I just finished reading Homer’s The Odyssey for the first time!  It was “fun” – for want of a better word – to read first-hand about the Cyclops; those twin pillars of doom named Scylla & Charybdis; and the exploits of Ulysses as he made his way homeward after the Trojan War.  I found myself “on the edge of my seat” as the hero had his fill of the greedy suitors who had invaded his home to seek his wife’s hand in marriage after his 20-year absence.  I was eager to see just how he would exact his revenge (I had to go to the kitchen and get some cookies and milk to help me more fully savour the final moments!)  It did not disappoint, although I had to wonder how his son was able to escape the room filled with dozens of antagonistic suitors, and bring back several sets of armor and spears for Ulysses and his helpers, while the hero held them all off with a bow and arrow.  But hey, that stretch of reality pales in comparison to most modern action movies … 

A few other thoughts:

• It was interesting to read the classic translation in English, but I had the sense the whole time – for one of the first times in literature for me – that it was indeed just a translation I was reading.  The wording seemed wooden, and just, well … odd in a number of places, as if this was not the original language in which this was written – as indeed it was not.  It did give me a hankering to try to read some of Homer in the original Greek – which I just may do some day!
• The story itself is a great one (evidently why it is a classic …) I kept imagining throughout how Hollywood could make a really good version of this tale.  Filmmakers in the past may have had limitations on their ability to adequately portray some of the more bizarre characters in a believable fashion, but with advances in technology, it seems like a good, modern version of The Odyssey is within the realm of possibility.  With all the garbage that goes for “movies” these days, it seems like someone should give The Odyssey a shot!
• The similarities and contrasts of the religious life described in The Odyssey and that found in Christianity could take up a lengthy paper (and most likely have, I am sure).  But it was enlightening to see some of the commonalities between the Greek and Biblical sacrifices; the detailed descriptions in The Odyssey shed some light on just what went on when offerings were made.  But the fickle and basically “human” flawed nature of the Greek gods form a stark contrast to the holy and transcendent nature of the God of the Bible.  No resemblance there! 
• Finally, I was almost amused with the sudden way the very last chapter closed.  Homer just basically stopped at the end.  Ulysses was about to take vengeance on the relatives of all the suitors he had just killed, but Jove demanded that he desist, and so Minerva (the goddess who had favored Ulysses in his endeavors) intervened, and, it reads suddenly, “Then Minerva assumed the form and voice of Mentor and presently made a covenant of peace between the two contending parties.”  THE END.

Hmmm … ok, that was a sudden ending.  Kind of like this one.