[AX8]≡ Libro Gratis Homer Daughter Robert Graves 9780897330596 Books

Homer Daughter Robert Graves 9780897330596 Books

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Homer Daughter Robert Graves 9780897330596 Books

Robert Graves spins yet another highly enjoyable historical fiction. I enjoyed the refresher course on Greek mythology and descriptions vivid enough to bring the characters, lifestyle and landscape into sharp focus. I was not challenged in the least to visualize the landscape and events, they were a gift from the author. One of those stories you do not want to put down!

This is an adventure, but it is also peek into the day to day domestic life of the Ancient Greeks. It gives a voice to women who where considered little more than a womb by the Ancient Greek males - at least in some of the writings that have survived. Graves draws on his vast knowledge of Ancient Greece to bring it to life. The author was criticized for being a historian and writing historical fiction. But as far as I can tell, it would have been a crime for Graves to suppress his excellent ability to weave an engaging tale.

I also recommend Count Belisarius and I, Claudius and Claudius the God. I look forward to reading other books by Robert Graves.


Tags : Homer's Daughter [Robert Graves] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Nausicaa, a Sicilian princess of the eighth century B.C., looks back on the events of her life and tells how she came to write the epic poem known as the Odyssey.,Robert Graves,Homer's Daughter,Academy Chicago Publishers,0897330595,Nausicaa (Greek mythology);Fiction.,Sicily (Italy);History;To 800;Fiction.,Women poets;Fiction.,Authorship,Epic poetry,FICTION Historical General,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction-Historical,GENERAL,Historical - General,Historical fiction,Modern fiction,Nausicaa (Greek mythology),Women poets,History,Sicily (Italy)

Homer Daughter Robert Graves 9780897330596 Books Reviews

Robert Graves, poet, novelist and scholar of things Greek, here explores the possibility that The Odyssey, successor to Homer's Illiad, was written by a princess of mixed Greek and other ancestry in a Greek-Trojan settlement in ancient Sicily some time after the Trojan War. Using internal evidence which suggests female authorship and a relationship of the terrain described to areas in the western Mediterranean, Graves speculates that the true author told her own story, possibly a true one, buried within the Homeric epic which has been handed down to us via the ancient Greeks. To get it included among the Homeric canon this young, energetic and extremely intelligent woman manages to get the tale incorporated into the body of Homeric songs through the auspices of a member of the Homeric guild. But, scholarly speculation aside, this is basically a tale of adventure and intrigue as it recounts the events surrounding the siege of a king's household by rebellious nobles using a suit for his young daughter's hand as an excuse to undermine and destroy her father's rule. The princess, clever and indomitable by turns, first investigates the mystery of her elder brother's disappearance and then organizes a shrewd counterplot, reminiscent of Odysseus' triumphal and bloody return to Ithaca, to reclaim her father's holdings and the honor of his house. A bit slow and ponderous in the beginning, and somewhat too scholarly, it nevertheless comes sharply to life in the second half of the book as the plot to undo the suitors' predations hurtles toward its bloody resolution. A good tale and worth the read, though it's not quite as compelling or erudite as Graves' other work in this vein Hercules, My Shipmate -- a tale of Jason and his Argonauts on the quest for the Golden Fleece. -- Stuart W. Mirsky author of The King of Vinland's Saga
This is a good, smart, neat little story, about 200 pages long, narrated 1st person by the clever, resourceful intelligent heroine, Princess Nausicaa, daughter of the Elyman king of Drepanum, in Western Sicily, living around 750BC, ie in the Greek Archaic Age. It is a historical novel set not in the Greek Bronze Age of the Trojan War, but in the Archaic Age of the 8th century BC. It borrows and remodels some events from the Odyssey. The first chapter, or rather its preface, is slow, giving the background of the Elyman settlement, but the story then quickly begins.

It is based on the theory originally developed by Samuel Butler (1835 –1902, author of The Way of All Flesh), that, while Homer (or the male bards called Homeridae, or Sons of Homer) were responsible for The Iliad, The Odyssey was composed by a Sicilian woman, and its landscape located in Sicily (especially the territory of Trapani) and its nearby islands unlike the Iliad, the Odyssey focusses on social areas where women had expertise, but less with knowledge areas in the male field. Robert Graves was convinced of this theory, and it accorded with his general tendency to allocate strong roles to women, as his belief in a matriarchal religion and power females such as Livia in 'I Claudius'.

PLOT SPOILERS please note, as it's difficult to give a review without including some.
In 'Homer's Daughter', Nausicaa is the fictional authoress of The Odyssey, with its Odysseus homecoming part based on her own personal experiences of an attempt by encroaching suitors in Sicily to usurp the kingship in her father's absence, and murder her brothers.

Nausicaa is left with few resources to defend her family, except one young adolescent brother who will clearly be targetted next, and her elderly uncle, the Regent, who is soon displaced and assassinated. Nausicaa and her brother are faced with the situation of Penelope and Odysseus' son Telemachus in The Odyssey, with almost no-one to rely on except a few loyal retainers. But a stranger, a Cretan nobleman, is washed ashore, as was Odysseus in Corcyra in the Odyssey, and Nausicaa sees that she can use him to help her. They save their father's kingdom and their family by courage and resourcefulness, and events follow a similar pattern to the return of Odysseus in The Odyssey.

Afterwards, Nausicaa composes The Odyssey, a long epic poem in the Homeric bardic tradition about the return of Odysseus from Troy, inventing adventures and integrating them into existing traditions but composing a homecoming section based on her own experiences. She then persuades a bard, whose life she has saved, to learn it by heart, and credit it to the Homeric tradition. (The real Homer, here, is accredited with having lived about 1000BC, some 250 years before).

Part of the charm and virtue of Graves’ novel lies in its always competent use of Homeric style language and rhetoric in the dialogue, its sense of being completely in period, inside the thoughts and feelings of the 8th century BC. Almost all the characters, Nausicaa, her brother Clytoneus, uncle Mentor, the stranger Aethon, the loyal swineheard Eumaeus, and one has to say the principal bad suitors too, have a ready tongue, an immediate resourcefulness and ability to hold their own and present their case, in formal language, in a highly effective way. The society, religious beliefs, manners and mores and rhythms, are in keeping with those found in The Odyssey.

Anyone reading 'Homer's Daughter' should not expect 'I Claudius'. It is written in a different voice, that of a 8th century BC woman and her society. It should also be approached as a novel in its own right, not merely as a crutch for Robert Graves' theory about authorship of The Odyssey. The heroine is spirited, highly intelligent, resourceful, articulate verbally and able to hold her own; and I found her convincing, both as a woman and character. One or two captious reviewers suggest that the characters are not fully three dimensional, a criticism without foundation as far as I can see. The characters are in the tradition of the culture of the time, which generated The Iliad and The Odyssey, they are what they say, do and feel. That is exactly what should be expected of a novel of this kind.

You'll enjoy this novel more by having read The Odyssey or at least being conversant with its plot, but it's not necessary.
Fun from Robert Graves! A delight!
Rich interpretation of historical period through the eyes of one of the key observers of the time.
An interesting re-interprtation of the Odyssey story but the book lacks the depth I was looking for. Also the notion of the existence of a lineage from Homer down to Nausica's time was not well developed and left me rather dissatisfied. Other readers may see it differently
More enjoyable of you are familiar with the Odyssey, but enjoyable even if you are not. Graves' dry sense of humor emerges in much of this book.
Robert Graves shows his vast scholarship and literary skill in a fascinating novel about how the author of "The Odyssey" was actually a woman. In the process, the reader is transported to the ancient world, and given a vivid picture of daily life, as well as religion, culture, politics, and warfare.
Robert Graves spins yet another highly enjoyable historical fiction. I enjoyed the refresher course on Greek mythology and descriptions vivid enough to bring the characters, lifestyle and landscape into sharp focus. I was not challenged in the least to visualize the landscape and events, they were a gift from the author. One of those stories you do not want to put down!

This is an adventure, but it is also peek into the day to day domestic life of the Ancient Greeks. It gives a voice to women who where considered little more than a womb by the Ancient Greek males - at least in some of the writings that have survived. Graves draws on his vast knowledge of Ancient Greece to bring it to life. The author was criticized for being a historian and writing historical fiction. But as far as I can tell, it would have been a crime for Graves to suppress his excellent ability to weave an engaging tale.

I also recommend Count Belisarius and I, Claudius and Claudius the God. I look forward to reading other books by Robert Graves.