Iliad and Odyssey of Homer Plácido Domingo Edition (The Sphere Books, 2009)
two thick volumes on hand. 1088 pages between them. Hardcover. 24 centimeters tall. Two kilos of weight. Gold ribbon to mark the point of reading. Large block letters under the title of each work taking up the entire width of the spine. Simple and stunning black design and gold. Price 70 euros. Surely this is an issue to put in a privileged place in a library and loudly proclaimed herself: "In This House There Is An Iliad and Odyssey."
who already know these works do not need my poor keyboard say anything more about them. Who does not, should know they are the oldest in Western literature, and therefore cornerstone of everything that came later in Greece, Rome, Europe and America, so it's worth a read at least once in a lifetime . The story of the ten-year siege of Troy (Ilium) by the Greeks and the random return of Ulysses (Odysseus) home at the end of the fence are based, at least, the epic genre, lyrical and tragic and his influence continues even in authors who write thousands of years later. Contains heroic characters, gods and demigods of extreme passions, brutal descriptions of wounds in combat and adventures without number, among other things. I will not say anything of the frames, in part to enable each of these works find their way, and partly so I would not pass as a English film magazine that when he mentioned the wooden horse to talk about film 'Troy', a reader will have laid the quarrel by a spoiler. True.
Anyway, what you need to know to start reading is that we are in the tenth year of the siege, and that the first scene is the reason why Agamemnon draws upon himself the wrath of Achilles and his ally of the god Apollo, the famous cholera causing the first and second punishment on their ranks of warriors. We clarified that the text will suddenly deposited in the middle of the appeal of a father who seeks to offer a ransom for his daughter, and from there turn to swim with the stream of battles, speeches, deaths, debts, sacrifices, acts of God in favor or against their favorite band, and even flashbacks that continues for 24 rhapsodies of the Iliad.
The head of the Sunday edition was Plácido, Professor of Ancient History at the Complutense, which continues a long tradition English to write introductions to literary works is best read after the book that comment, and not so much the famous spoilers, but because they seem to assume that the reader already knows the text and continually refer to a scene or character with a familiarity the new reader does not and will not clarify much. This introduction CLXXIII occupies the first pages of the first book, 'Iliad,' and is written to cover the two works at once, so that the second volume does not bring its own preface. It is not the most accessible introduction and the simplest that can be read, but is very complete and very useful after completing the stories, if read carefully. It should be mentioned that there are no notes explanatory footnotes for the poems, so if you do not know what an Achilles or Agamemnon, or the house of Hades, or what a difference an Achaean Dana and an Argive, or if it matters, you just have to continue reading or stop and look if you think necessary. Something curious
translation is chosen. These two books do not have a new translation, but played the English version made in 1920 by Germain Gómez and Hernández Nicasio Luquero of a French translation made in 1866-67 by Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle. That is, we have a English translation of a French translation of an original ancient Greek. Sunday justifies this decision because Leconte de Lisle was a poet, and "more than the double pass to give the impression of lower fidelity, in works such as these do not seem to literal fidelity is the best approach, given that its full meaning is impossible and reach the claim often produces great difficulty reading. " These versions, it continues, 'get a faithful drawing the spirit of poetry and literature beautifully. And the truth is that is read with great pleasure and ease.
In short, a monument erected in honor of the father of our literature.
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