A Nearly Literal
Translation
of 
Homer’s Odyssey
Into Accentuated Dramatic Verses
by the
Rev. Lovelace Bigge-Wither
Oxford 1869

[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]

HOMER’S ODYSSEY.

BOOK I.

TELL me, oh Muse, of-the-many-sided man,
Who wandered far and wide full sore bestead, 
When he had razed the mighty town of Troy : 
And-of-many-a-race of human-kind he saw 
The cities; and he learned their mind and ways : 
And on the deep full many-a-woe he bore 
In his own hosom, while he strove to save 
His proper life, and-his-comrades’ home-return.                    5
But them not so he saved with all his zeal; 
For they in their own wilful folly perished: 
Infatuates! to devour Hyperion’s kine! 
So he bereft them of their home-return. 
Of these things, Goddess, where thou wilt beginning,
Daughter of Zeus, the tale tell e’en to us!
    Now all the rest, who swift destruction, ’scaped, 
At home were safe from peril-of-war and sea: 
While him alone for home and wife sore yearning 
The Ladie-Nymph Calypso, lovely goddess, 
Held in her grot, for love to make him hers! 
But when came-on the time, as-the-years rolled round, 
At which the gods had destined his return 
To Ithaca-home; not then was-he-free from struggles, 
E’en midst his friends! The gods all pitied him ; 
Save Posidaon: he raged ceaselessly                                       20
’Gainst god-like-Odyssus, ere he reached his home: 
But he was gone to the Æthiops far away—
(Æthiops, extreme of men, all-parted twain-wise, 
Some by the setting, some by-the-rising sun)—
To share of bulls and lambs their hecatombs!                        25 
There merrily-sat he feasting: but the others
Were thronged in-the-halls of Zeus Olympius.
’Mid them ’gan speak the Sire of men and gods; 
For he remembered in his heart Ægisthus, 
Whom slew Agamemnon’s famous son Orestes:                 30 
Of him full mindful ’mid the gods he spake: 
“Oh heavens! how mortals now do blame the gods! 
From us they say spring ills! but they themselves 
By their own folly bring unfated woes. 
As now Ægisthus married-in-spite of fate                             35 
Atrides’ wife, and slew him home returning— 
Knowing full well his own death hard at hand: 
For we ourselves foretold it him; and sent 
Hermes—the keen-eyed Argicide—to warn him—  
‘Slay not the husband, and wed not the wife! 
For vengeance-shall-come from-Orestes, son of Atreus,      40 
When grown a man he-shall-yearn for his own land.’ 
Thus Hermes spake: but-Ægisthus’ will he turned not, 
Tho’ kindly wise; who now has paid for all!” 

REVIEW COMMENT

Bigge-Wither is, so far as I can tell, among the first to hope that his English will be sufficiently similar to the Greek so that people will think of the Greek as they read the translation:

The aim of this translation is to be literal. In many passages it is almost line for line, and even word for word with the original; so that to persons well acquainted with the Greek this version will readily suggest the very words of the divine old bard himself.

This very odd notion, which has come into vogue in recent years in an even more pronounced manner, leaves one wondering why anyone who wished to be reminded of the Greek did not just read Homer in Greek rather than putting up with various unidiomatic oddities in the English.  Perhaps it is with this purpose in mind that Bigge-Wither makes such an idiosyncratic use of hyphens:

Where three syllables are intended to form one foot they are connected by hyphens, and the stress is always on the last syllable . . . In some instances the hyphens are omitted or misplaced: the reader will easily discover where this is so.

In keeping with a great many Victorian (and later) translators, Bigge-Wither looks to the poetic styles of the past to define his verse form and diction:

In order to be free to render that text literally, the translator has chosen the most elastic of English metres—the accentuated dramatic, in which, though the accents are only five in each line, the syllables vary from ten to sixteen. . . .  For diction the translator has taken as his models—Shakespeare—Milton—and above all the authorized version of the Bible.”

Readers who would like to see the full translation should use the following link: Bigge-Wither Odyssey.

List of Published English Translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey