Homer
The Odyssey
Translated by A. S. Kline
(2004)
Online in the Public Domain

 
[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]

Bk I:1-21 Invocation and Introduction

 Tell me, Muse, of that man of many resources, who wandered far and wide, after sacking the holy citadel of Troy. Many the men whose cities he saw, whose ways he learned. Many the sorrows he suffered at sea, while trying to bring himself and his friends back alive. Yet despite his wishes he failed to save them, because of their own un-wisdom, foolishly eating the cattle of Helios, the Sun, so the god denied them their return. Tell us of these things, beginning where you will, Goddess, Daughter of Zeus.

Now, all the others, who had escaped destruction, had reached their homes, and were free of sea and war. He alone, longing for wife and home, Calypso, the Nymph, kept in her echoing cavern, desiring him for a husband. Not even when the changing seasons brought the year the gods had chosen for his return to Ithaca was he free from danger, and among friends. Yet all the gods pitied him, except Poseidon, who continued his relentless anger against godlike Odysseus until he reached his own land at last.

Bk I:22-43 Zeus speaks to the Olympians.

Now, though, Poseidon was visiting the distant Ethiopians, the most remote of all, a divided people, some of whom live where Hyperion sets the others where he rises, to accept a hetacomb of sacrificial bulls and rams, and there he sat, enjoying the feast: but the rest of the gods had gathered in the halls of Olympian Zeus. The Father of gods and men was first to address them, for he was thinking of flawless Aegisthus, whom far-famed Orestes, Agamemnon’s son had killed. And, thinking of him, he spoke to the immortals.

‘How surprising that men blame the gods, and say their troubles come from us, though they, through their own un-wisdom, find suffering beyond what is fated. Just as Aegisthus, beyond what was fated, took the wife of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, and murdered him when he returned, though he knew the end would be a complete disaster, since we sent Hermes, keen-eyed slayer of Argus, to warn him not to kill the man, or court his wife, as Orestes would avenge Agamemnon, once he reached manhood and longed for his own land. So Hermes told him, but despite his kind intent he could not move Aegisthus’ heart: and Aegisthus has paid the price now for it all.’
 
REVIEW COMMENT

Klein’s translation is fast, accurate, clear, and direct. His prose keeps the reader moving very quickly through the narrative, perhaps too quickly in some places. The text contains links to an index (indicated in the sample by the underlined words). The links are somewhat distracting at first, but one gets used to them, and this feature is very useful for anyone seeking to trace the frequency of a name in the entire text (a handy research tool). This translation is an excellent addition to Homer on the internet and will be of particular interest to teachers seeking to put together selections of the poem for their students or anyone who wishes to do a quick search of the poem for specific details (especially since the translator has put the text into the public domain for all non-commercial use). A printed version of the translation is now available (at Amazon).
 
For the complete Kline translation, please use the following link: Kline Odyssey.

 
[Published English Translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey]