Odysseus, Summer Reading, and Novel Pairings Merch
Welcoming the Odyssey back to the pod and talking about oral performances, plus—our personal Summer Reading guides to inspire your TBR
Welcome to our first missive on all things mythology and Odysseus as we journey through Homer’s Odyssey for our Slow Down Summer! We have a jam-packed schedule of lightly cerebral content that will get us all thinking more deeply about this truly epic poem, including our weekly newsletters which will feature extra resource links, quick dips into topics from our podcast episodes, and helpful reminders of everything that’s coming your way for a great summer of reading.
This week we’re rereleasing our original pairings episode from our early days at Novel Pairings. This is a great refresh of information for those who may have listened to the episode when it aired in 2020, and we think new listeners will love hearing our pairings. We really loved our fresh, contemporary picks to pair with this timeless classic—and we think it serves as an excellent primer to get us all ready for diving back into The Odyssey this week. We hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane, wherever you get your podcasts.
Coming Up (and MERCH!!!)
There’s plenty of time to join our journey across the Aegean Sea this summer. Take a look at our events lineup for June & July!
We’d love to see you in our nerdy crew on Patreon as we think deeply about what The Odyssey has to say about our current moment in time. There’s lots of great benefits to joining our community of bookworms, including live lectures, like our upcoming lecture on accessing allusions on June 14th at 7 PM EST.
PLUS, today patrons get early access to our limited edition Novel Pairings shop! We’ve carefully selected a hat, tote, t-shirts, and stickers that we hope you’ll love. The shop will open up for all listeners on Friday, but if you want an early peek head over to patreon.org/novelpairings to sign up today.
The Spoken Word becomes Written (and Adapted)
One aspect we really appreciate about the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey is Wilson’s choice to emphasize the orality of the story. Divesting from the ornate language used in earlier renditions, Wilson’s new translation aims to return Odysseus’ story to where it all began—the oral tradition.
We know that The Odyssey was passed down through poets and bards during the Homeric period, but how did that happen in an age without any way to record performances? Today, if we asked three different people to read a Shakespearean sonnet out loud, we know each performance would sound similar because of access to printed text. Back then, how did they maintain any consistency?
As Dr. Theodore Steinberg points out in his primer textbook for undergrads, poets and bards in the Homeric period would use mnemonic repetitions and stories told through verse to carry these tales through generations until we arrived at at the first written scrolls holding the all twenty-four books. The general outline of the story was retained—the dramatization and finer elements of it was often left to the discretion of the performer. Repetitions presented in the Greek epic were used as a way to allow orators to repeat memorized passages while composing the next passage in their head.
The performative nature of this ageless tale has made it an enticing work for artists to consider and adapt into their own mediums, especially music. Over the years, The Odyssey has been adapted as an oratorio by Max Bruch, the inspiration behind the psychedelic hit “Tale of Brave Ulysses” by Cream, and the loosely-based, female-centric exploration through music and cinematography with Florence & the Machine’s The Odyssey. Recently, TikTok creator Jorge Rivera-Herrans began sharing his process online to create a 40-song musical production called EPIC, told in five sagas. Most importantly, you can listen to any of these works without tying yourself to the front of a ship.
Links
Have you wondered why there aren’t more modern-day recitations of Odysseus’s tale? It’s actually a local event in many communities. Take a look at this community collaboration to bring together an all-ages Homerathon at the National Hellenic Museum.
Local libraries are also known to host their own readings for the Greek epic. In Athens, GA, an undergrad classics class also hosted a marathon to read the epic in two days. At Forbes Library in Massachusetts, a group of enthusiastic lovers of the classic read the Odyssey aloud in its original Greek.
If you’ve ever wondered what’s the difference between a board book and classic literature, writer and illustrator Steven Weinburg claims there’s not much. Check out his experience reading the Greek epic aloud to his four-month-old daughter.
Topple your TBRs with Our Summer Reading Guides!
We’ve both been hard at work on special summer reading guides that speak to our personal reading tastes, and we’d love for you to find some new-to-you reads to add to your TBR pile. Sara’s Paperback Summer Reading Guide is perfect for readers of literary fiction. Her longlist, which can be accessed through her personal Substack newsletter, her Literary Society on Patreon, or as an independent purchase through Buy Me a Coffee, has forty-eight titles that cover twelve different reading moods, including “No Plot, All Vibes,” and “High Drama Reads.” For those looking for a bite-size list for inspiration, you can access Sara’s shortlist with one book selection from each mood.
Tomorrow, Chelsey will release a deliciously swoonworthy list of twelve romance novels. Tailored to her personal reading style, her guide will feature a thoughtful mixture of historical and contemporary romance at varying spice levels, with each featuring strong narrative choices such as evocative settings, unique story structures, or creative genre mash-ups. You can have Chelsey’s list delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for her newsletter today.
Final Words
We hope you are enjoying this start to our Slow Down Summer as much as we are. If you’re reading along, we’d love to hear what you’re making of this epic poem in the comments below. We’ll be back soon with a new episode all about allusions in the classics.
Chelsey & Sara