Butler v. Homer
W HETHER Homer or an unknown woman wrote the Odyssey seems in many ways an academic problem, but in Samuel Butler’s hand it became a living question involving interesting literary values. I realise after listening to 3YC’s, Centennial Memorial session on Butler that I have missed something by reading the Odyssey several times and the Iliad not at all. Mr. Brassington opened the way with a little light skirmishing, appropriately recalling Butler’s belief that "dead men meet on the lips of living men." The big guns of scholarship were manned by Professor Pocock and it was at this point I found myself in difficulties from which only television and a projected map of Greece could deliver me. I got the drift but not the content of the argument, filled as it necessarily is with place-names. A light touch came in when Professor Pocock described Ulysses as returning to Ndusicaa’s house "wearing some of the family washing." And I did like, the inadvertent humour of Mr. Brassington’s downright assertion that "anyone can do it," i.e., read a translation of the Odyssey. It seemed a pity that Butler’s Hangelian music could not have been wedged between two fairly heavily packed talks. But to say more of such a thorough and illuminating session would be niggling.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19510810.2.21.5
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 632, 10 August 1951, Page 11
Word count
Tapeke kupu
216Butler v. Homer New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 632, 10 August 1951, Page 11
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in