Skip to main content
Trade Books For Courses Tradebooks for Courses

The Odyssey

Homer; R. L. Eickhoff, Ph.D

Forge Books

opens in a new window
opens in a new window The Odyssey Download image

ISBN10: 0312869010
ISBN13: 9780312869014

Trade Paperback

432 Pages

$20.99

CA$31.50

Request Desk Copy
Request Exam Copy

TRADE BOOKS FOR COURSES NEWSLETTER

Sign up to receive information about new books, author events, and special offers.

Sign up now

Eickhoff, a novelist, academic, and award-winning translator of the ancient Irish Ulster Cycle, here offers a prose translation of Homer's Odyssey. As Library Journal noted: "Eickhoff maintains an abiding interest in both the epic and the figure of Odysseus . . . Eickhoff's novelized Odyssey is both vigorous and readable . . . [It also] includes valuable notes and appendixes."

Reviews

Praise for The Odyssey

"Homer's ancient song, The Odyssey, is a treasure waiting to be discovered by every generation. Eickhoff's fresh, bold, contemporary translation rivals Fitzgerald's. I highly recommend it."—Stephen Coonts

"What a book. It restores your faith in literature as well as in language. Eickhoff's personal story, told in his introduction, is almost as fascinating as the legendary tale."—Thomas Fleming, author of When This Cruel War Is Over

"Eickhoff's translation is so fresh, so accessible. He brings this classic masterpiece to vibrant life in the new millennium without sacrificing any of its Homeric grandeur. His clever mixture of verse and prose lets us hear the language of antiquity, while watching the actions of the protagonists in images as clear as those on a modern movie screen. We recognize these characters. We understand their loves and hates, we sympathize with their dilemmas. Eickhoff's gift is to invest both man and gods with humanity. There are fresh treasures in these pages for everyone."—Morgan Llywelyn, author of 1916

"I literally found myself cheering as Odysseus braved many perils and foes to return to his home and family, standing tall and prevailing. Such a compelling translation of one of my favorite classics."—R. J. Pineiro, author of Conspiracy.com

BOOK EXCERPTS

Read an Excerpt

THE FIRST BOOK

The Council of the Gods


The Invocation to the Muse, greeting
Her and the gods' meeting.
Athene ordered to start Odysseus
Homeward and the visit
Of the goddess to Telemachus.



Sing,...

About the author

Homer; R. L. Eickhoff, Ph.D

Randy Lee Eickhoff holds several graduate degrees, including a Ph.D. in Classics. He lives in El Paso, Texas where he works on novels, plays, poetry and translations in several languages. His translation of Ireland's national epic, the Ulster Cycle, is now a text used in schools in the United States and overseas. His novel And Not to Yield, based on the life of Wild Bill Hickok, was selected as the Best Novel of 2004 by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage. His nonfiction work on the Tigua Indians, Exiled, won the Southwest Book Award. He is also the author of Return to Ithaca, Then Came Christmas and The Quick and the Dead. He has been inducted into the Paso Del Norte Writers Hall of Fame, the local chapter of the Texas Institute of Arts and Letters. Eickhoff served with distinction in the early phases of the Vietnam War, and was awarded the Purple Heart, Silver Star and Bronze Star. He spends his time in El Paso, Ireland, and Italy, lecturing on Dante and The Ulster Cycle.