As a non-specialist who teaches Homer every year, I found this book quite useful, and at times even enlightening. There are many truly delightful readings of Homer in it. I particularly enjoyed the last three pieces, which focus on the recognition scenes at the end of the Odyssey, and I must also say that Mrs. Brann's deeply sympathetic and clever understanding of Penelope seems to me second to none.

That said, I did find many of the other essays capricious in the extreme, and some of her arguments and connections are a stretch to say the least. That is the main reason why I give it only three stars, but I still recommend the book enthusiastically to anyone who teaches Homer's epics, and the Odyssey specifically.

One of the best books I have read about the Homeric epics in years, focusing on the delight one can find in reading Homer's poetry. I found some things I really hadn't thought about before, and that's saying something, so I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in the Classics, especially Homer.

Homeric Moments by Eva Brann

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I read this book after reading the Iliad and the Odyssey as part of the Online Great Books program. I think it worked better that way than trying the other way. By reading the primary texts first, I had a background that added to my appreciation of the observations made by Professor Brann. While reading this book first might have given me insights into the text, I think I might have found this book far too dry and acadmic. In addition, reading this book after the primary texts was an excellent review of those texts.

Brann's style is to skip around addressing different topics where she has insights after teaching Homer for years. All of the insights are well-worth considering. In some ways, reading this book is like having a conversation with an old friend about a subject she loves. Professor Brann clearly loves this material and finds it to be a vastly rewarding subject to consider.

This book is filled with tidbits. For example:

//Helen and Clytemnestra are indeed sisters, married to the brothers Menelaus and Agamemnon. They are the daughters of Tyndareus, who is, in turn, brother to Icarius, Penelope’s father.//

Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon. She was infamous for killing her husband on his return from Troy. Given that she figures prominently in the Orestiad, the connection of Helen, Penelope and Clytemnestra adds a dimension I did not pick up from reading Homer or the play.

Another insight answers a question about the Odyssey that came up during the OGB discussion of the book, namely, what did Telemachus get out of his journey to see Menelaus?

//Moreover, she had taken one look and asked her husband, “Do we know who among men these claim to be who have come to our house?” And she points to him: “that man,” he is the one who looks like Odysseus’ young son. It may be the first time in his prolonged boyhood that he has been called a man, and by such a personage! I think that perhaps Helen is never more beautiful than when she gives this boy the recognition that makes him Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, a young man.//

Again, these insights work better after the reader has interacted with Homer's texts and tried to unravel them for himself.

Fabulous compliment to reading The Iliad and I expect it will be even more useful when we move to reading The Odyssey.

If you read one book on the Odyssey and/or the Iliad make it this one.

I had Ms. Brann as a tutor at St. John's College in 2008. I was lucky to get exposed to her style and SJC at that time and it gives a great depth to her work.

However, anyone who has read and enjoyed Homer will be amazed at the approachability and depth of Homeric Moments.

I especially enjoyed the explanation of the greek language and structure of the epic poem. Also, Ms. Brann's ability to relate Homer to Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Austen, and the great English Romantics brought both a clarity in meaning to her explanations and a direction for further study.

Amazingly in depth, but so elegantly explained. Take for instance one sentence comparing Achilles and Odysseus:

"As Achilles is taken over by 'menis', Odysseus is the man of 'metis', of measured calculated planning."

I cannot recommend this book enough.

I read this alongside reading the Odyssey. It is a brilliant book written by Eva Brann who has taught and read Homer for over 50 years. This book has excellent tidbits and insights that helped flesh out Homers tales for me. I didn't read it chronologically, I skipped around as the chapters allowed for that.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves Homer. This book is written by a very knowledgeable and sympathetic reader of Homer's poems. It does not, thankfully, rehash everything you already know about both poems. Instead, it is loaded with all sorts of fresh and thoughtful insights into Homer's world, his poetic art, and why the books are deeply enjoyable, rewarding and stimulating to read, over and over.

The author is a college professor who has taught both the Iliad and the Odyssey for many years; her extensive familiarity with the poems is evident in every page of this book. She possesses a deep understanding of the poems and has a great talent in communicating how they are different from any other kind of literature. She is fully conversant with the original language of the poems, which she occasionally transliterates (and then translates) to allow readers to get the feel for the rhythm or sonic qualities of certain hexameter lines.

She is obviously a skilled Greek scholar, and one of the nice aspects of the book are all of the little tidbits she throws in that reveal her deep knowledge of the Greek language. These points are always made in service of her main goal of enlarging her readers' understanding of Homer's remarkable art.

There is always so much more in Homer than meets the eye. On the surface he is an entertaining storyteller; below that he is an artist whose works reveal an extraordinarily sophisticated technique and seemingly bottomless depth. His characters and all of the qualities they embody, the narrative structure of each poem -- these have never been rivaled by any other poet, and the author is at her best when she is dissecting all of these elements and aiding us in our understanding of how they work.

Regrettably, many books that have been written about Homer are pedantic, jejune, and dull. This book is quite the opposite. The author has dispensed altogether with a formal academic approach and has instead opted to share with her readers a series of 48 illuminating insights. I, for one, am grateful.

Granted, I did not read every chapter of this, but it just KEPT going.

Imagine a professor who has immersed herself in her subject for almost 50 years and loves it--loves it and appreciates it for just what it is, not an anachronistic mold that the modern mind wants to force it into. Now imagine that professor distilling all that she's learned and realized through decades of instruction, deep reading, and discussion into a series of mostly plot-chronological reflections on those works, teaching you like she would teach her own fortunate students. What a treasure that book would be--and is, because...yeah, it's this book.

I understood the importance of the Iliad and the Odyssey. I didn't hate them, but they weren't anything I had a desire to ever pick up again. But Eva Brann helped me enter the ancient Greek world, understand the stakes, and finally appreciate the masterpieces that Homer wrote. What Tolkien did for me with Beowulf, she did for me with Homer.

I was resistant to her ultimate thesis about the supernatural occurrences in the Odyssey, and for that reason I didn't enjoy that half of the book as much. But equally surprising--or even more so--is how I felt about the Iliad section, because I'd never had much patience for its countless lists of bloody deaths, and I downright loathed Achilles. Brann opened my eyes to the themes and oppositions in the Iliad so that I now truly prize it. I see what the big deal is. I even have a little more grace for Achilles.

So many of the author's insights into specific incidents of the Iliad and the Odyssey were enlightening. I especially appreciate where she connected one event or character to another by showing a parallel, a foreshadowing, or a similarity, thus deepening the importance of both. For example, when she connects the burial mound and oar for Elpenor to Teiresias's instructions to Odysseus to go inland until an oar is mistaken for a winnowing paddle and to there set a memorial. There are so many wonderful bits of analysis and close reading in this book. My quibbles with it are that it feels more like a loose set of essays than an integrated analysis, and some of the chapters just seem to end mid-thought. That said, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Eva Brann’s writing is delightful as always while making observations that seem so simple and obvious once she makes them yet are so profound and the result of many years of reading Homer. She always enriches my own reading experience, and much of my love for Homer comes from having her as a literary guide to him.

Reasonably good modern interpretation of the Odyssey and the Iliad. Quick but worthwhile.