Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JAWINSEOUL]

Anyone read Odyssey by Homer ��. Any thoughts

[SuperFly]

Well I have been told by many an highly educated canine, that the journey of a lost dog, separated from his owner under extreme and harsh circumstances, has been compared to the Odyssey by Homer.

[laogaiguk]

I'd like to sometime. Haven't got around to it yet, though I think I did see a miniseries (possibly British) about it

[the_beaver]

A couple of times.

A friend and I were looking at books yesterday and he asked me about Don Quixote and the answer I gave him is the same as the what I'll say about the Odyssey -- it's something you read to have read.

[The King of Kwangju]

It's one of my favourite books, although I don't mention that publicly as it sounds so pretentious. It's a cracking good story and refreshingly politically incorrect.

I like Shakespeare for the same reasons, and again, I don't tell anyone.

[pest2]

Well, there's a Homer who regularly posts on this forum and his posts are usually quite odd... so is that like reading Homer's Odysseys?? hahahaha....

Yeah, Odyssey is a good book and story. Totally dumb of me but now I can remember the name of that movie a few years back w/George Clooney and really good folk music that parodied the Odyssey...

[Ya-ta Boy]

'Oh Brother, Where Art Thou' (or something close) is what pest2 is referring to.

I think the 'Odyssey' is less interesting than the 'Iliad'. It reminds me of a science fiction/fantasy story...or something. Lots of monster and magic. But it's a fun enough read.

I really really wish I could be pretensious and say, You can only really appreciate in Greek.

[Captain Corea]

[holeinthesky]

I haven't read Iliad yet, but.....
I personally think there are many uncanny similarities between Homer's Odyssey and life in Korea. While the Odyssey is an epic poem about a long journey home and revenge.....
aren't we all on a kind of odyssey ourselves, just coming here? The adventure, the voyages, feasting, over-indulging, temptations, the deceit, the futility, awkwardness and of course satisfaction....

'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' made some awesome analogies and symbolic references to the Odyssey. Like wise, our time here in this often bizarre land filled with its own kind of monsters and characters. How about the infamous sirenes~ the beasts who appear as singing women that call sailors and guide them to their deaths with their mesmerizing songs.

The story is full of new encounters, meeting new people/creatures, new situations and new ��cultures��

"'Strangers. . .who are you? and where from?
What brings you here by sea ways- a fair traffic?'"

"'Stranger, there is no quirk or evil in you
that I can see. You know Zeus metes out fortune
to good and bad men as it pleases him.
Hardship he sent to you, and you must bear it.
But now that you have taken refuge here
you shall not lack for clothing, or any other
comfort.....'" Book 6, lines 201-207

On a bad day in Korea however, I must say that an analogy with the Kharybdis makes sense too~ a whirlpool that sucks anything near it down into its depths before vomiting it back up again...doesn��t teaching English at a Hogwan often feel like that, like you're moving in circles? Or Penelope's unwoven loom......One of the characters of the story, Penelope, must choose a new husband, against her will. She tells the suitors that she would choose a new husband after she was finished weaving a death shroud for Odysseus. She would weave all day and then at night, after the suitors left, she would unweave her work. This went on for four years before the suitors figured it out. A distant analogy but a cyclic and seemingly futile effort none the less.

Perhaps Korea itself is, from a Korean perspective, like Mt. Olympus, the mythical home of the gods....where stars are revered like Gods themselves and traitors receive tongue-lashing (Zeus-like) retribution.

The relationship between host and guest is also explored in great depth. Upon arrival at the cave of Polyphemus, Odysseus assumes that he (Polyphemus) will treat them as guests. When Polyphemus returns and realizes that they are expecting some sort of guest relationship he tells them that he doesn��t fear the gods OR Zeus. He refuses to give them hospitality and begins to eat them. As a result~ Odysseus ends up blinding the Cyclops and stealing his flocks of sheep ----> sound familiar? kkk

Anyway, a wonderful epic story, well worth reading if you haven��t already. Its just such a mammoth read, I recommend take it slowly, do some on line reading along the way and don��t get scared of by complexity. Its fun^^ And then there is Joyce��s ��Ulysses�� which is of course based on the Odessey. And again, a drunken story of discovery in Dublin isn��t unlike many of our experiences here in Seoul����

[Privateer]

When did the Odyssey become Odyssey, when did the Iliad become Iliad, and for that matter when did the Titanic become Titanic? I'm getting peevish and cranky in my old age.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[JAWINSEOUL]

Great book.

[riley]

So if you can make a comparison to your life in Korea to The Odyssey, does that mean you're going to kill a horde of people when you come home?

[manlyboy]

If you want to get a feel for the Mycenaean civilization depicted in the two epics, it is crucial that you read the Robert Fitzgerald translation. He is the first translator to try and tell it as the homeric bards would have told it to the Greeks. Other translators mould the story into something modern audiences can more easily identify with. The truth is that Achilles, Agamemnon, and co. (and even wily Odysseus), were all originally depicted as rough, brutal, uncouth, drunken, cruel and simple-minded warriors. Personally, I think they're much more compelling when portrayed in that historically accurate way.
The story is also told using repetitive language, which was necessary as the bards had to recite the whole thing from memory. Fitzgerald's translation honours this, and to me it makes the story feel much more authentic. There's a translation by Alexander Pope that puts the entire story into rhyming couplets, and the whole thing becomes unrecognisable as an ancient Greek epic.
Fitzgerald makes it a really accessible and entertaining story.