Album Notes

Crouched in the dark belly of the Trojan Horse, you wait in silence. Around you, nervous warriors breathe quietly, swords wrapped for silence. Suddenly someone's mind is speaking...

Prepare to meet Odysseus of Ithaca, an iron-willed wanderer grasped by Fate and hurled to the ends of the earth. If you escape with him from the Cyclops' grisly cave, the Enchantress nevertheless awaits you on her isle. Free yourself from wraithes in The Underworld, Scylla's fangs still hunger for you in The Straits. Sirens will soon sing to you of death; yet hold on--somewhere downwind gentle Calypso walks her beach and sings of immortal life. So prepare yourself, for you are about to take the timeless journey that bears this wanderer's name--The Odyssey.


Message from the Artist

In Greece, circa 700 B.C., very few people knew how to read. Only scribes, taught by visiting Phoenicians, understood how to convert spoken words into the mysterious symbols of the alphabet. To most Greeks, then, the only literature to be found was not written, but spoken by Singers of Tales--wandering musical poets who in epic verse recounted the exploits of Greece's heroes. These taletellers held vast troves of story in their imaginations. In windy temples above the sea, by flickering torchlight in carved stone halls, they relied on their wits rather than on scripts as they re-created their tales time and again.

The greatest of these Singers of Tales was Homer, a blind genius, some say, from the Isle of Chios. Homer wove his myth from old stories--old even in his day. His bardic performances, however, were so inspired that scribes were summoned to gather up his words and preserve them in their mysterious way. With their pens they swept The Odyssey from storytelling's shifting sands onto the solid rock of literature.

With my voice and instruments I am attempting to nudge it back toward the sand. And as Homer would have done, I have relied on my wits--both literary and musical--rather than on a script. What you hear, then, on this recording, is not a reading, but a genuine singing of the tale. Welcome to the world of the muses. I hope you enjoy the journey.

---Odds Bodkin

Odds Bodkin, who is one of the foremost storytellers in America, has been called "a storyteller supreme" by PARENTS MAGAZINE, a "modern-day Orpheus" by BILLBOARD, and "a consummate storyteller" by the NEW YORK TIMES. Odds creates all the character voices, vocal effects and muse-inspired music simultaneously, making The Odyssey: An Epic Telling a rich treat for listeners' mind's eyes. Both children and adults love listening to his stories. Winner of the Oppenheim Platinum Award. Great for listening while traveling!