Mindless Chatter

 Hello all!! I've seen a bunch of people on my reading page doing this meme, and since I'm doing some more reading recently I figured I'd give it a go! I started writing this post a few weeks ago, but then I kept getting busy & haven't finished until now lol. This might also turn into a general Wednesday Media Meme as I continue doing it so I can gush about any movies/shows/books/music etc I'm into.

So, I'm re-reading The Odyssey this summer! It's the first time I'm reading Emily Wilson's translation, which is really beautiful; her descriptions in general and depictions of Odysseus are really wonderful to read. I read Robert Fagles' translation a couple of years ago for a class, and I kind of wish I'd kept that version as well so I could pick out what they did differently. They both use pretty simple wording from what I recall of Fagles, which I feel like has the effect of making it more direct and powerful. Both have been very enjoyable!

So far I've read up to book eleven, and I think I'm enjoying it even more since I've already read it. It's such a complex, emotional story, and Wilson's translation choices seem to really enhance that. I also think it's also a really important story for people to continue reading, because the story of someone trying to return to their family and their life after experiencing war/trauma is so timeless, and it can serve as a metaphor for so many different things.

On a lighter note — I really love Telemachus!! I love his story of finding himself and becoming a man, especially in the Homeric world of gods and heroes where he has to find his place among all these other great people. Also, my sister recently told me that she learned that the English word "mentor" comes from The Odyssey, when Athena comes to Telemachus as a man named Mentor and helps/teaches him.

I also think it's so funny how a big plot point is that this huge group of suitors are pretty much just having a neverending frat party in Odysseus's house and eating like teenage boys, and they just don't get the hint that literally everyone wants them to get out. Like it's a big serious plot point, but it just makes me laugh when all the other characters are so compassionate to Odysseus about his frat boy problem lol !!

 Just finished reading Rosemary Sutcliff's short story Eagle's Egg, and oh my goodness... it was so good and cute... !!

I loved Quintus and Cordaella's relationship; him courting her by carrying her water from the well was adorable, and I like how much he respects and cares for her! Quintus and Vedrix's relationship was very interesting as well—I particularly liked Quintus asking for his advice about Cordaella, and their conversation about Roman rule over Britain. It reminded me of Marcus and Esca's conversations in The Eagle of the Ninth, and I love that Sutcliff writes those themes into so many of her stories.

The characters, as always in Sutcliff stories, are wonderful: Quintus is such a sweet and awkward dork, especially with Cordaella; Cordaella is an awesome and interesting character too, and she seems like a fierce badass who's also secretly a softie; I adore Vedrix as well, and I feel like he's especially interesting, being a skilled artist and sort of a confidant for Quintus. I want to know more about all of them now tbh! I also really loved how character-oriented this story is and how it mainly focuses on the character's relationships. Pretty much the only plot is Quintus making a terrible joke to stop a rebellion, and that was just delightful to me, it was so pure. 

 Since I've read both the Iliad and the Odyssey now, I feel the need to share the amazingly beautiful video summaries I found on YouTube from the channel Overly Sarcastic Productions... !! Me and some of my friends from class have been getting very invested in the stories and finding memes of them online, and these were some of my favorite vids that I found! :D

 ...the night itself was very still, behind the sounds the camp. A wonderful night, up here above the mist; the bracken of the hillside frozen into silver stillness below the dark fleece of thorn-scrub that covered the higher slopes on either side, the moon still low in a glimmering sky that seemed brushed over with a kind of moth-wing dust of gold. Somewhere far down the widening valley a vixen called to her mate, and somehow the sound left the silence empty.

—Silver Branch, pg 148

I love Sutcliff's scenery descriptions so so much oh my goodness!