The Odyssey
Homer
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Odyssey is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems (the other being the Iliad), attributed to the poet Homer. The poem is commonly dated to between 800 and 600 BC. The poem is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, and concerns the events that befall the Greek hero Odysseus in his long journey back to his native land Ithaca after the fall of Troy.
It takes Odysseus ten years to return to his native land of Ithaca after ten years of war; during his 20-year absence, his son Telemachus and his wife Penelope must deal with a group of unruly suitors who have moved into Odysseus' home to compete for Penelope's hand in marriage, since most have assumed that Odysseus has died.
The poem is a fundamental text in the Western canon and continues to be read in both Homeric Greek and translations around the world. (Summary from Wikipedia) (11 hr 18 min)
Chapters
| Book 01 | 23:06 | Read by Kirsten Ferreri |
| Book 02 | 23:22 | Read by Kirsten Ferreri |
| Book 03 | 25:20 | Read by Kirsten Ferreri |
| Book 04 | 43:39 | Read by Kirsten Ferreri |
| Book 05 | 27:53 | Read by JemmaBlythe |
| Book 06 | 22:53 | Read by Gesine |
| Book 07 | 19:09 | Read by Hugh McGuire |
| Book 08 | 30:12 | Read by ontheroad |
| Book 09 | 38:23 | Read by Reynard T. Fox |
| Book 10 | 37:04 | Read by Reynard T. Fox |
| Book 11 | 41:14 | Read by Robin Cotter |
| Book 12 | 30:04 | Read by Robin Cotter |
| Book 13 | 24:57 | Read by JemmaBlythe |
| Book 14 | 33:27 | Read by David Barnes |
| Book 15 | 22:37 | Read by Kurt Wong |
| Book 16 | 28:18 | Read by Robin Cotter |
| Book 17 | 31:46 | Read by Moira Fogarty |
| Book 18 | 22:34 | Read by Moira Fogarty |
| Book 19 | 30:38 | Read by hugh mac |
| Book 20 | 22:19 | Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023) |
| Book 21 | 27:05 | Read by Chris Hawk |
| Book 22 | 30:25 | Read by Chris Hawk |
| Book 23 | 27:14 | Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015) |
| Book 24 | 38:48 | Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015) |
Reviews
The Odyssey
Rachelfish
I enjoyed listening to The Odyssey more than I have enjoyed a book since I read The Secret Garden or Tom Sawyer when I was in 4th & 5th grade. I have to admit there were tears in my eyes when Ulysses was reunited with his son...and I was even more moved when his wife finally embraced him! I love the different readers, with their accents and individual pronunciations of each word or name: it makes me feel like I am in a reading roof or a coffee shop passing around a good book for every person to read a chapter aloud. It's truly poetic. I listened to Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome on Librivox just before The Iliad & The Odyssey, which helped tremendously to sort out the Roman translations of the Greek gods and goddesses. It is also a very entertaining "read", so I recommend other Librivox listeners to do so as well. Well done Librivox volunteers!!! Thank you for making my hour-long drives into work well-spent. And thank you for bringing this story to life!
Slick Willy
A LibriVox Listener
Great story. One of the classics but it was marred by a few of the readers, mainly Jemma Blythe. I spent more time trying to figure out what she was saying as opposed to actually paying attention to and engaging with the text. I'm sorry but I had to continue with another source because some of these readers were hard to follow.
Roceathia
Oberall this was a great listen. However, there was a couple chapters towards the end where the guy who was reading and he is wheezing and he sounds like he's out of breath and as I listened to him I found that I was out of breath LOL. Outside of that and those two chapters where the hardest, this was a great book.!
The Odesy Review by Collin V.
Collin V.
this was a good book but it would have been nice if all of the chapters were red by one narrator rather than a different narrator for every chapter and that which ver narrator where chosen to read the whole book it would be nice if it were one of the better more clear readers.
The ever best read and listen
Mirwan
it's been a great pleasure to read about an author who wrote this piece of poetry 300 years before the arrival of Alexander the Great. I suggest it for all the book lovers to just read it once , now it's more easier that just put on your headphones and keep listening till the End.
Love Jemma Blythes voice
UY Scuti
I disagree with those saying her voice is not suitable for narration, I have repeated her chapters many times and think her voice is amazing and suited to the story.
JL
A book I could never read. It was as first told in Ancient Greece. My first experience of LibriVox. My thanks to the volunteer readers.
Sofia Perez
The readers are all good except for in book 4 the reader suddenly changes from a human being to what sounds like text to speech AI. It's really hard to follow and sounds offputting. I read the Odyssey back in ninth grade and I forgot how much it focuses on dealing with the suitors compared to the 10 years of Odysseus journey. The best parts are when he has to face gods, monsters, and magic, and that only lasts for 3 or 4 books out of the 24. There is a strong emphasis on brozne/iron age greek culture and customs that was interesting, but often felt like Homer was moralizing a lot. There are a lot of long speeches given by characters on what a great and noble man Odysseus is/was, and it's like, really, Odysseus has the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair. So, IDK what Homer was really trying to convey talking about king of the war criminals like that.