Book Review - The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson

 The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017        ISBN 9780393089059

Thanks to Christopher Nolan's film, The Odyssey is having a little time in the sunshine of notice. As I write this review, I've yet to see the film (although I've read/seen quite a few reviews!), but in preparation I thought I would read the poem for the first time since my early twenties (i.e. several decades ago).

I chose the Emily Wilson translation for a few reasons - it's current, it was of interest on the internet because it's the first translation by a woman and I wanted to see what the fuss was about and whether the sex of the translator made a difference (it doesn't really), but mostly because it was the copy closest to hand when I decided a re-read was on the cards.

On the whole, it is an excellent translation for the twenty-first century. Wilson has used iambic pentameter as her metre, but it's not a self-consciously poetry, she has used (mostly) a very slightly heightened language, but the story is very easily understood and very readable, and she has provided the reader with a good introduction to the poem and the milieu in which it was written, what it might mean both then and now, excellent notes, glossary, pronunciation guide and useful maps. It's a complete package.

Of the apparatus, it is the Translator's Note that is most interesting. It is an excellent essay on the difficulties not only of translating the poem and making it accessible to a modern audience, but also on the weight that earlier translations bring to bear on anyone who attempts it. It's well worth reading, and would serve as a good guide for readers of any translation of anything, especially poetry.

The poem is best-known for Odysseus's adventures fighting the Cyclops, hearing the Sirens, skirting Scylla and Charybdis, the Lotus Eaters etc., but in many ways those are minor bits of excitement in what is a much bigger story that Homer (Wilson's introduction speculates well on who Homer might have been) is trying to tell.

Whereas The Iliad is a story about war and glory, The Odyssey is much more a story of overcoming the difficulties life throws up at us, the choices we make (and the ones we don't) and the consequences of our actions. Like much of the greatest literature, within it's narrative The Odyssey gives the reader pause to think about their own life and reflect on how much all of our stories can be seen to be reflected in Odysseus's struggles. Everyone should have their own interpretation of The Odyssey, it seems to me.

Mostly, in my view, it's a book about coming home, and about not giving up on that ideal. Homer is too sophisticated to give us a happily ever after, but coming back to where you are known and loved and wanted is at the heart of the story. Fear of what it means to not be those things is also here - for much of the poem Odysseus, through his deceitfulness and trickery is trying to ascertain whether his home does indeed know him, love him and want him.

Wilson has her own views on this, and on other things, which don't necessarily gel with mine, but which like the poem itself are worth thinking about and responding to in a thoughtful way. One of the interesting things about The Odyssey is that there are so many powerful women portrayed in it, many of whom have a lot of control over Odysseus, which seems remarkable for something written thousands of years ago. I think the depiction of women in the poem speaks to age-old questions that, even in patriarchal warrior societies, still need to be reckoned with, and Wilson has thoughtful things to say about that, as well as on the depiction of slavery and the actions of the gods.

This is an excellent book in every way - a great translation well supported with supplementary material. If you have watched the film and want to go deeper, I can highly recommend this book.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Confucius: The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects, translation and commentary by Ezra Pound

 Confucius: The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects Translation & Commentary by Ezra Pound, Stone Texts from rubbings supplied by William Hawley, a Note on the Stone Editions by Achilles Fang

New York: A New Directions Book, 1951                                 ISBN 0811201546

Ezra Pound remains an enigma - a fundamental figure of the Modernist movement, inspiration to many, balanced by the fact that he was an antisemite and supporter of fascism, his long life had many ups and downs and his work varied in quality if not in quantity. The Cantos remain his main contribution to Western Literature, and many academics have made a living trying to interpret his great work.

One thing that Ezra was fascinated with throughout his life was Chinese literature, and this book is a compilation of his translations of Confucius ranging from 1928-1950. There has been a lot of controversy around Pound's translations from the Chinese, revolving around several factors: Pound was not fluent in the language, and relied on other's notes and his own poetic sense to create his works. He saw his translations as a re-creation as much as a literal translation, and saw the philosophy of Confucius as a counter-balance to the Western thought on government which he saw as a failed project.

The first parts of this work - the translations of The Great Digest and The Unwobbling Pivot - are in this edition juxtaposed with rubbings from the stone tablets from which the text was drawn - I don't read Chinese characters, but it's a great addition to this text. The Analects, which given the original publication date one can assume that Pound worked on when he was incarcerated after the War, are as a text much less developed than the first two works, and has many more textual explanations from Pound than the other two works (interestingly in this edition there were footnotes marked in the text, but no notes at the bottom of the page or at the end of the book).

I think that in many respects that Ezra has done a good job here - a reader gets a sense of what these texts are, of the difficulty in interpreting some of the verses, and he has provided some pithy language as translation: while the hokey Americanisms that he uses occasionally initially jarred, as I read through they seemed quite apt to present Confucius' character, which is by turns scholarly, pragmatic, realistic and prickly.

Honestly, this is not the work to go to for an accurate or up-to-date version of Confucius (I can recommend Simon Leys' translation of The Analects for that), but for any Poundian, they are worth the effort.

A final short rumination on New Directions Paperbacks from the 50s and 60s. I've always loved the design of these books, their understated covers and font, along with higher-quality paper and bindings, somehow give them an air of authority - they are a tactile and visual pleasure.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - The Quest of the Holy Grail

 The Quest of the Holy Grail  translated with an introduction by P.M. Matarasso

Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1969             ISBN 0140442200

While I was reading this book, my wife pondered why the Arthurian story, particularly the Grail Quest, has held the imagination of the Western world for so long. It is indeed an interesting question, but could be answered as with any classic - each era gets something different from the tale, and so it goes on.

The current Dan Brown era of Grail Lore focusses on mystery and mayhem. The Quest of the Holy Grail was written much more as a spiritual guide, with the "adventure" added on (there is an interesting footnote which parses the term adventure, which in the French of the time had a much wider meaning than the mere physical aspect we give the word in today's English).

The Quest of the Holy Grail forms part of the Vulgate Cycle: perhaps the most important part. Previously to the beginning of this tale is the story of Camelot, Lancelot and other Knights of the Round Table. After this tale is the Death of Arthur and the end of Camelot.

The tale of the Grail is about being a good Christian more than anything else. The adventures that are described all are lessons on how to live a good Christian life, and are all explained as such within the text, via the trope of a Knight suffering an adventure (whether temporal or spiritual) and then seeking a divine of some sort (usually a hermit) to explain what just happened. Both the visions and the explanations are intricate and ingenious, and emphasise what was important to those who wrote and read this tale - to live a good Christian life, chaste, noble, and fearful of God.

The Quest focusses on some key figures - Galahad, Lancelot, Gawain, Percival, and Bors. These Knight's adventures form the core of the text, and illustrate the fate of those that sin, and those that repent. Gawain is too prideful, and suffers a steep fall, Perceval lacks discernment, but his good heart and noble character allow him to complete the Quest, as does Bors, whose loyalty and faith in God are rewarded even though he stumbled on the path. Galahad is a vision of Christ, and so naturally fulfills his destiny (in fact, like may perfect heroes, he is somewhat of a cipher in this text). Lancelot's story is the most complex - during the Quest he is shriven, coming to the realisation that his sins of adultery, lust and desire for riches and power mean that he can never fulfil the ultimate quest - he can see the Grail at a distance, but never behold it fully.

For the modern reader, this work can be difficult to get into and interpret. The melding of Celtic myth (the Maimed King, the Wastelands) with Christian symbolism creates a unique world in which nothing is what it seems, and where the Christian meaning of places and actions can be hard to discern. This is myth as story, and story as myth (thankfully the endnotes are helpful to the reader who wishes to know more). The image of the primeval forest is strong in this book - most of the Knights spend most of their time there, and it is a metaphor for the world at large, where evil reigns, and the good person must always be on their guard.

In the end the three good Knights (Perceval, Bors and Galahad) succeed in bringing the Grail to Sarras, where God takes it back up to heaven, deeming that England, and indeed mankind, had become too wicked to allow it to stay on earth. 

If you get your ideas about the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones or Dan Brown, you will find this book somewhat perplexing, but if you want to know the "true" history of the Grail, this is a must-read.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - The Ulysses Voyage by Tim Severin

 The Ulysses Voyage : Sea Search for the Odyssey by Tim Severin, drawings by Will Stoney, Photographs by Kevin Fleming

London: Arrow, 1988 (first published 1987)                            ISBN 0099544202

We tend to forget in these days of computers, drones and 3D imaging, that it was not long ago that archaeology was a field of study that occurred just as much through reading as through digging, and almost never through what is now known as "experimental archaeology". In fact that phrase is not even mentioned in The Ulysses Voyage - Severin I think would have balked at the idea that he was an archaeologist - but certainly his voyage in the Argo shows us  how much of Homer's poem can be tied to real places in Greece.

With his re-enactment of Odysseus' voyage home from Troy, Severin laid to rest some of the theories that had abounded that much of the action of the poem occurred in Italy or points west. As he explains in the final chapter of the book, many of these flawed ideas can be laid at the feet of Strabo, who knew Italy (and Georgia, where he correctly deduced the voyage of the original Argo), but didn't know Greece at all and so moved much of the action of the Odyssey to places that  he knew. The fact that some of his theories were taken seriously at all shows how the field of archaeology quite often can allow itself to be led in circles.

Severin starts out with a simple theorem - if I was Odysseus, how would I travel home from Troy? With that in mind, he proceeds along the coast of Greece, using the poem as a guide. Severin explains that in Ancient Greece, galleys proceeded at  slow pace, and only when weather conditions were favourable. Severin also shows us that while the course of the Odyssey takes ten years to return to Ithaca, the actual sailing part of the story could be completed in one season. He then posits that the Odyssey is a conglomeration of many sailors stories turned into a narrative. Severin constantly discovers as he sails that much of the Odyssey that refers to the techniques and realities of sailing a Bronze Age galley is surprisingly accurate.

Some of the descriptions of localities are very accurate as well, and Severin discovers plausible sites for the lair of Scylla and the Cyclops, the island of Circe and of the Laestrygonians. He backs his theories with descriptions from Homer, and explaining how the sailing times would match from previous waypoints, and also on many occasions explaining how local legends have been used by Homer (the Cyclops a case in point), which also help to pinpoint locations.

The Ulysses Voyage reminds the reader to be wary of both complicated explanations for myths, and of putting current thinking onto the past. Greek galleys did not sail as far or as fast as later ships, for example - sailing stages of hundreds of miles simply weren't plausible for these vessels, and so some of the wilder theories could be fairly easily discounted. Likewise, deciding that a place must be part of the story, and then trying to bend reality to fit is not a way forward - Severin is very careful to try and not do this, which means that the island of Ogygia remains elusive. After all, the Odyssey is a poem, and not strict geography.

I found this book very enjoyable - it's easy to read, and neatly blends Severin's voyage with the ancient poem, and brings new light to the voyage of the wily Odysseus, and reaffirms his good sense (most of the time). If you are a fan of Homer (and if you aren't, you should be!), this is well worth reading.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski

 Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski, translated from the Polish by Klara Glowczewska

London: Allen Lane, 2007 (first published in Poland in 2004)     ISBN  9780713998481

This is a wonderful little book. Written toward the end of Ryszard Kapuscinski's life, it's a memoir: a memoir of himself, of Herodotus, and of The Histories themselves. Kapuscinki weaves a description of The Histories around his postings in India, the Middle East and Africa as a reporter for the Polish newsagency PAP.

Like Herodotus himself, Kapuscinski had an urge to see what was over the horizon. Eventually, through his experiences, and through the guidance of Herodotus, he realises that the important information to gather is not necessarily about the great events of the day, but the information that lasts is that you gain from talking to ordinary people, wherever they might be.

He wonders in his book about the lengths Herodotus went to in gathering his information, wondering what drove him, what experiences he had in his life, and how his stories were received by those who (Kapuscinski guesses) initially heard his work rather than read it. Kapuscinski also wonders about the people described in the book: the Persians, the Athenians, the Spartans, the Scythians, and so on. He muses, as Herodotus did as well, about what it is to want world domination, and what it is to fight for freedom. He does this in a way that obliquely reflects the struggles of his own country in his lifetime.

And I think that is one of the main things Kapuscinski finds in his relationship of a lifetime with The Histories - that there is nothing new in the world.

As well as discussing Herodotus (if you haven't read The Histories, this book is a great introduction), the reader gets a taste of the life of a foreign correspondent during the great era of de-colonization. He sees at first hand the blooming of African independence, witnessing great things without fully understanding them. He uses his experiences to muse on the experiences of those who suffered under the yoke of the Persians, and to try and imaging the fervor of the Greeks for their own liberty. He also finds times and places where he can almost reach out and touch his "friend" - for that was what Herodotus had become for him - by the end of his life.

I initially picked this book up after reading a review of it in The New York Review of Books, intrigued by what the reviewer wrote. I'm so glad that I hunted it out. It's now sparked an urge to re-read Herodotus after many years, for as Kapuscinski writes, "one must read Herodotus's book - and every great book - repeatedly; with each reading it will reveal another layer, previously overlooked themes, images, and meanings. For within every great book there are several others." and one of those others is Travels with Herodotus.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian

Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian. English translation by P. A. Brunt (in 2 Vols, including Indica)

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1976

Have you ever had that strange feeling when you drive past the site of a recently demolished building in your neighbourhood and you can't remember what was there? That makes it even more amazing to me that we still know so much about the life of Alexander the Great. The fact that we do so is due to the survivial of this work of Arrian, amongst others.

The Loeb Classics two volume edition, which also includes the Indica is a fine edition on many levels. For the properly educated, one can compare the Ancient Greek to the English translation, and for us lesser mortals, the copious notes, appendices and informative introduction ensure we know what to make of the text, and where controviersies arise in comparing this work to other surviving sources. There is also a useful index.

All of us know, or think we know, the story of Alexander's conquest of most of the known world, so it's fascinating to go back to authors such as Arrian and Curtius and see what they wrote. Arrian saw himself as writing the definitive history of Alexander, combining all sources available to him and choosing the most reliable, sometimes putting down all he'd found out when he couldn't decide where the truth lay. What is interesting is that he obviously didn't know of Curtius' history, even though the scholars think it was written a hundred years earlier than Arrian's work.

The image of Alexander's army rampaging through the Near East is in fact only partly true - much (most?) of his conquests were peaceful, in the sense that cities and kingdoms surrendered without a fight, rather that risk defeat under arms. The reason so many took this option was that Alexander was often magniminous to those who surrendered, and could (and did) destroy utterly those who bore arms against him.

Things that stand out for me on reading Arrian is how few actual Macedonian troops Alexander had for much of his conquests: as he moved further away from home he relied more and more on local levies of troops and on arrogating to himself troops that once fought for Persia. The other point that I feel I hadn't adequately considered before reading this was just how Alexander ran the lands he conquered. He appointed trusted generals as satraps and on occasion even local rulers got to continue their rule, after paying obesiance and tribute to Alexander. It is interesting how often Arrian (who on the whole is a supporter of Alexander) describes how recently conquered territories had risen in revolt against Alexander, and needed to be repressed. The idea of Alexander rolling across the Near East and crushing all resistance is in some ways a false one.

The sense of Alexander one is left with after reading Arrian is of a man who was perhaps not interested in the art of governing. He was interested in conquering and winning battles, and as long as someone was keeping the rear in check and getting enough money for him to keep his army on the go, he was happy with that. Certainly after his death the empire quickly crumbled, as each kingdom quickly reverted to local rule, apart from some exceptions (Ptolemy in Egypt, for example).

One gets a whiff from Arrian (something which is more emphasised in Curtius), that Alexander's conquests eventually debauched his character: he moves from being a great and noble commander into an "Oriental tyrant". Whatever the thoughts about his character, none can detract from his deeds - a hero to some, a monster to others.

The Loeb edition also includes Arrian's Indica, which is a narrative of Nearchus' voyage from India to Persia. This perhaps is more interesting as a historical document, and would have been even more so when Arrian wrote it, as much of that part of the world was a mystery to most Greeks.

I've enjoyed reading Arrian, perhaps more than I expected.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book Review - The Symposium by Plato

The Symposium by Plato, translated by W. Hamilton

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1951                     (Penguin Classics Series)


Love, that most mysterious of emotions, is the theme of The Symposium. So many philosophers and religions have dealt with this subject, and it is amazing how all conclusions tend to merge. Plato, writing nearly 400 years before Christ, comes to conclusions that are not so different from those of other belief systems.

Sometimes referred to as The Dinner Party, The Symposium is constructed by Plato around the after-dinner speeches of a group of men at a dinner party, speeches they give in lieu of the usual musical entertainment that would be normal for the after-dinner drinking session. The dinner party guests include Pausanias, Phaedrus, Aristophanes, Agathon and of course Socrates. These are the main protagonists in the discussion, initiated by Agathon, on the nature of the God Love.

The discussion takes the form of each member of the symposium delivering a panygeric on Love, and what they see as the most important features and factors in the makeup of Love. Plato arranges the speeches in a way that leads the reader from the outer surface of Love (Love is noble in that it leads the Lover to show the best of themselves), through to Socrates' contribution, which goes beyond the love of fellow man, to Love being an all-encompassing emotion that can be seen in everything.

Plato leads the reader through several phases - it's hard to disagree with any of the speaker's ideas about what is great about Love, but as each speaker adds more depth, the reader's mind is opened yet more to how Love engenders all that is good in the World.

Socrates himself structures his talk as reporting on a conversation with one of his teachers, Diotima. By the time that Socrates rises to speak we have looked at how love grows, how it brings out the best in men, and how Love is the desire for beauty - at first external beauty, but then the discussion moves on to the desire for the beauty within. Socrates rises to dismiss the notion that Love is the desire for beauty, rather that it is the desire for good.

According to Diotima (and by inference Socrates and Plato) Love transcends the merely physical, it is the desire to propagate the Good, and to achieve immortality by doing so. This can be done in a physical way by producing offspring, but as a man grows in wisdom from love of physical beauty in particular to physical beauty in general, from love of another's soul in particular to love of souls in general; to love of all beauty everywhere "absolute, existing alone with itself, unique, eternal, and all other beautiful things ... partaking of it, yet in such a manner that, while they come into being and pass away, it neither undergoes any increase of diminution nor suffers any change", he has reached the ultimate goal of Man.

Alcibiades then enters the dinner party drunk, and eschews the discussion on love for a panygeric on Socrates himself. Acibiades, in the story of his failed seduction of Socrates, shows the reader that Socrates himself is someone who has reached that ultimate goal.

A short work, there is much to ponder here, as would be expected from Plato. It is interesting to compare Socrates' view of the power of love to the expressions of Christian and Buddhist writings. While Ancient Greece is very different to today, as indeed is shown in The Symposium, human thought on the big questions shows amazing consistency over time.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book review - The analects of Confucius translated by Simon Leys

The Analects of Confucius translation and notes by Simon Leys

New York: Norton, 1997                                     ISBN 9780393316995

Although it is not a religious text, in many ways The Analects of Confucius have had a similar effect on the human race as the Bible, Koran, or other holy books. It became a guide for living a moral life, and defined a society for hundreds of years. Like many other ancient texts, it has become corrupted over the years by accidental or deliberate elisions and insertions. Add to that the difficulty of deciphering the actual meanings of many of the ancient characters, and the syntax of the writing, and it seems the task of translating the work would not be a pleasurable experience.

I'm not sure how enjoyable Simon Leys (the pen name of respected Sinologist Pierre Ryckmans) found the task, but he has produced something that has, and no doubt will continue to, give pleasure to those fortunate enough to read it. Leys has approached his task with a view to make The Analects accessible to the non-expert English speaker, while still providing a strongly academic work. He explains his choice to publish under his literary pen-name rather than his real name in the following terms - "What I meant to suggest by this choice is that this is primarily a writer's translation; it is addressed not merely to fellow scholars, but first and foremost to nonspecialists - readers who simply wish to enlarge their cultural horizon but have no direct access to the original text."

With this in mind Leys has occasionally added words where needed within the translation to enable us nonspecialists to make sense of what we are reading. Sometimes the original defies even this process, where the original text may be incomplete, or corrupted with later additions. Leys' notes - which run to as many pages as The Analects themselves - scrupulously inform the reader when he has added text, and let the reader know when there are alternative readings of any particular analect. His notes and introduction also help the reader by putting the work into its cultural context, as well as providing other amusing or instructive asides into literature and history. As such, they are a wonderful text in their own right.

To The Analects themselves: so much human culture has developed from them, and they are wonderfully descriptive of the human condition, which it seems remains the same in its essentials through the ages. From the pithy " Clever talk and affected manners are seldom signs of goodness.", to the more obscure "Duke Wen of Jin was subtle but not straight; Duke Huan of Qi was straight, but not subtle.", The Analects lead the reader on a winding and occasionally repetitive road through the best and worst of human nature. Thanks to those that followed him, Confucius presaged a revolutionary change in the way the Chinese ran their states: by accepting his contention that nobility did not necessarily come to a person through birth, but through education, they created a society where intelligence and merit was a way to climb the social ladder. This idea was unheard of in most of the rest of the World at the time, and partly explains how China became such a great power by the turn of the Millennium.

In fact The Analects became so powerful that many rulers turned them into instruments of power; by emphasizing some, reinterpreting others, and suppressing yet more. In fact The Analects came to be seen by the twentieth century as reactionary, and both Chiang Kai Shek and Mao Zedong repudiated them. Leys points out in his introduction that Confucianism had become so ingrained in Chinese thought that, in an ironic twist, the Communist idea of "re-education" harks back to the Confucian idea that "errant behaviour came from a faulty understanding...if only the delinquent could be taught, and be made to perceive the mistaken nature of his actions, he would naturally amend his ways."

Unlike many other classic texts of this type, the Analects is not a long work (100 paperback pages), and the nature of the Analects themselves is such that the reader can dip in and out at almost any point. Short though some of them are, this is a work that makes the reader think - about themselves, others, and society as a whole. This translation, and its notes, is a great way into a classic work, and I highly recommend it.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book review - Alexander the Great by Peter Green

Alexander the Great by Peter Green

London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1970.                                            ISBN 0297000071

Alexander the Great - the fascination he holds for us has never dimmed, right from the moment he died through to the 21st century - as I write this in 2014 there is a six-part television series being broadcast, hosted by an Australian, looking for the remains of Alexander's Asian empire. This is the latest in many television documentaries, films, and untold books about the man who has variously been seen as a liberator or a devil, and who was indisputably one of the finest military commanders of all time.

Peter Green, in the book under review, has written a concise, well-reasoned account of the life of Alexander as it has come down to us, emphasising Alexander's military prowess, his leadership skills, and also his increasing slide into megalomania and perhaps even madness.

It's incredible to think that by the time he died at the age of 32, Alexander had risen from being the King of Macedonia, considered one of the backwaters of Ancient Greece, to being the major figure in Greece, the Pharaoh of Egypt, the King of Persia and the King of Asia, with an empire that spread from Macedonia in the North, Egypt in the South and as far east as Indus River. The achievement is so amazing it can hardly be believed, and in fact might go some way to explaining why Alexander at the end thought of himself as a God.

There is no doubt that Alexander was a driven man - initially driven to surpass his father (whom he may have had killed), his ostensible reason for war against Persia was to revenge the Persian defeat of Greek forces the century before Alexander's rise to power. Once he defeated the Persians at the Battles of Issus and Gaugamela, he had to think of new reasons to cloak his increasing thirst for conquest - these were various and not very convincing.

Green points out that money was one thing that drove Alexander on. War has always been expensive (look at the billions upon billions recently spent in Iraq and Afghanistan by the United States of America) and Alexander financed his by looting conquered territories of their treasure - treasure he needed not only to feed, equip and pay his troops, but to bribe potential enemies and his Macedonian levies, who grew increasingly bitter about being away from home for so long.

Green is at his best when he writes about the internal workings of Alexander's army - we see that far from being a homogeneous unit, the army was riven with factions and hatreds, which only grew worse as Alexander introduced more and more troops from the Persian Empire into its ranks. In fact Green suggests that Alexander was working on a project to rid his army of Macedonians entirely, in a move to become King of Asia and not merely a Greek conqueror. His adoption of Persian ways of living and ruling estranged him from his most loyal companions, and yet did little to endear him to his conquered peoples.

While Alexander was a brilliant military tactician and strategist, he was a poor administrator. He tended to let his appointed governors and satraps run his conquered territories, with more or less garrisons assigned to them as he saw fit. The amount of treasure embezzled by these men was fantastic, enough for them to employ armies of their own. While Alexander lived these men were kept in check, but as soon as he died they squabbled over the spoils, and in less that a lifetime after his death, Alexander's empire had fallen apart.

His legacy though, is incalculable: one wonders if the Roman Empire would have become what it did without the model of Alexander to show what was possible: he joined East and West in ways that had never occurred before, and even in seemingly simple ways - such as the introduction of cotton to the West - his life changed the way the World lived, and lives.

Green's book is a good introduction to Alexander and his world - relatively short and to the point, with a good bibliography, this edition is in a larger quarto format with plenty of good photographs and some useful maps.

Enjoyable.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - The Hill of Kronos by Peter Levi

The Hill of Kronos by Peter Levi

London : Arena, 1987                                                              ISBN 0099331500


Peter Levi, poet, archaeologist, scholar, Jesuit Priest, was one of those people who were on what I call the "literary periphery". Someone you've vaguely heard of, usually in relation to someone else. Levi was good friends with the Greek poet George Seferis, and of Patrick Leigh-Fermor, and in more recent years was possibly even better known as the travelling companion of Bruce Chatwin during his journeys in Afghanistan, retracing Robert Byron's route in the Road to Oxiana (in fact Levi wrote a book about that trip The light garden of the Angel King : Journeys in Afghanistan, which has been reprinted several times - each reprint seemingly with more emphasis on Chatwin's photographs).

The Hill of Kronos is an autobiographical work - written later in life, Levi looks back on his various journeys to Greece, a land that meant a lot to him. His first visit took place when he was still studying to be a priest, as both the Seminary and Levi thought it would be good for him to take a break from his studies. Levi had gone through school with a love of Ancient Greek, and his first trip to Greece was as a budding archaeologist, travelling by foot over legendary landscapes in search of places mentioned by Pausanias' Guide to Greece.

As an archaeologist, it soon becomes clear in the narrative that Levi is a dilettante in the original meaning of the word - he is too interested in everything to be focussed enough on the task, but broad enough in his interests to see much that might have been overlooked until that stage. Reading in 2014 about his trip in 1963 it's amazing to realise just how much of the ancient world had yet to be studied and recorded at that time - Levi made trips to several places that had been untouched until then.

During this first trip Levi also sought out Greek poets - Seferis in particular, but also Odyseus Elytis and Nikos Gatsos. The generosity of these poets to Levi had an important effect on him and in some ways his writing about them is a eulogy for their nobility, and for a time in Greek letters that was coming to an end.

The highlight though, for Levi and the reader are his travels through the Greek countryside, and his interactions with local Greeks. His earliest trip occurred before tourism became a major influence in many of the places he visited, so he was something of a novelty to many of the locals, who were unfailingly generous in their hospitality. In 1963, many of the locals remembered the British from the War, and Levi met many who fought against the Germans for their freedom.

That makes the second part of the book - Levi's time in Greece under the Colonels - all the more heart-rending. He is witness to (and a minor player in) the slow constriction of Greek society under dictatorship, and of the increasing attempts to break the hold of the Colonels on political life. Levi's small part in the drama of the resistance earns him attention from the Police, which is in parts hilarious and in parts terrifying. He is eventually banned from the country for a time.

The final section of the book is his re-visitation, many years later. Levi is definitely a changed man - no longer a priest, he is married, and his wife and step-son accompany him on a trip that finds old friends dead, the landscape changed and scarred by modernity and tourism, but some of the old truths surviving.

This short book is elegaic in tone in almost every way - Levi has written a paen for an older way of life in Greece, and he himself was one of the last of a certain type of writer, writing the type of book that we will see less and less of in the future. Educated but not overbearing, democratic but not prescriptive, informative but not preaching, inspired but not demagogic, stylish but not overwrought, this book contains a type of writing that flourished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but is no more, I fear (I hope wrongly).

As someone who can in no way approach the style and intelligence of this kind of work (as evidenced by this review!), I recommend this book.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Ransom by David Malouf

Ransom by David Malouf

North Sydney: Knopf, 2009                               ISBN 9781741668377



What a wonderful book! David Malouf is more well-known for his novels than his poetry, but it is as a poet he started his literary life, and a poet he remains, as this gem of a novel shows. The story is based on the section of the Iliad in which Patroclus is killed, Achilles kills Hector and drags his body before the walls of Troy, and ends when Priam reclaims Hector's body from Achilles.

This book though, is about human feeling - rage, grief, and love. There is a strong undercurrent in the book that tradition, or the traditional way of doing things, does not suffice in making us truly human. Achilles, in his grief and guilt, denies Hector the burial due to him and drags his body for eleven days up and down the field of battle - it does nothing to assuage his feelings, and each morning Hector's body is miraculously restored. Priam discovers during the book that the formalities of life as a King means he has missed so many of the small things that make life such a wonderful tapestry.

This is also a book about courage - Priam's courage to defy ageless tradition by journeying to Achilles as a mere father asking for the return of a dead son. Achilles' courage in knowing what is to come and facing it anyway. And then there is Somax. If you're thinking back to your reading of the Iliad with confusion don't worry - Somax does not appear in the original. In Malouf's retelling he is the person driving the cart in which Priam takes the ransom to, and Hector's body from, the Greek camp. Somax is a simple man, a villager, chosen by Priam to accompany him owing to the plainness of his cart, and the eye-catching personality of one of his mules. He too is courageous, in the way of a simple man accepting what life throws and him and enduring, which is perhaps the most courageous thing of all.

In fact Somax is in many ways the hero of this book full of "Heroes". It is his practical nature that seems most sensible, his easy-going nature the most noble, and his grief the most genuine. His soliloquy on the death of his son is so brief, so simple and so moving that it literally brought a tear to my eye when I read it. Re-reading the passage, one can only marvel that Malouf has created such an effect so quickly and with such simple language. "The worst happens, and there, it's done. The fleas go on biting. The sun comes up again." It does indeed, but Malouf's skill enables us to understand that the sun never looks the same again.

It is a brave writer who chooses such a subject - Malouf describes in an Afterword how he became enthralled with the story of Troy as a young child in Brisbane during the War - and a clever writer to wait until they were ready with a leavening of experience and skill to enable them to give the subject its due. Malouf is both a brave and clever artist, and this book is a masterpiece. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell