The Odysses
Translated by Thomas Hobbes
London 1674
 
[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]

TELL me, O Muse, th’ adventures of the man
That having sack’d the sacred town of Troy,
Wander’d so long at sea; what course he ran
By winds and tempests driven from his way:
That saw the cities, and the fashions knew
Of many men, but suffer’d grievous pain
To save his own life, and bring home his crew;
Though for his crew, all he could do was vain,
They lost themselves by their own insolence,
Feeding, like fools, on the Sun’s sacred kine;
Which did the splendid deity incense
To their dire fate. Begin, O Muse divine.
The Greeks from Troy were all returned home,
All that the war and winds had spar’d, except
The discontent Ulysses only; whom
In hollow caves the nymph Calypso kept.
But when the years and days were come about,
Wherein was woven his return by fate
To Ithaca (but neither there without
Great pain), the Gods then pitied his estate,
All saving Neptune; who did never cease
To hinder him from reaching his own shore,
And persecute him still upon the seas
Till he got home, then troubled him no more.
Neptune was now far off in Black-moor land;
The Black-moors are the utmost of mankind,
As far as east and west asunder stand,
So far the Black-moors’ borders are disjoin’d.
Invited there to feast on ram and bull,
There sat he merry. Th’ other Gods were then
Met on Olympus in a synod full,
In th’ house of Jove, father of Gods and men.
And first spake Jove, whose thoughts were now upon
Ægistus’ death, which he but then first knew,
By th’ hand of Agamemnon’s valiant son,
Who to revenge his father’s blood him slew.
Ha! how dare mortals tax the Gods, and say,
Their harms do all proceed from our decree,
And by our setting; when by their crimes they
Against our wills make their own destiny?
As now Ægistus did Atrides kill
Newly come home, and married his wife;
Although he knew it was against my will,
And that it would cost him one day his life.
Sent we not Hermes to him to forbid
The murder, and the marriage of the wife;
And tell him if the contrary he did
Orestes should revenge it on his life?
All this said Hermes, as we bade him. But
Ægistus, for all this, was not afraid
His lust in execution to put.
And therefore now has dearly for it paid.
 
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To access the full translation, please use the following link: Hobbes Odyssey .  For a brief comment  on Hobbes’ translation of the Iliad, please use this link: Hobbes Iliad.