Homer
The Odyssey;
or
The Ten Years’ Wandering of Odusseus 
After the Ten Years’ Siege of Troy
Reproduced in Dramatic Blank Verse
T. S. Norgate
Edinburgh 1863

[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]
 
THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER
SYNOPSIS OF THE POEM.

“I told him how that after many troubles
  And losing all his comrades, he himself,
                  In the twentieth year,—unknown to everyone,—
               Should reach his home: and now at last all this
Is on accomplishment.”
                                                               BOOK ii. 174-178

ARGUMENT OF THE FIRST BOOK.   A

An assembly of the gods is held, on the subject of sending Odusseus home to Ithaca from the island of Calypso, where he has been detained about seven years.  Accordingly, Athênè, the goddess of wisdom, under the form of Mentês, lord of the Taphians, goes down to Ithaca,—engages Telemachus, Odusseus’ son, in coversation, and exhorts him to set out in search of his father, first to Nestor, king of Pylos, and then to Menelaüs, king of Sparta.  After giving him clear instructions, she departs. The suitors’ banquet and revels are set forth.

ALPHA: the assembly of the gods: Athênè
Visits Telemachus, and gives him Courage,
And Wisdom for his guide: the suitor’s revels.
______

The travelled Man of many a turn,—driven far,
Far wandering, when he had sacked Troy’s sacred Town;
Tell me, O Muse, his tale; how too he conned
The manners of mankind, and visited
Full many a City, and how on the deep he suffered
Many a heart-pang, striving to secure
5   His own and comrades’ lives and safe return,          
Yet them he rescued not, howe’er desirous;
For by their own blind folly they all perished:
Fools that they were!  to eat the Sun-god’s herds;
So, Hyperion, he who Walks above,
Bereft them of their day of home-return!
Whereof, from whatsoever source, O goddess,
10 Daughter of Zeus, vouchsafe to tell e’en Us!—       
Already now at home were all the others
Who safe through war and sea had scaped hard death.
Yearning for home-return and wife, This Man
Was alone stayed by a Nymph to hollow caves
Lady Calypso, fair of goddesses,
15 Longing for him to abide and be her lord.                 
But when at length the years had run their rounds,
And the time came, predestined by the gods
For his return to Ithaca and home,
No, not e’en then was he released from troubles,
E’en when amongst his friends: the gods indeed
Were all, all save Poseidon, pitying him;
20 While He with wrath relentlessly pursued    
Godlike Odusseus e’en to his own dear land.
Gone was Poseidon now howe’er to visit
The far off Æthiopians: (outermost
Of men the Æthiopians, and asunder
In twain divided,—to the setting sun
25 Are these, while others dwell towards the rising:)        
To accept a hecatomb of bulls and rams
Gone was he thither; and at feast and merry
There was he sitting.  The other gods meanwhile
Were in Olympian Jove’s high court assembled;
When thus began the sire of men and gods;
For thinking was he of blemishless Ægisthus,
30 Whom Agamemnon’s far-famed son Orestès        
Had put to death; and Zeus remembering this
Spake thus among the Deathless ones: “O Strange!
‘What blame those mortals cast upon us gods!
‘They say that ills come forth from Us, while They,
‘By their own impious folly, undergo
‘Ills beyond those of Fate.  As now, forsooth,
35 ‘Quite beyond Fate, Ægisthus wooed and married    
‘Atreidès’ wedded wife, and slew Atreidès
‘On his returning home: the murderer knew
‘Sheer death o’erhanging him, for we forewarned him
‘And sent  the keen-eyed Argus-killer, Hermès,
‘With warning not to murder Agamemnon
‘Nor woo his wife: for, for Atreidès’ death
40 ‘Sure vengeance should there be from prince Orestès, 
‘Whene’er should He have come to man’s estate
‘And yearn to obtain his own inheritance.
‘Such was the word of Hermès: kindly-minded,
‘He yet persuaded not Ægisthus’ heart,
‘Who therefore now has paid full penalties.”

REVIEW COMMENT

Norgate’s is surely one of the odder Victorian attempts to render Homer’s Greek into English—a quality symbolized by the curious paraphernalia at the start of the book and by his decision to spell the hero’s name Odusseus.  He also includes the line numbers of the Greek text rather than of his own verse and places them to the left of the text.  A quick reading of a few lines raises some serious questions about Norgate’s command of acceptably idiomatic English, even given the tradition of translating Homer into very odd-sounding English. Enough said.

To access the full text of the Norgate translation, please use the following link: Norgate Odyssey.

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