The Odyssey of Homer
translated by William Cowper
London 1791

[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]
 
Book 1

In a council of the Gods, Minerva calls their attention to Ulysses, still a wanderer. They resolve to grant him a safe return to Ithaca. Minerva descends to encourage Telemachus, and in the form of Mentes directs him in what manner to proceed. Throughout this book the extravagance and profligacy of the suitors are occasionally suggested.

   Muse make the man thy theme, for shrewdness famed
And genius versatile, who far and wide
A Wand’rer, after Ilium overthrown,
Discover’d various cities, and the mind
And manners learn’d of men, in lands remote.
He num’rous woes on Ocean toss’d, endured,
Anxious to save himself, and to conduct
His followers to their home; yet all his care
Preserved them not; they perish’d self-destroy’d
By their own fault; infatuate! who devoured
The oxen of the all-o’erseeing Sun,
And, punish’d for that crime, return’d no more.
Daughter divine of Jove, these things record,
As it may please thee, even in our ears.
   The rest, all those who had perdition ’scaped
By war or on the Deep, dwelt now at home;
Him only, of his country and his wife
Alike desirous, in her hollow grots
Calypso, Goddess beautiful, detained
Wooing him to her arms. But when, at length,
(Many a long year elapsed) the year arrived
Of his return (by the decree of heav’n)
To Ithaca, not even then had he,
Although surrounded by his people, reach’d
The period of his suff’rings and his toils.
Yet all the Gods, with pity moved, beheld
His woes, save Neptune; He alone with wrath
Unceasing and implacable pursued
Godlike Ulysses to his native shores.
But Neptune, now, the Æthiopians fought,
(The Æthiopians, utmost of mankind,
These Eastward situate, those toward the West)
Call’d to an hecatomb of bulls and lambs.
There sitting, pleas’d he banqueted; the Gods
In Jove’s abode, meantime, assembled all,
’Midst whom the Sire of heav’n and earth began.
For he recall’d to mind Ægisthus slain
By Agamemnon’s celebrated son
Orestes, and retracing in his thought
That dread event, the Immortals thus address’d.
   Alas! how prone are human-kind to blame
The Pow’rs of Heav’n! From us, they say, proceed
The ills which they endure, yet more than Fate
Herself inflicts, by their own crimes incur.
So now Ægisthus, by no force constrained
Of Destiny, Atrides’ wedded wife
Took to himself, and him at his return
Slew, not unwarn’d of his own dreadful end
By us: for we commanded Hermes down
The watchful Argicide, who bade him fear
Alike, to slay the King, or woo the Queen.
For that Atrides’ son Orestes, soon
As grown mature, and eager to assume
His sway imperial, should avenge the deed.
So Hermes spake, but his advice moved not
Ægisthus, on whose head the whole arrear
Of vengeance heap’d, at last, hath therefore fall’n.

REVIEW COMMENT

Cowper’s translation, as he explains, is, in part, designed to correct deficiencies he perceives in Pope’s translation: first, Cowper rejects rhyming couplets as unsuitable for Homeric verse, second, he wishes to correct Pope’s “deviations” from the Greek in order to remain faithful to the Homeric text (“I have omitted nothing; I have invented nothing. . . . My chief boast is that I have adhered closely to my original, convinced that every departure from him would be punished with the forfeiture of some grace or beauty for which I could substitute no equivalent.”), and he mounts a stout defence of blank verse as the most suitable English verse form for translating Homer (citing Milton as an example worth following because of the close resemblance of his style to Homer’s: “A translator of HOMER, therefore, seems directed by HOMER himself to the use of blank verse, as to that alone in which he can be rendered with any tolerable representation of his manner in this particular.”  

Cowper’s translation received a mixed reception among his contemporaries; they lauded his fidelity to Homer but found his verse lacking in imaginative energy, a view endorsed later by Matthew Arnold, “the translation by Cowper is far superior to either Chapman’s or Pope’s as an interpretation of the poet, but it lacks a certain fire and swing essential winning great poetic renown.”  Nonetheless, Cowper’s translation has endured, not as an especially popular choice, but one which people seem to consult from time to time (and it was the basis for a sound recording by Naxos Audiobooks).

For access to the complete text of Cowper’s Odyssey, please use the following link: Cowper Odyssey.

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