“an impenetrable purple that is the color of wine that we refer to as red but the Greeks call black.”
I am currently reading "An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and An Epic" by Daniel Mendelsohn. After the longest introduction (Proem) I have ever read, the story starts with a section called "The Telemachy"
The two main characters are a former engineer who worked on secret government projects at times turned mathematics professor, now retired. The other characters is his son with a Doctorate in Classical Studies. The father audits his son’s “Odyssey 101” class. The author doesn’t seem to like the old guy too much which makes the father a rather appealing character to some readers. The father is used as the author’s pragmatic foil in the class room discussions of the Homeric Question. Mendelsohn does a great job of retelling the stories in the Telemachy and other pertinent tales.
They are great retells and accurate. But every time if feel like he leaves a like something out. He complains about the long and strangely detailed story of Odysseus slaying a stag on Circe’s island without addressing the little mentioned concern with the “great, high-horned stag”.
He illustrates the ancient greek tales with everyday examples from the main characters’ family and childhoods. The things he doesn't know about people! But the writing is beautiful and excellent.
About Telemachus’ visit to Sparta, Mendelsohn has a comment of “scathingly brilliance.” (Apologies if I misquoted the phrase.) Absolutely brilliant! So, the stories the author tells are probably the ones that best support his insight into the Telemachy. You gotta read that chapter! Next chapter is the Apology.
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