep going back to over the years it would be those two! honorable mentions persona 3-5 and skyrim dskfjndsfdsf

🐶 — any pets?

YESSSS my precious leetol dottir peanut... who is sat comfortably between my legs while i'm writing this / working DKFDSFDSF. i would have taken a picture but i am stuck-- but YEAH so her previous owner had to rehome her bc they were moving into a cat-unfriendly apartment and we've been caring for her for the past 3 years! she is a gremlin but she is also so sweet and precious... she was 8 when we got her tho we never learned her birthday so we just make it her gotcha day which was in may so she should be 11 now!

beyond that, my dad has a great pyrenees dog named bumble who i dogsit sometimes for him! he is a sweet and good good boy! and he also has a cat named zoey (she was a gift for my mom technically but she couldn't take her with her when they separated 🫣 but she is a youthful old lady. very mindful, not always demure--

😁 — what’s your favorite part about being part of the rpc?

the community! i love that it's a space to be creative and share creativity and the things they're passionate about with others. i took a 4-year sabbatical of sorts from the tumblr rpc (and that tbh was kind of after a year or so of being low activity prior once i graduated from college and my last computer started crapping out) and i really missed it! it's been amazing having people to yell and yap about shared interests with and also to like remind myself how to plot and flex my creativity muscles again! it was sorely needed because i really was at a point where any time my brain wanted to like develop plots every time i tried to Think of things it would just instead be like bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz white noise. still is doing that tbh but it's sloooowly getting better and dusting itself off!!!

i'm also so grateful for how quickly i've been able to get settled and comfortable here even though i'm soooo slow to actually write things still djfhdsfsdfdsf coming back right as we were entering the busy season at work was a CHOICE for me DFKJDSFDSF but!! yeah that everyone is just so lovely and talented and loves their muses SO much i just am always admiring even when anxiety sort of freezes me up a little i'm slowly getting out there again!

[archersartcorner]

This post but skippy. S is for slug… and also skip!

Right on :>

[show-stoppin-enby]

Found this Globe Edition of The Iliad at a charity shop yesterday!!!

[al0verae]

did that eo stratum tierlist for eo1...im so normal about this series

[servuscallidus]

Reading Stazio's Thebaid (and watching L'Odissea 1968 rai miniserie), it's terrifying how the greek gods mess with people's minds to reach their ends. Zeus wants to destroy two cities, Thebes and Argo, and instead of bringing about a forerunner Sodom and Gomorrah (or second, I'm fuzzy on the timeline), he plants the thought in Etheocles' mind that he want to keep the kingship for himself and inspires bloodlust and a desire for war in the youths of Argo. He puppets the two cities by effectively stripping their leaders of wants, thoughs and personality and puppeteering them into a war no one wanted. We don't even know if the desire to keep Thebes was always there in Etheocles or if it's all Zeus' creation.

Basically, it never matters what a mortal wants, not because a god can effortlessly overpower them, but because a god can easily make it so that they never wanted anything other than what the god desires them to want. It's horrible. You can never know if what you wish and think is truly something that comes from you or if a god planted it so that you'd do their will

[aceofstars16]

I need to get ready for bed but I’m just sitting here thinking about the things I want to write and draw but just…time…🤪

[hefcumin]

I started reading what happens next and I need an update right fucking now

[dootznbootz]

How exactly did you fall into the Odyssey Rabbithole™?

Short answer? I won't lie, I kept seeing "The Horse and the Infant" on Youtube and finally decided "Alright, I'll give this a shot" and then realized "Oh wow, this music is fantastic" but when I heard that first "Penelope~" my hopeless romantic ass was SOLD. And then I looked further and fell further in love with the Odyssey and Greek Mythology.

What's kept me in the "Odyssey Rabbithole™" and made me just burrow further towards the center of the earth like a rabid rabbit is just how HUMAN everyone is. Everybody, even the people who I find "annoying", is endearing in their own way and I love that so much. Because they're so real!

Psychology, History, Literature, and just HUMANITY have always been things I adored and had fun exploring and learning more about so the Epic Cycle as a whole is PERFECT for that. I love people. I love seeing what makes them think, love, learn, grow, and just see them LIVE. And while we only get snippets of these heroes' lives, they are so complex and rounded and have a MEANING to EVERYTHING THEY DO sdlkfj and I just want to SCREAM because of it sdklfj

The Iliad is very human as well and while I still adore it, since it only gives glimpses into so many different people it's hard to pinpoint it all sometimes but with the Odyssey, you have a smaller "cast" of characters to look into and it's SO FUCKING FUNs dlkfj People have always told stories about love and life and joys and sorrows and I love seeing it. It makes me so happy

[noxtivagus]

ffxv makes me so emotional oh my god 🥹🫶🏼

[sleepy-hijinx]

am I the only one who doesn’t particularly love modern Mario graphics? Like so much of it feels too clean and rubbery like a bathtub toy

biggest reason I didn’t like Mario Wonder was because it felt like that issue x5. Like it looks like if someone remembered super Mario bros Wii and it was more colorful than it actually was. I do like some of the new enemies and stuff but to me I just did not get the hype around wonder and I do not care for it really. If they killed off Wonder I’d be uncaring and unfeeling.

The recent Mario Parties have the same issue, like I straight up can’t differentiate between Mario Party Jamboree and Superstars and super Mario party like if you put a gun to my head and told me which is which I’d die.

the only games in recent times I think aren’t as bad in this super squeaky clean aspect is the Mario RPG remake (it feels like there’s texture on buildings and streets and whatnot, it’s less like I’m looking at a fisher price toy), Princess Peach Showtime, the Paper Mario Remake and Luigi’s Mansion 3

that’s all to say I really like the art style of the OG super Mario RPG, and the Mario and Luigi games, and we should embrace grit, texture, and pixels once more.