"Straightaway the mariners took to the oars, then hoisted their sails, and the ship sped on like a strong sea bird. Odysseus slept. And lightly the ship sped on, bearing the man who had suffered so much sorrow of heart in passing through wars of men and through troublous seas--the ship sped on, and he slept, and he was forgetful of all he had passed through."
--Padraic Colum, The Children's Homer.
My 8-year-old son and I have been reading aloud from this book recently. I think I got the version of the book we are reading when our family was in England last year, but I see it is available on Kindle inexpensively.
Wow, what an amazing version of the story of Odysseus! We have read lots of Greek and Roman myths through Usborne books and various picture books, and I had downloaded an App with the text of the Odyssey, but couldn't really get myself into the rhythm of reading the poetry. This is an excellent introduction of these fantastic classic stories that everyone should know. Colum's skill with the English language (in I'm sure echoing & translating the original poetry) is just beautiful, as the above quote shows.
After we finish this, we will move on to more Padraic Colum: The Golden Fleece: Heroes Before Achilles and The Children of Odin.
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