Odyssey

The Odyssey (Greek ????????) is the second of the two great Greek epic poems ascribed to Homer, the first of which is the Iliad. The book follows the events of the voyage of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, returning from the Trojan War, and the story of Odysseus son Telemachus who sets out to find his father. During two nights in the company of the Phaeacians Odysseus describes his adventures during the ten year-long voyage home, before returning to Ithaca. Once in Ithaca, Odysseus, after a twenty-year absence, reasserts himself as king of Ithaca, father of Telemachus, and husband of Penelope. In contrast to the Iliad, with its extended sequences of battle and violence, Odysseus is able to complete his journey using his cleverness, under the support of the goddess Athena. This cleverness is most often manifested by Odysseus use of disguise and, later, recognition. This disguise takes both physical forms (altering his appearance) and verbal forms (Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is No One (Outis) and later escapes after injuring the Cyclops because no one comes to help him when he yells that he has been attacked by "no one").

External links

Greek Myth: the Odyssey

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• Homer's Odyssey resources on the Web by Jorn Barger. Provides links to the original and various public domain translations.
• English translations:
• George Chapman, 1616 (couplets)
• Alexander Pope, 1713 (couplets); Project Gutenberg edition; http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/3160
• William Cowper, 1791 (blank verse)
• Samuel Henry Butcher and Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg edition; http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/1728
• William Cullen Bryant, 1871 (blank verse)
• Samuel Butler, 1898 (prose), Project Gutenberg edition; http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/1727
• English Text Samuel Butler, 1898 (prose)
• A. T. Murray (revised by George E. Dimock), 1919; Loeb Classical Library (ISBN 0674995619)
• Richmond Lattimore, 1965 (ISBN 0060931957)
• Robert Fitzgerald, 1963 (ISBN 0679728139)
• Walter Shewring, 1980 (ISBN 0192833758), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics)
• Robert Fagles, 1999 (ISBN 0140268863); an unabridged audio recording by Ian McKellen is also available (ISBN 014086430X).
• Stanley Lombardo, 2000 (ISBN 0872204847) has what is considered by many to be the best combination of faithfulness to the original Greek and a more vernacular style. An audio CD recording read by the translator is also available (ISBN 1930972067).
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