Homer
The Odyssey
Translated by Herbert Jordan

Book I

Athena Seeds
Odysseus' Return

Tell how he wandered, Muse, time and again
confounded, after he sacked Troy's citadel,
how many towns he saw and learned their ways,
how many trials the man endured at sea
to save his comrades' lives, return them home.                            5
Hard though he tried, he failed to save those men
whose recklessness secured their own demise.
Like fools they ate the sun god Helios' cows,
and he made certain they would not survive.
choose where to start your story, Zeus's daughter.                    10

So many other men eluded ruin,
survived both war and sea to reach their lands,
but nymph Calypso--regal, divine--kept him,
longing for hearth and wife, in vaulted caves,
where she entreated him to marry her.                                       15
Season on season passed until the year
arrived that gods ordained for his return
to Ithaca, but he had trials to come--
even when home. The deathless gods took pity,
except Poseidon, who remained enraged                                   20
until Odysseus reached his father's isle.

Poseidon went to visit Ethiopians,
the most remote of men. They live divided,
some where the sun comes up, some where it sinks.
They sacrificed a mass of lambs and bulls                                   25
to please the god, while fellow deities
assembled in Olympian Zeus's halls,
where he, father of gods and men, spoke first,
his mind consumed with thoughts of bold Aegisthus,
whom Agamemnon's son Orestes killed.                                     30 
Zeus spoke of him when he addressed the gods:
"Curious it is how mortals blame immortals,
and say their troubles stem from us, when they
invite their own ordeals through foolish acts,
just as Aegisthus did when, after he                                           35
wooed Agamemnon's wife, he killed the king,
aware that ruin would follow. We warned him--
sending our courier, Argus-slayer Hermes--
neither to kill the man nor court his wife,
because his son Orestes would take vengeance                           40
when he became a man and journeyed home.
So Hermes warned. Aegisthus did not take
our sound advice and now has paid full measure."

REVIEW COMMENT

 Herbert Jordan's translation is a useful and workmanlike rendition of Homer's text. The more or less regular iambic pentameter lines set a good pace and keep the reader moving through the poem at a steady clip, as is appropriate to an often fast-paced narrative. The rhythm is generally effective, but while it does not get monotonous, it never really surprises. Jordan's language is for the most part straightforward and clear, easy to follow and effective. These qualities make the translation of the speeches work well--they sound as if they are words someone might actually say (an observation one cannot make about some translations).

 At times one does get the sense, however, that the choice of words has been dictated by mechanical metrical requirements rather than by a desire for a direct and vivid impact. For example (chosen almost at random): "Now protean Odysseus shed his rags,/ leapt to the threshold holding bow and quiver/ abrim with arrows, which he emptied out,/  dumped at his feet, proclaiming to the suitors:/ "Thus will the baleful contest reach its end:/ a target no man ever hit till now--/ but if Apollo grants my prayer, I will." It's not clear to me what "protean," "abrim," and "baleful" add to the intense emotional quality of this dramatically vivid moment (compare their effect with that word "dumped," for instance)--they simply inject what sounds like a limp "poetical" tone in contrast to the direct and urgent clarity of the rest of the description. Some readers may well find this a minor cavil.

As with his translation of the Iliad, Jordan maintains a line-by-line fidelity to Homer's text; in order to do this with the shorter iambic pentameter line, he routinely leaves out words and phrases from the Greek. He does this because "The object is to capture the essence of Homer's individual lines, not to render the Greek literally." This will not bother first-time readers, of course; they will not recognize what they are missing.

The translation has useful notes (with some illustrations). The only one I might object to is the one for 1.122, explaining why the translation never attempts to deal with one of Homer's most famous metaphors, "winged words." Jordan musters some impressive precedents to make his case, but the argument that the words are meaningless is unconvincing. I'm not sure that the best way to deal with a problematic phrase is simply to omit it, especially a metaphor as evocative as this one.

For a more extensive preview of the Jordan translation (at Amazon), click here.

For a longer and more scholarly review of Jordan's translation, please use the following link: Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

For a sample of and a Review Comment on Jordan's translation of the Iliad, please use the following : Jordan Iliad

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