The
Odyssey of Homer
translated by Herbert Bates
London 1929
[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]
BOOK ONE
TELL
ME THE TALE, MUSE, OF THAT MAN
OF MANY CHANGES, HE WHO WENT
WANDERING SO FAR WHEN HE HAD PLUNDERED
Troy’s sacred citadel. And
many
The men whose cities he beheld,
Whose minds he learned to know, and many
The sorrows that his soul endured
Upon the deep the while he strove
To save himself from death and bring
His comrades home.
Of
these things now,
Daughter of Zeus, O goddess, tell us,
Even as thou wilt, the tale.
Ere
this
Those others who escaped death’s stroke
Had reached their homes at last, delivered
From battle and the sea. But
him
And him alone—though still he longed
For home and wife—the nymph Calypso,
A mighty goddess, kept imprisoned
Within her hollow caves, and longed
To make him there her husband. No,
Not when the day came when the gods
Granted, as circling season passed,
That he might once again return
To Ithaca—not even then,
With those that loved him, might he find
A rest from strife. And
all the gods
Felt pity for him, all but one—
Poseidon. Still,
with wrath unceasing,
He strove against the good Odysseus
Until he reached his home.
But
now
this god was gone afar to visit
The Ethiopians, and there
He shared the offering they made him
Of bulls and rams, and at their feast
Sat with delight.
And
now there came
The other gods all gathering
In Zeus the Olympian’s hall. And
thus
Spoke out before them then the father
Of gods and men:
“Alas
that mortals
Should blame the gods! From
us, they say,
All evils come. Yet they themselves
It is who through defiant deeds
Bring sorrow on them—far more sorrow
Than fate would have them bear. Behold
Ægisthus, he who overpassed
Fate’s measure, for he took the wife
Of Atreus’ son to be his own
And slew him coming home. And
yet
He might have seen swift ruin coming
For we ourselves gave warning. Now
He pays the price for all.”
Bates translates Homer in English tetrameters, and his version illustrates as well as any why this rhythm feels all wrong for Homer (mainly because it’s not a verse form we are very familiar with in long dramatic poems). It’s not clear to me that this rhythm adds anything poetically significant to one’s experience of reading Homer. Bates also leaves out bits here and there (e.g., the reference to Hermes in Zeus’s speech above) in order (one assumes) to keep the poetry moving quickly, so the translation is not altogether reliable as an accurate rendition of Homer. There is, however, a rather nice map at the start (“The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Unknown World”).
List of Published English Translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey