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Odyssey Book Twenty-One Analysis

1379 Words6 Pages

I will be comparing the two translations of Homer’s “Odyssey Book Twenty-One”the first translation by Robert Fitzgerald(1961) and the other by Emil V. Rieu and D.C.H Rieu(1946).Throughout this paper i will compare passages of the two text and address area where Fitzgerald and Rieu exsale and areas where there translations are sub par compared to the other. Robert Fitzgerald(1961) Rieu(1946) Upon Penélopê, most worn in love and thought, Athena cast a glance like a grey sea lifting her. Now to bring the tough bow out and bring the iron blades. Now try those dogs at archery to usher bloody slaughter in Athene, goddess of the flashing eyes, now prompted the wise Penelope, Icarius’ daughter, to confront the Suitors in the (10) palace with the bow …show more content…

‘Extraordinary! Zeus seems to have taken away my wits. My dear mother, in her wisdom, says she will leave this house to marry again, and here I am, smiling and chuckling to myself like a witless idiot. Well,gentlemen, step forward. Here is your prize – a lady whose like you will not find today in all Achaea, no, not in sacred Pylos, nor in Argos, nor My cene, nor in Ithaca itself, nor on the dark (110) mainland. But you know this well enough. What need for me to no sing my mother’s praises? So come along! No false excuses or long delays! String the bow and then we’ll see. I shouldn’t mind trying myself. And if I string the bow and shoot an arrow through the axes, I won’t be too upset if my mother says goodbye to this house and goes away with another man leaving me here, as I’ll know that at last I’m capable of winning the fine prizes my father won. These passages are very similar that gives telemachus a different sense of character.In Fitzgerald’s it seems that telemachus has a higher regard for zeus then in Rieu 's as Fitzgerald uses the term almighty versus extraordinary.Then in Rieu 's version it seems he holds his mother in higher regard as he refers as having wisdom something that is not mentioned by Fitzgerald.He also refers to the suitors as lords in fitzgerald and only gentlemen in Rieu’s.This can mean that in Fitzgerald 's depiction telemachus holds men in a much higher regard than the telemachus in Rieu 's version who highly respects his

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