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        Buy British buses to save 400 Scottish jobs at Alexander Dennis, says MP

        Buy British buses to save 400 Scottish jobs at Alexander Dennis, says MP

        Scots fear crime is rising in their local area as SNP Government accused of ‘hollowing out’ police

        Scots fear crime is rising in their local area as SNP Government accused of ‘hollowing out’ police

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        Senior member of Anas Sarwar’s shadow cabinet ‘opposed’ to Labour welfare cuts bill

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        How the Scottish MPs voted in the assisted dying debate

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        Former Labour MP calls for party to ditch ‘rigged’ voting system

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        Labour’s £14bn ‘fixation’ with new nuclear power ‘won’t cut bills or help climate’

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        SNP rebels plot to oust John Swinney as party leader after Hamilton by-election loss

        Anas Sarwar should not expect to oust John Swinney yet, says polling guru

        Anas Sarwar should not expect to oust John Swinney yet, says polling guru

        Keir Starmer says he will not support a second independence referendum as Prime Minister

        Keir Starmer says he will not support a second independence referendum as Prime Minister

        Angela Rayner accuses Reform of ‘politics of hatred’ as she insists Labour can win bitter Holyrood by-election

        Angela Rayner accuses Reform of ‘politics of hatred’ as she insists Labour can win bitter Holyrood by-election

        SNP complain about Reform’s ‘race-baiting’ advert on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar

        SNP complain about Reform’s ‘race-baiting’ advert on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar

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          What is a virtual office and why you need one in Central London – Your Company Formations Ltd

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          Inflation rises again to new 40-year high

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          Bank of England hikes interest rates to 1.25%

          Hiring activity in Scotland slows amid steep decline in staff availability

          Hiring activity in Scotland slows amid steep decline in staff availability

          Scottish retail footfall growth ‘worst in UK compared to pre-pandemic’

          Scottish retail footfall growth ‘worst in UK compared to pre-pandemic’

        • Sports
          Conor Coady in Diogo Jota tribute as old Wolves pal celebrates an ‘incredible person’

          Conor Coady in Diogo Jota tribute as old Wolves pal celebrates an ‘incredible person’

          Brendan Rodgers described me as huge Celtic coup after 24 clubs wanted me – now I have retired aged just 28

          Brendan Rodgers described me as huge Celtic coup after 24 clubs wanted me – now I have retired aged just 28

          Ange Postecoglou to LAFC has direct Celtic link as MLS heavy hitters plot ambitious manager move

          Ange Postecoglou to LAFC has direct Celtic link as MLS heavy hitters plot ambitious manager move

          The Rangers transfers Russell Martin needs revealed as AEK set Dessers deadline and Shankland a no-brainer

          The Rangers transfers Russell Martin needs revealed as AEK set Dessers deadline and Shankland a no-brainer

          Celtic on brink of four new signings as Benjamin Nygren lands staggering transfer claim and Balikwisha stays cool

          Celtic on brink of four new signings as Benjamin Nygren lands staggering transfer claim and Balikwisha stays cool

          I see cracks in Celtic with transfer fears over four starters so maybe this Rangers claim is a myth – Hugh Keevins

          I see cracks in Celtic with transfer fears over four starters so maybe this Rangers claim is a myth – Hugh Keevins

          Punters dramatically lose faith in Rory McIlroy in wake of his astonishingly honest US Open confession

          Punters dramatically lose faith in Rory McIlroy in wake of his astonishingly honest US Open confession

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          ‘I still always visit Sir Alex Ferguson’s house – even though he branded me a Big Time Charlie’

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          The £17m reason Celtic won’t sit still this transfer window as Brendan Rodgers learns painful lesson

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          Rangers placed on Vaclav Cerny red alert over Wolfsburg ‘fire sale’ as Cyriel Dessers makes transfer stance clear

          Mathias Kvistgaarden waves Brondby farewell but Celtic hit with transfer blow as boss throws spanner in works

          Mathias Kvistgaarden waves Brondby farewell but Celtic hit with transfer blow as boss throws spanner in works

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          World A-listers go nuts for Ange as Roy Keane drops the mic, McCoist breaks down barriers and Salah keeps receipts

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            EE unveils huge new discount on JBL Flip 7 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker but you must act quick

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          Odyssey by Stephen Fry – the tales of return from the Trojan war are charmingly retold but at an uncomfortable cost

          by BP Author
          October 4, 2024
          in World
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          Stephen Fry’s Odyssey is the final instalment in his retellings of Greek myth that began with Mythos. Here, Fry tells us, we move away from the turbulent creation of the gods and the swashbuckling heroes of old, into “a profoundly human story”: a tale of one man’s journey home “to a world of farm and family”.

          But it turns out that, somewhat surprisingly, the “hero” who is looking for home isn’t only Odysseus. In Odyssey’s first half, despite the title, we find the Odysseus story interweaving with those of Agamemnon, Ajax (the one who raped Cassandra and caused Athena’s wrath upon the returning Greeks), Menelaus and Helen, and even the Trojan, Aeneas. So this story isn’t just about an Odyssey: it’s about many returns home.

          And this is true to the world in which the Homeric epics were composed. We know that there were multiple oral tales of different “returns” (“nostoi” in Greek) from the Trojan war. Each of the Greek heroes who were said to have sailed back from Troy – Agamemnon, king of the Greeks, for example, or Menelaus, husband of Helen – likely had their own return poem. It’s a great tragedy that the Odyssey is the only one of the return epics we have left to us.

          We all know, by now, the charm and wit that Fry brings to his myth retellings; and, for many readers, this will be a delightful entry point to the story of the Odyssey, as well as the other return myths. It offers up a palatable and entertaining version of Homer’s epic, sprinkled with the stories of Agamemnon and the House of Atreus. It sparkles with Fry’s trademark light-hearted style and, sure as anything, delivers a ripping good yarn.

          The individual heroes are woven with insight and a lightness of touch, while a certain roguishness characterises much of the humour – for example, when Odysseus and his son Telemachus poke their tongues out at each other when they meet. And, as one would expect from the former presenter of QI, there is an abounding delight in exploring etymologies, often in lengthy footnotes (just to give an example: one covers everything from a Greek hero to the genus of albatrosses). The infectious enthusiasm for knowledge is contagious and Fry manages to carry off even a 12-line footnote.

          Yet the simplification of the tales – and Fry seems, at times, to be well aware of it – comes at a cost; particularly in a certain bluntness of characterisation, and especially when it comes to women. For instance, in the tale of Agamemnon’s homecoming where he returns to Greece and his wife Clytemnestra kills him in revenge for his sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia. In Fry’s retelling Agamemnon is presented very much as the good father who was simply doing his duty by killing his daughter; while Clytemnestra is the bad mother who is glad to have got rid of her children.

          Meanwhile, Odysseus’ famous return to Ithaca after 20 years is also portrayed with a twist. In the Odyssey, Odysseus comes home in the guise of a beggar and finds Penelope beset by suitors who believe he has died. Penelope proposes a bow competition, the winner of which will have her hand in marriage. Odysseus wins and takes violent revenge upon the suitors.

          In Fry’s retelling this story becomes a romantic fairytale with the hero sweeping in and reducing the thankful wife to her knees, rather than the altogether more complex drama of myth. There is no discomfort at Odysseus’ infidelity. There is no suggestion that Penelope might have worked out that the beggar in disguise was Odysseus. At one particularly uncomfortable moment, Fry makes Odysseus come up with the idea of the contest of the bow (it was absolutely Penelope’s, via Athena). Above all, however, he excises Telemachus’ horrendous hanging of the 12 enslaved women (for the “crime” of being raped by the suitors). Instead, Fry presents these women as “enjoying very special relationships with certain of the suitors”.

          Fry’s Odyssey is an entertaining retelling that thrums with Fry’s charming, quick-witted prose. It is, indeed, a tale in search of “a hero”. But the Odyssey is not, in the end, a simple tale of a hero who finds his way home.

          To present Odysseus as the ingenious mastermind behind the contest of the bow (not Penelope) and the faithful husband on his return; to present Telemachus as the eager son who doesn’t commit an awful slaughter of raped enslaved women, is to create a certain view of the Odyssey.

          It’s a familiar one, to be sure. But it is worth remembering that the Odyssey itself contains other avenues; that it has other – to quote Margaret Atwood who herself re-imagined the story from Penelope and the twelve hanged women’s perspective – “darker alleyways”. I wonder what we are to make of the fact that, in Fry’s Odyssey, some of them are left unexplored.


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