The Essential Homer: Selections from the Illiad and the Odyssey

Translated and edited by Stanley Lombardo

I did finish this book 2 weeks ago, just before leaving to Costa Rica, but it did take me a long time to finish it. It was not the kind of book I was looking forward to read on the couch when I got home from work. For that I had the Spanish learning book "Spanish the Easy Way" (highly recommended!!). Instead, I only read it before going to sleep, and indeed it put me to sleep fairly quickly.
Okay, parts of it were interesting, especially the parts that showed how people used to think back then. Then there were the horrible parts, of people killing other people in the most horrific ways, for absolutely no reason. And, of course, there's the gods. How nice to be able to blame everything on the gods! "The gods cast sleep on me, so I couldn't see that my men are misbehaving and upsetting some other god" (very loose transcription). Serves them right for being so petty.
I was happy to finally finish it. It took me 2 months exactly. Finally I can read something that makes more sense.

The translation, by the way, is very nice, as far as I can tell. But, of course, I've never read it in ancient Greek. [510 pp.]

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