Review Comment

Obviously this prose rendition of the Odyssey hardly qualifies as a translation nowadays, since Eickhoff freely plays with the text, inserting what he feels like (even lines from other Greek works) and generally having a lot of fun in fitting Homer’s Greek to what often reads like a modern daytime TV script. Here’s his rendition of Zeus’ first speech in the poem:

“Vain, petulant men! Yes, that’s what they are! All of them! Look at them playing their games, misusing their freedom, and blaming their sins on wicked fate. Fate! And blaming us for their crimes! I tell you that I will not tolerate these floudering fools for long! Look! Look there! Do you see what I mean? Adulterous Aegisthus making love to Agamemnon’s wife and scheming that king’s slaughter! Listen to the cry of Agamemnon, ‘Oh, I am killed by a mortal blow!’ Why does man sin knowing he will suffer? I even sent Hermes (who slaughtered Argus—but enough of that wagging tale) to Aegisthus before he struck the mortal blow, telling him to beware of desecrating the mariage bed. Yet he ignored my warning. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, wreaks vengeance on Aegisthus now. Blood war ensues! Oh, these mortal fools! Oh! My head, my head!” moaned Zeus, rubbing the heels of his hands hard against his temples.

Reading Eickhoff one has to be prepared for unexpected (and often amusing) novelties:

“Well, then,” Athene beamed and clapped him on the shoulder so heartily that he caught himself on the edge of the table to keep from landing face first in the meat sauce.”

The modern colloquial diction is interspersed with strange words like chlamyses, strigils, and aryballoess (these words occur within five lines of each other)—I have no idea why—and as one might expect, Eickhoff makes the most of the sex scenes “He lifted her easily, feeling her breasts rub across his chest. Her lips clung eagerly to his, wild tongue probing deeply as he carried her to bed . . . .” Ah, yes, those Greek gods, they certainly did know how to party!

I enjoy reading Eickhoff’s translation—or least browsing through it for short periods at a time. I keep thinking he must have had a lot of fun writing it, and he does get more than a chuckle out of an old Homerophile like myself. But I don’t think I’d offer it to anyone as the real thing (either literally or spiritually).

Readers who would like a preview of Eickhoff’s translation should use the following link: Eickhoff Odyssey.

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