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Lessons in Chemistry by Homer, translated by Samuel Butler
For a book of its size, Butler's translation of the odyssey moved surprisingly fast. Maybe this was in part because I was already familiar with the story from Jorge Rivera-Herrans' retelling in Epic: The Musical.
The order of events was certainly different to what I was expecting, coming from a background of having listened to Epic and little other knowledge. I was surprised to find Calypso's island so early on, for example. While I'm sure the musical becomes more entertaining when performed with its own order of events, the level of transformation compared to what I assume to be a more canonical retelling begs the question, how much did Butler change of what he translated, and how much did the writer of that version change from what they'd heard, and so on and so forth?
It was somewhat confusing to hear all the gods referred to by their Roman names. I had some basic understanding that Minerva is more or less analogous with Athena, Mercury with Hermes, and so on, and it took me only a short time to conclude that Jove represented Zeus (as opposed to my expectation of Jove's father, Saturn). I don't quite grasp why they and Ulysses (Greek, Odysseus) had their names Latinised, while most others don't have such counterparts. Perhaps that's something to look into.
I was surprised by the brief cut-away where Mars and Venus got caught (trapped) in the act by Vulcan. I don't really see how it ties in with the rest of the story.
The translation also felt somewhat reminiscent of what little I know of the Bible, with its frequent references to "heaven" (in my very limited understanding, perhaps "Olympus" is equally or more appropriate?) and the language used to show reverence for the gods. I'd be especially intrigued to find out how true this aspect is to the source text, and perhaps the translator's background.
Finally, I must mention that we were robbed in the Epic animatics. Telemachus has two dogs.