Front Cover    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  490    491    492    493    494    495    496    497    498    499

What makes these translations different and how do they compare with other translations of the 20th century?

    Note from the Publisher        Resources        Why should I buy this book?       Librarians and Academia

What Others Have Said About This Translation    Adaptations of Translations    Press Release

 

    

    

    

 

            

           

             How could I forget godlike Odysseus,
              pre-eminent among all mortal men
              for his intelligence and offerings
             to the immortal gods, who hold wide heaven?
             But Earthshaker Poseidon is a stubborn god,                                      90
            constantly enraged about the Cyclops,
             the one whose eye Odysseus destroyed,
            godlike Polyphemus, the mightiest
            of all the Cyclopes. Thoosa bore him,
            a nymph, a daughter of that Phorcys
            who commands the restless sea. Poseidon,
            down in those hollow caves, had sex with her.
            That the reason Earthshaker Poseidon
            makes Odysseus wander from his country.
            Still, he has no plans to kill him. But come,                                         100
            let's all of us consider his return,
            so he can journey back to Ithaca.
            Poseidon's anger will relent. He can't
            fight the immortal gods all by himself,
            not with all of us opposing him.”

Goddess Athena with the gleaming eyes replied to Zeus:

            “Son of Cronos and father to us all,
            ruling high above, if the immortal gods
            now find it pleasing for the wise Odysseus
            to return back home, then let's send Hermes,                                         110
            killer of Argus, as our messenger,
            over to the island of Ogygia,
            so he can quickly tell that fair-haired nymph
            our firm decision—that brave Odysseus
            will now leave and complete his voyage home.
            I'll go to Ithaca and urge his son
            to be more active, put courage in his heart,
            so he will call those long-haired Achaeans
            to assembly, and there address the suitors,
            who keep on slaughtering his flocks of sheep

¹. . . all the Cyclopes: the Cyclopes, as we find out later in the poem, are aggressive uncivilized cannibal monsters with only one eye.