The Odyssey of Homer
Translated by
Richmond Lattimore
Chicago 1965

Sample from the Opening of the Poem

Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven
far journeys, after he had sacked Troy's sacred citadel.
Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of,
many the pains he suffered in his spirit on the wide sea,
struggling for his own life and the homecoming of his companions.
Even so he could not save his companions, hard though
he strove to; they were destroyed by their own wild recklessness,
fools, who devoured the oxen of Helios, the Sun God,
and he took away the day of their homecoming. From some point
here, goddess, daughter of Zeus, speak, and begin our story.
Then all the others, as many as fled sheer destruction,
were at home now, having escaped the sea and the fighting.
This one alone, longing for his wife and his homecoming,
was detained by the queenly nymph Kalypso, bright among goddesses,
in her hollowed caverns, desiring that he should be her husband.
But when in the circling of the years that very year
came in which the gods had spun for him his time of homecoming
to Ithaka, not even then was he free of his trials
nor among his own people. But all the gods pitied him
except Poseidon; he remained relentlessly angry 
with godlike Odysseus, until his return to his own country.
But Poseidon was gone now to visit the far Aithiopians,
Aithiopians, most distant of men, who live divided,
some at the setting of Hyperion, some at his rising.
to receive a hecatomb of bulls and rams. There  
he sat at the feast and took pleasure. Meanwhile the other
Olympian gods were gathered together in the halls of Zeus.
First among them to speak was the father of gods and mortals,
for he was thinking in his heart of stately Aigisthos,
whom Orestes, Agamemnon's far-famed son    
had murdered. Remembering him he spoke now before the immortals:
'Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame upon us
gods, for they say evils come from us but it is they, rather,
who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given,
as now lately, beyond what was given, Aigisithos
married the wife of Atreus' son and murdered him on his homecoming,
though he knew it was sheer destruction, for we ourselves had told him,
sending Hermes, the mighty watcher, Argeiphontes,
not to kill the man, nor court his lady in marriage;
for vengeance would come on him from Orestes, 
son of Atreides, whenever he came of age and longed for his own country.
So Hermes told him, but for all his kind intentions he could not
persuade the mind of Aigisthos. And now he was paid for everything.'

REVIEW COMMENT

Richmond Lattimore's translation of the Odysssey, like his Iliad, has received fulsome praise, more so than any other recent translation. And the two books are firmly established as the favourites of the professoriate. Yet many readers find his translations--offerred to us as poetry (hexameters)--almost unreadable:

It is incredible that a man who can write English poetry, who has written fine translations . . .  could abandon English for the worst translationese. . . . [Lattimore] gets some things right now that were botched in The Iliad . . . but he still does not think the thing into English. . . . [The] cause for so dismal an effect [is his] conception of fidelity to the Homeric hexameter. . . . To achiev mathematical faithfulness, he sacrifices the primary esthetic effect, which is one of formality and control. . . . Lattimore distorts the order of English, and stumbles, often, into ambiguity. . . . The result of his narrowminded focus and literalism in the handling of separate units is the lifeless  jointure of part to part . . . an effect the very opposite of . . . [that] made possible by oral poetry's large formulaic and rhythmic building blocks>" (Gary Wills, National Review 1968)

There is not enough space here to explore this curious difference of opinion. Perhaps I shall do so at a later date. Such an investigation might reveal some interesting facts about the evaluating criteria of the scholarly establishment. Meanwhile, here are some comments in praise of Lattimore:

 It would be a crime to underestimate the miraculous and self-effacing artistry with which Professor Lattimore has reanimated Homer for this generation and perhaps for other generations to come" Times Literary Supplement (London)

Lattimore's translation of Homer's Odyssey is the most eloquent, persuasive, and imaginative I have  seen. It reads as if the poem had originally been written in English. Paul Engle

The best . . . translator of Greek poetry  into English is Richmond Lattimore. . . . This is the best Odyssey in modern English. Gilbery Highet.

The best advice I can give to someone considering purchasing Lattimore's translation is to make sure you read enough of it first to see how you respond to the style. Do not be misled by other people's comments.

For a Review Comment on Lattimore's Iliad, please use the following link: Lattimore Iliad

For a longer preview of Lattimore's Odyssey, use the following link: Lattimore Odyssey

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