The Odyssey: An Epic Telling (Odds Bodkin Musical Story Collection)

I managed to escape reading the Odyssey while I was in school. On the one hand, that's too bad, because now, having heard this story, I realize what a tremendous influence the story has had on all literature that followed, and how much I have missed over the years by not having any familiarity with the Odyssey. But on the other hand, it was fitting to have my first experience with Homer to be this one- -this story was meant to be shared orally, rather than read. And Bodkin is a master storyteller, who has made the tale come alive. Now that I've heard the story properly, I think I'm ready to study it more thoroughly with a book.


Hear the Odyssey   April 4, 2003
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Your English teacher was wrong: Homer did not write the Odyssey. He sang it. Actually, scholars are still debating whether the blind mythic poet called Homer ever existed at all, but they do generally agree on two things: the Odyssey is one of the greatest stories surviving from Graecian antiquity, and it was originally meant to be sung, not read. Ancient bards, called rhapsodists, wandered through the hoods of ancient Greece, chanting their stories to all who would listen. Hundreds of generations later, we're still listening. Just two months ago, I listened to Odds Bodkin's rendition of the 2500-year epic on my car CD-player.

Homer's Odyssey depicts the 10-year wanderings of Odysseus, as he tries to go home after he and the Greeks successfully sacked the city of Troy. Bodkin's version pares down these 10-year wanderings to a 4-hour audio presentation, but many of the signature adventures are retained (Included are: the Lotus-Eaters; Polyphemus; the Lystrigonians; Circe; Scylla & Charybdis; Calypso; Princess Nausicaa; plenty of storms and waves, crashes and crushes, and a lot more).

What I don't like about this recording is that Bodkin has about three different voices that he uses for scores of characters; after a while, things start sounding familiar... Also, his attempts at female voices are a misfire; they all sound like Ms. Piggy with a sore throat.

What elevates this recording beyond puppet-show drama, I think, are three things: Bodkin's enthusiasm, the musical track, and his sense of story. The soundtrack, a combination of 12-string guitar and harp, is soothing, mystical, rejuvenating, otherworldly; it could be sold separately. And, while most of the drama is shallow, I still have to admit there are moments when I was truly moved by this story.

Know this -- Bodkin's version of the Odyssey is an adaptation, meaning he may skim here and embellish there, but he has full poetic license to do so, because he is adapting the work for children (and adults who love a good story), and for listening. As for the critics who bash this because it's not "true to the original," they, I would say, are missing the point.

Some people just like to hear a good yarn. If you're in the mood for a funny and talented storyteller to make an ancient story sing again, check this out.


The Odyssey Suite   April 3, 2002
James R. Mccall (Libertyville, IL USA)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

This is a retelling of Homerýs great story by an actor/storyteller, and lasts just over four hours. By way of contrast, Ian McKellenýs reading of Faglesýs translation of The Odyssey clocks in at 13 hours, 10 minutes. One would think, then, that this version must leave lots out. Well, yes and no. It covers all the main adventures Odysseus has, nor does it hurry over them. (In fact, the Trojan horse sequence, which is just alluded to briefly by Homer, starts the story here and is given an expansive treatment, much of which actually comes from later writers.)

So, Odds Bodkin tells Odysseusýs story in full in four hours. Then what does he leave out? He leaves out Homerýs expansive way of telling a story by means of repeated heroic epithets and extended dialogs. He leaves out the gods, mostly: their part of the story is brief indeed. All the careful planning that went into the defeat of the suitors is left out as well. It leaves out the adventures of Telemachus. All Odysseusýs entertaining fabrications during his travels, these have been excised. And, as this version is intended for children, it leaves out the gruesome scenes at the end where the unfaithful servants are killed.

You might say that it leaves out most of the matter that locates the story in a certain heroic pre-classical culture. Yet some flavor of that culture remains, and the well-known incidents in the story are certainly given their due. Thus we have, in addition to the Trojan Horse, Scylla and Charibdis, the visit to the Underworld, the cattle of Helios, the Sirens, the Isle of the Lotus Eaters, the Cyclops, the misadventures on Circeýs isle, and the long languishing on Calypsoýs isle. And it finishes up with a bang as Odysseus strings his mighty bow and lets fly an arrow through all the aligned ax-heads, then, revealed, turns in wrath upon the suitors who have been besieging his wife.

This is certainly an entertaining version, and an excellent way to learn the story ý for child or grownup. Odds Bodkin is good at voices, so he can differentiate his characters well. This adds to the fun as he mixes accents and verbal mannerisms (Polyphemus reminded me of the Cookie Monster) in an energetic and colorful telling. It also helps that there is a more-or-less continuous musical background. Celtic harp and 12-string guitar are rarely obtrusive, but rather provide push to the narration.

Anyway, to us, The Odyssey is a story, not a guide for living, but it is one of the central stories of our culture. And here we get that story (without undergoing trial by recitation), which is all that most of us want, really.