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Odyssey

Translated by Norbert Albertson
New Book Partners 2013

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Book 1

Muse, tell of the wily-minded man

Who wandered far after he sacked and burned

The holy towers of Troy; he saw many men’s cities,

And learned their minds, and his spirit suffered much

Out on the sea, striving to keep his own life

And bring his comrades home. But he did not save them,

For the fools died by their own wicked deed

When they killed and ate the cattle of Hyperion Helios,

Who took their homecoming away; but he endured.

Begin where you will, Muse, and tell his story.

The other Greeks—all who fled utter doom—

Were long home, and done with wars and the sea.

He alone still longed for home and his wife,

Where the fair goddess Calypso held him captive

In her hollow cavern, pining for his love.

But when a year of circling seasons came round,

The gods granted him Ithaca, his home,

Though evil would follow him there, even among his friends.

Still, all the gods pitied him in their hearts—

All but Poseidon, whose rage against Odysseus

Would be relentless, till fate should carry him home.

But now the mighty Earthshaker was gone away

To the Aethiops, remotest of all men,

Who dwell apart on the uttermost rims of earth,

Both where Hyperion rises, and where he sets.

With them he was rejoicing in hecatombs of bulls

And unblemished rams, delighting in their feasts.

But all the other gods, save he alone,

Were gathered in Olympian Zeus’ great hall—

Olympian Zeus Cronion, father of gods and men,

Who spoke to the gods of Lord Aegisthus, slain

By far-famed Orestes, Agamemnon’s son.

“Ah, these mortals!—they always blame the gods

For all their woes; but their own wilful wickedness

Brings miseries on them far beyond their fate.

Think of Aegisthus: he wed Agamemnon’s wife

And killed her husband coming home from war,

Although he knew it meant his own destruction!

Did we not plainly warn him? Did not sharp-eyed

Argus-Slayer Hermes go and tell him,

‘Do not kill the man, nor wed the wife.

You will not escape the vengeance of Orestes

When he shall come of age and seek his own.’

Out of our hearts’ pity we told him this,

But he would not hear; and now he has his reward.”

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