I'm listening to The Odyssey, Fagles' translation read by Ian McKlellan. I did this about 10 years ago, found it awesome and used some Audible credits to pick it up again. I knew the 'story' but that doesn't compare with the poem itself, which is much better than the sum of its cliched parts.
Still, the first three books almost feel like rearranging furniture before a party. There's no Odysseus, for one thing. He's imprisoned by Circe. Fortunately for him, the gods have a meeting and, since Poseidon is out of town, talk about how Poseidon's an asshole and maybe they can help out the poor mortal and get him back home. Apparently the gods can be a bit passive-aggressive. But this is background, disposed of in a paragraph; the rest of these books are all Telemachus wailing about the suitors and setting off to seek help. It could be a reboot of the Olympian Poetic Universe: some references for fans of the old stuff, mixed with exposition to get the new fans up to speed on Troy, Agamemnon, Penelope and the rest. Plus a whole lot of talk about how awesome Odysseus is going to be when he finally shows up here.
Odysseus or not, wo motifs appear early. First, for all the fantastic stories that get retold, the gods will get caught doing almost nothing supernatural. It's like they want plausible deniability. Athena is everywhere right now, but always disguised as a mortal and talking about how people should buck up and do the right thing. She'll inspire later. She won't turn people into spiders, though, or turn invisible and slaughter them all. The only exception to the mundane so far: After a speech disguised as an old veteran, Athena apparently transforms to a bird in sight of the people she is talking to and fly off. This doesn't seem to be a metaphor for leaving quickly; it's jarring and kind of makes you wonder about the point of the disguise in the first place.
Second, hospitality is valued. Very, very valued. This is the palace culture and reciprocal gift-giving is a big deal. Want to make Athena (disguised as a wanderer) smile? Offer her food and drink before anything else. Refuse to let your guests sleep on their boats, instead bring out the good wine for them. Promise ot return the favor when they visit you. Want to be a villain? Move into a guy's palace and abuse his home's hospitality while he's out of town. Kind of like the suitors.
And the suitors will be doomed. "Oh, I don't need to shame the suitors--they are eating the food & drink of the mastermind of battle, and he'll kill them all if he gets back." [Spoiler: He gets back.] But their genre blindness is hilarious. "Old man, why are you talking about birds and prophecies? Not all birds are a sign from Zeus, sometimes birds are just flying around." [Spoiler: These birds weren't just flying around.]
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