Homer
The Odyssey
Translated W. H. D. Rouse
New York 1937
[Selection from the Opening
of the Poem]
BOOK I
What Went On in
the House of Odysseus
THIS IS THE STORY OF A MAN, ONE WHO WAS NEVER AT A
loss. He had travelled far in the world, after the sack of Troy, the virgin
fortress; he saw many cities of men, and learnt their mind; he endured many
troubles and hardships
in the struggle to save his own life and to bring back his men safe to their
homes. He did his best, but he could not save his companions. For they perished
by their own madness, because they killed and ate the cattle of Hyperion the
Sun-god, and the god took care that they should never see home again.
At the
time when I begin, all the others who had not been killed in the war were at
home, safe from the perils of battle and sea: but he was alone, longing to get
home to his wife. He was kept prisoner by a witch, Calypso, a radiant creature,
and herself one fo the great family of gods, who wanted
him to stay in her cave and be her husband. Well then, the seasons went rolling
by, and when the year came, in which by the thread that fate spins for every
man he was to return home to Ithaca, he had not yet got free of his troubles
and come back to his own people. The gods were all sorry for him, except
Poseidon, god of the sea, who bore a lasting grudge against him all the time
until he returned.
But it
happened that Poseidon went for a visit a long way off, to the Ethiopians; who
live at the ends of the earth, some near the sunrise, some near the sunset.
There he expected a fine sacrifice of bulls and goats, and there he was,
feasting and enjoying himself mightily; but the other gods were all gathered in
the palace of Olympian Zeus.
Then the
Father of gods and men made them a speech; for his heart was angry against a
man, Aigisthos, and Agamemnon’s son Orestęs, as you know, had just killed the man. So he spoke to the company as follows:
“Upon my
word, just see how mortal men always put the blame on us gods! We are the
source of evil, so they say—when they have only their own madness to thank if
their miseries are worse than they ought to be. Look here, now: Aigisthos has done what he ought not to have done. Took
Agamemnon’s wedded wife for himself, killed Agamemnon when he came home, though
he knew quite well it would be his own ruin! We gave him fair warning, sent our
special messenger Hermęs, and told him not to kill
the man or to make love to his wife; their son Orestęs
would punish him, when he grew up and wanted his own dominions. Hermęs told him plainly, but he could do nothing with Aigisthos, although it was for his own good. Now he has
paid the debt in one lump sum.”
REVIEW COMMENT
Rouse’s
original translation bears the sub-title “The Adventures of Ulysses” and he
must be among the last translators to use the old Latin names (although that
has changed in more recent editions of his translation, from which the above
sample was taken). Rouse indicates in his preface that his translation is
designed to rescue the Odyssey from
the clutches of poetic translations:
. . .
[The story] enchants every man, lettered or unlettered, and every boy who hears
it; but unless someone tells it by word of mouth, few are likely to hear it or
read it unless they know Greek. They cannot get it from any existing
translation, because all are filled with affectations and attempts at poetic
language, which Homer himself is quite free from. Homer speaks naturally and we
must do the same. That is what I have tried to do in this book, and I ask that
it may be judged simply as a story.
In pursuit of
this goal Rouse takes many liberties with Homer’s Greek text. But his plain
English keeps the story moving—there’s plenty of energy here, if little of the
imaginatively poetic.
In its day
the translation was well known, and it is still in print (as a Signet Classic)
and available on line. Rouse is worth browsing for his no-nonsense
brusquely energetic prose (larded with the occasional odd piece of antique
diction), but anyone seeking a prose translation of Homer’s Odyssey should,
in the interest of getting Homer’s poem relatively unsullied and of
experiencing more of Homer than the mere story, select another version.
For a short
contemporary review of Rouse’s Odyssey, use the following link: Classical
Review (1938)
Readers who
would like a preview of the Rouse translation should use the following link to
Amazon: Rouse Odyssey.
[List of
Published English Translations of Homer’s Iliad
and Odyssey]