The Iliads and Odysses of Homer
Translated by Thomas Hobbes
London 1675
[Sample from the Opening of the Iliad]
O GODDESS sing what woe
the discontent
Of Thetis’ son brought to the
Greeks; what souls
Of heroes down to Erebus it sent,
Leaving their bodies unto dogs
and fowls;
Whilst the two princes of the
army strove,
King Agamemnon and Achilles stout.
That so it should be was the will
of Jove,
But who was he that made them first fall out?
Apollo; who incensed by the wrong
To his priest Chryses
by Atrides done, 10
Sent a great pestilence the
Greeks among;
Apace they died, and remedy was
none.
For Chryses
came unto the Argive fleet,
With treasure great his daughter
to redeem;
And having in his hands the
ensigns meet, 15
That did the priestly dignity
beseem,
A golden sceptre and a crown of
bays,
Unto the princes all made his
request;
But to the two Atrides chiefly prays,
Who of the Argive army were the best. 20
O sons of Atreus, may the Gods
grant you
A safe return from Troy with
victory;
And you on me compassion may shew,
Receive these gifts and set my
daughter free;
And have respect to Jove’s and Leto’s son. 25
To this the princes all gave
their consent,
Except
King Agamemnon. He alone,
And with sharp language from the
fleet him sent;
Old man, said he, let me not see
you here
Now staying, or returning back
again, 30
For fear the golden sceptre which
you bear,
And chaplet hanging on it, prove but vain.
Your daughter shall to Argos go
far hence,
And make my bed, and labour at
the loom,
And take heed you no farther me
incense, 35
Lest you
return not safely to your home.
Frighted with
this, away the old man went;
And often as he walked on the
sand,
His prayers to Apollo up he sent.
Hear me, Apollo, with thy bow in
hand, 40
That honour’d
art in Tenedos and Chryse,
And unto whom Cylla
great honour bears,
If thou accepted hast my
sacrifice,
Pay th’ Argives with thy arrows for my tears.
His prayer was granted by the
deity; 45
Who with his silver bow and
arrows keen,
Descended from Olympus silently
In
likeness of the sable night unseen.
His bow and quiver both behind
him hang,
The arrows chink as often as he
jogs, 50
And as he shot the bow was heard
to twang,
And first his arrows flew at
mules and dogs.
But when the plague into the army
came,
Perpetual was the fire of
funerals;
And so nine days continued the
same. 55
Hobbes’ translation is, as one
might expect, clear, vigorous, and fast paced, with iambic pentameter lines and
a fixed rhyme scheme (ABABCDCD). But it is also quite
careless about including every detail, as Pope (not the most disinterested
critic) observes about Hobbes’ translation style in general: “but for
particulars and circumstance he continually lops them, and often omits the most
beautiful. . . . He sometimes omits whole similes and sentences. . . .”
The translation probably would
not attract very much attention if it had been produced by someone less well
known. Hobbes,
who translated Homer in his eighties, does not seem to have been particularly
worried about the reception of his translation: “Why then did I write it? Because I had nothing else to do. Why publish it? Because
I thought it might take off my Adversaries from shewing
their folly upon my more serious Writings and set them upon my Verses to shew their wisdom” (quoted Young 108).
For the complete translation,
click the following link: Online
Library of Liberty.
For a
review of a modern assessment of Hobbes’ Iliad,
use the following link: Bryn Mawr Review
[List of
Published English Translations of Homer’s Iliad
and Odyssey]