The Penelopiad
by Margaret Atwood · first published 2005
67% recommend33% neutral
Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than the Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope's parentage, her early life and marriage, and the scandalous rumors circulating about her. I've chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing Chorus, which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of the Odyssey: What
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If you thought this was interesting, you might also like Margret Atwood's "The Penelopiad" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17645.The_Penelopiad
on “A Translator’s Reckoning with the Women of the Odyssey” ↗Agreed. Three fiction recommendations: * The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood * The Last Question by Isaac Asimov * Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon Three non-fiction recommendations: * Art is Work by Milton Glaser * Pragmatic Thinking And Learning by Andy Hunt…
on “Summer Reading List” ↗I had three false starts with Fagles but just tore through Wilson’s translation. Her introduction is really good, too. A fun postscript is Atwood’s “The Penelopiad.” It’s short and really entertaining. “Let me add that meat was highly valued among us – the aristocracy ate lots of it, meat, meat, meat, and all they ever did was roast it: ours was not an age of haute…
on “The Odyssey – Alexander Pope translation (1725)” ↗…Borges - The Homeric Versions: https://gwern.net/doc/borges/1932-borges-thehomericversions.... if you speak Spanish or Italian, there are new editions that are translations from Butler, plus Atwood's "Penelopiad" and more, very nice books: https://blackiebooks.org/catalogo/odisea/ https://blackie-edizioni.it/products/odissea
on “The Odyssey by Homer, Translated by Samuel Butler” ↗I gave a book of her poetry (Penelopiad) to a friend of mine, a talented poet herself. She said it made her angry: this was what she'd been aiming for her whole life, and Atwood made it look easy. I'm glad that Handmaid's Tale has brought…
on “The Making of Margaret Atwood” ↗> The most memorable creative responses to The Odyssey – such as Euripides’ Helen, Virgil’s Aeneid, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Joyce’s Ulysses, Walcott’s Omeros, Atwood’s Penelopiad, Madeline Miller’s Circe or Lisa Peterson’s play set in a modern migrant camp – Hey, she forgot to include O Brother, Where Art Thou! \s
on “An Uncomplicated Man” ↗