The Odyssey of Homer
Rendered
into English blank verse
George Musgrave,
London 1865
[Sample from the Opening of
the Poem]
Tell me, O Muse, declare to me that man
Tost to and fro
by fate, who, when his arms
Had
laid Troy’s holy city in the dust,
Far wand’ring roam’d on many a tribe
of men
To
bend his gaze, their minds and thoughts to learn. 5
Grief
upon grief encounter’d he, when, borne
On
ocean-waves, his life he carried off
A
prize from perils rescued, and would fain
Have
homeward led his brethren in arms;
But,
not to him,—not to his anxious zeal 10
Was giv’n their rescue; destin’d as
they were
In
their mad arrogance to perish; fools!
That
dared to seize, and to consume for food,
Hyperion’s
herds, the oxen of the Sun
That
walks on high, by whose behest the day 15
Of
their return was evermore denied.
And
thou, too, goddess daughter of great Jove,
The
theme pursue, and thine own record bear!
Each in his home, secure from battle strife
And
ocean wave, now rested every chief 20
To
whom was given to survive that war:
But,
this lone man, whose pining soul had yearn’d
To
reach his own and to regain his wife,
A
captive lay within the hollow grot
Of
that divine one among goddesses, 25
The
august Calypso, who, on wedlock bent,
Sought
him, above all other, for her own;
And
still, as with revolving years the time
At
length drew nigh when the immortal gods
Decreed
that Ithaca he should regain, 30
His
struggle ended not; no, though by friends
Encompass’d round; yet
did the gods themselves,
Neptune
alone relentless, pity him;—
For
long did he, ere he his home regain’d,
The
unrelenting hate of Neptune brook— 35
Who
in those days a sojourner abode
Among
the Æthiops—(a divided race
Of
all men most remote—whose tribes behold
At
once the rising and the setting sun,—)
Seeking
a hecatomb of bulls and
lambs. 40
There
at a joyous banquet sate the god,
While,
in the palace of Olympian Jove,
The
deities their thronging synod held:
To
whom the Father of all men and gods
Thus op’d discourse, as in his mind he mus’d 45
On
blameless-soul’d Ægysthus
whom far-fam’d
Orestes,
son of Agamemnon, slew;
And,
of his memory full, these words he spake
In
the immortals’ ears: “Why! what reproach,
Ye
gods! do mortals cast on
deities! 50
To us
all their calamities they trace,
While
they, themselves, through their own senseless acts,
Feel
pangs their destiny had ne’er decreed:
Witness,
e’en now, with what contempt of fate
Ægysthus seiz’d Atrides’ married
spouse, 55
To
make her his own consort, and, though sure
Of
his own ruin, took the husband’s life,
As he
re-enter’d home. Our warning words
Through
faithful Mercury—(even him by whom
Argus
was slain)—thus to Ægysthus spake: 60
‘Destroy
him not, nor seek to wed his wife;—
For,
from Orestes, when to manhood grown,
All
eager for his father-land, shall come
Full
vengeance for Atrides.’ Even thus
Spoke Mercury;
yet, though his counsel sage 65
He tender’d, no wise did he sway the mind
And
purpose of Ægysthus: all these deeds
He answer’d for, and one atonement made.”
Musgrave’s poetic style, though energetic
enough and better than a great many of his contemporaries’ efforts, is as good
an example as any of the influence of Milton’s blank verse on Victorian
translators of Homer and of the poetic effects of that style throughout (e.g.,
“Neptune alone relentless,” and so on). Still, the poem was received
sufficiently well, even if competing translations got more attention. Many modern readers also
object to the use of Roman names for the gods, although that was more or less
standard practice at the time. Contemporary readers commented on the
length of Musgrave’s translation (1700 lines longer than Homer’s text and 200
lines longer than Derby’s)
Readers who would like to access Volume II of
the Musgrave translation (Books XIII to XXIV) should use the following link: Musgrave
Odyssey.
Contemporary review (1865) of Musgrave’s Odyssey: Saturday
Review.
[List of
Published English Translations of Homer’s Iliad
and Odyssey]