Which Translation: The Odyssey

Alexander Pope

1725 · Heroic couplets

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Biography

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Augustan era, widely regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the 18th century. Largely self-taught due to restrictions on Catholics, he became famous for works such as The Rape of the Lock and An Essay on Criticism.

Pope translated the Odyssey in 1725-1726, after his Iliad translation proved a massive commercial success. He collaborated with William Broome and Elijah Fenton, who translated twelve of the twenty-four books between them. Pope saw Homer as ‘the supreme poet of manners’, and aimed for elevated, polished English verse that captured or even improved on the grandeur of the original.

Pope’s Homer was the dominant English translation for nearly two centuries. Samuel Johnson called his Iliad ‘a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal’, while classical scholar Richard Bentley reportedly told him, ‘It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer’. It greatly influenced later translations, and is considered a classic today.

Alexander Pope on Wikipedia ↗

Publication History

  • 1726 — Bernard Lintot, The Odyssey of Homer; a general view of the epic poem, and of the Iliad and Odyssey, extracted from Bossu; postscript, by Mr. Pope; Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice, corrected by Mr. Pope
  • 1733 — A. and W. Creech / J. Balfour Kincaid, The Odyssey (Edinburgh edition)
  • 1758 — Henry Lintot, The Odyssey of Homer; translated from the Greek
  • 1761 — E. and J. Robertsons, The Odyssey of Homer; translated from the Greek (Edinburgh)
  • 1763 — Thomas Osborne, The Iliad and Odyssey
  • 1763 — Alexander Donaldson / J. Reid, The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (Edinburgh)
  • 1766 — M. Cooper, The Odyssey of Homer
  • 1768 — Robert and Andrew Foulis, The Odyssey of Homer (Glasgow)
  • 1773 — J. Robertson, The Odyssey of Homer (Edinburgh)
  • 1776 — J. G. Garbe, The Odyssey of Homer (Frankfurt am Main)
  • 1778 — Charles Elliot, The Odyssey of Homer (Edinburgh)
  • 1778 — John Boyle, The Odyssey of Homer (Aberdeen)
  • 1796 — Longman, The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer; a new edition with additional notes, critical and illustrative by Gilbert Wakefield
  • 1801 — J. Johnson, Iliad and Odyssey (new edition)
  • 1802 — Bensley, The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer
  • 1805 — Evance Suttaby, Odyssey; translated into English verse by Pope, etc.
  • 1806 — J. Johnson, The Iliad and the Odyssey; with additional notes, critical and illustrative, by Gilbert Wakefield
  • 1806 — Thomas Turnbull, The Odyssey of Homer (Edinburgh)
  • 1807 — Walker, The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer
  • 1808 — Etheridge and Bliss Hastings, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; ornamented with wood cuts originally designed and engraved by G. Lansing (Boston; illustrated by G. Lansing)
  • 1808 — William Durell, The Odyssey of Homer (New York)
  • 1809 — C. Whittingham / J. Sharpe, The Odyssey of Homer
  • 1810 — T. Bensley, The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer
  • 1813 — Richards and Mallory / P. H. Nicklin, The Odyssey of Homer; translated from the Greek (Georgetown / Philadelphia)
  • 1820 — W. Wilson / J. Bumpus, The Odyssey of Homer; to which is added The Battle of the Frogs and Mice; translated
  • 1820 — C. Whittingham, The Odyssey, and the Hymns, Odes and Epigrams of Homer
  • 1822 — Myers and Smith, The Odyssey of Homer; translated from the Greek (New York)
  • 1825 — Baynes, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; to which is added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice
  • 1826 — Jones and Company, The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer; translated; to which is added The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
  • 1832 — Valpy, Iliad and Odyssey (Family Classical Library)
  • 1836 — Scott, Webster, and Geary, The Odyssey of Homer, with, The Battle of the Frogs and Mice; translated, with explanatory notes and index
  • 1837 — T. Allman, The Odyssey of Homer; translated
  • 1848 — S. Andrus, Translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer; with valuable notes and commentaries, and several incidental literary papers, not contained in any other edition; edited by W. C. Armstrong (5th ed.; Hartford)
  • 1848 — Leavitt and Allen, The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer; translated; with valuable notes and commentaries, and several incidental literary papers, not contained in any other edition; edited by W. C. Armstrong (New York)
  • 1853 — Nathaniel Cooke, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; with notes, by the Rev. Theodore Alois Buckley; with Flaxman's designs, and other engravings (New York)
  • 1859 — Henry G. Bohn, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; to which are added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice by Parnell, and the Hymns by Chapman and others; with observations and brief notes by J. S. Watson
  • 1862 — Henry G. Bohn, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; to which are added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice by Parnell; and the Hymns by Chapman and others; with observations and brief notes by the Rev. J. S. Watson; illustrated with the entire series of Flaxman's designs
  • 1862 — Milner and Sowerby, Homer's Odyssey; translated; to which is added The Battle of the Frogs and Mice, translated by Parnell and corrected by Pope (Halifax)
  • 1864 — Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; to which is added, The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
  • 1866 — Bell and Daldy, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; to which are added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice by Parnell and the Hymns by Chapman and others; with observations and brief notes by the Rev. J. S. Watson; illustrated with the entire series of Flaxman's designs
  • 1872 — George Routledge and Sons, The Iliad and The Odyssey; edited by the Rev. H. F. Cary, A.M.; with a biographical notice of the author
  • 1874 — Frederick Warne, Iliad and Odyssey, translated; with notes by Theodore Alois Buckley; and Flaxman's designs
  • 1876 — George Routledge, Iliad and Odyssey; translated
  • 1876 — George Bell, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; to which are added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice by Parnell; and the Hymns by Chapman and others; with observations and brief notes, by J. S. Watson; illustrated with the entire series of Flaxman's designs
  • 1876 — World Publishing House, Homer's Odyssey; translated; with valuable notes and commentaries, and several papers not contained in any other edition; ed. by W. C. Armstrong (New York)
  • 1880 — American Book Exchange, The Odyssey of Homer; translated (New York)
  • 1881 — John W. Lovell, The Odyssey of Homer; translated, with notes and introduction by the Rev. Theodore Alois Buckley and Flaxman's designs (New York)
  • 1881 — J. B. Lippincott, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; with notes and introduction by the Rev. Theodore Alois Buckley; and Flaxman's designs (Philadelphia)
  • 1881 — George Bell and Sons, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; to which are added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, by Parnell and the Hymns by Chapman and others; with observations and brief notes by the Rev. J. S. Watson; illustrated with the entire series of Flaxman's designs
  • 1887 — Worthington Co., The Odyssey of Homer; translated (New York)
  • 1889 — George Routledge, Iliad and Odyssey, translated, edited by Carey (ed. H. F. Cary; new edition)
  • 1890 — Keystone Pub. Co., Homer's Odyssey; translated; with valuable notes and commentaries and several papers not contained in any other edition; edited by W. C. Armstrong (Philadelphia)
  • 1890 — Leavitt and Allen, The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer; translated; with valuable notes and commentaries, and several incidental literary papers, not contained in any other edition; edited by W. C. Armstrong (New York)
  • 1891 — George Routledge, Iliad and Odyssey of Homer; translated; edited by H. F. Cary, with an introduction by Sir John Lubbock
  • 1891 — W. W. Gibbings, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; with notes by Theodore Alois Buckley and Flaxman's designs
  • 1894 — Frederick Warne, The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer; translated; with notes and introduction by the Rev. Theodore Alois Buckley; Flaxman's designs
  • 1894 — George Bell and Sons, Homer's Odyssey; translated; to which are added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice by Parnell and the Hymns by Chapman and others; with observations and brief notes by J. S. Watson; illustrated with the entire series of Flaxman's designs
  • 1897 — George Routledge, The Iliad and Odyssey; edited by H. F. Cary; introduction by Sir J. Lubbock (Best Books series)
  • 1902 — George Bell, The Iliad and the Odyssey (Bohn's Classical Library)
  • 1902 — Henneberry, The Odyssey of Homer; Pope Translation (Chicago)
  • 1903 — Henry Frowde / Oxford University Press, The Odyssey of Homer; translated (World Classics)
  • 1906 — George Bell and Sons, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; to which are added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, by Parnell, and the Hymns, by Chapman and others; edited by the Rev. J. S. Watson; illustrated with the entire series of Flaxman's designs ★
  • 1911 — Macmillan, The Odyssey of Homer; translated into English verse; edited, with introduction and notes by Edgar S. Shumway and Waldo Shumway (New York)
  • 1912 — George Bell, Homer's Odyssey; translated, to which are added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, by Parnell and The Hymns by Chapman and others, edited by J. S. Watson
  • 1925 — Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, The Odyssey of Homer; translated
  • 1927 — Frederick Warne, The Odyssey of Homer; with notes by the Rev. Theodore Alois Buckley, and Flaxman's designs (Chandos Classics)
  • 1931 — Oxford University Press, The Odyssey of Homer; translated
  • 1931 — Nonesuch Press, Odyssey (limited edition)
  • 1931 — Limited Editions Club, The Odyssey; translated; with an introduction by Carl Van Dorn (Haarlem)
  • 1936 — Clarke Belford, The Odyssey of Homer; translated; with notes and introduction by Theodore A. Buckley (Chicago)
  • 1942 — Heritage Press, The Odyssey of Homer; in the English verse translation; illustrated with the classical designs of John Flaxman (New York)
  • 1956 — Fine Editions Press, Homer's Odyssey; translated and with an introduction by Thomas Yoseloff (New York)
  • 1967 — Methuen / Yale University Press, The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope, Vols. IX-X (ed. Maynard Mack)
  • 1970 — Heritage Press, The Odyssey of Homer in the English Verse Translation by Alexander Pope; illustrated with the classical designs of John Flaxman (Avon, Conn.)
  • 1978 — Easton Press, The Odyssey of Homer; in the English translation by Alexander Pope; illustrated with the classical designs of John Flaxman (Norwalk, Conn.)

Reviews

The proem

1.1–11
The man for wisdom’s various arts renown’d,
Long exercised in woes, O Muse! resound;
Who, when his arms had wrought the destined fall
Of sacred Troy, and razed her heaven-built wall,
Wandering from clime to clime, observant stray’d,
Their manners noted, and their states survey’d,
On stormy seas unnumber’d toils he bore,
Safe with his friends to gain his natal shore:
Vain toils! their impious folly dared to prey
On herds devoted to the god of day;
The god vindictive doom’d them never more
(Ah, men unbless’d!) to touch that natal shore.
Oh, snatch some portion of these acts from fate,
Celestial Muse! and to our world relate.

Penelope's weaving trick

2.96–111
“Though cold in death Ulysses breathes no more,
Cease yet awhile to urge the bridal hour:
Cease, till to great Laertes I bequeath
A task of grief, his ornaments of death.
Lest when the Fates his royal ashes claim,
The Grecian matrons taint my spotless fame;
When he, whom living mighty realms obey’d,
Shall want in death a shroud to grace his shade.’
“Thus she: at once the generous train complies,
Nor fraud mistrusts in virtue’s fair disguise.
The work she plied; but, studious of delay,
By night reversed the labours of the day.
While thrice the sun his annual journey made,
The conscious lamp the midnight fraud survey’d;
Unheard, unseen, three years her arts prevail;
The fourth her maid unfolds the amazing tale.
We saw, as unperceived we took our stand,
The backward labours of her faithless hand.
Then urged, she perfects her illustrious toils;
A wondrous monument of female wiles!

Calypso's double standard

5.118–131
“Ungracious gods! with spite and envy cursed!
Still to your own ethereal race the worst!
Ye envy mortal and immortal joy,
And love, the only sweet of life destroy,
Did ever goddess by her charms engage
A favour’d mortal, and not feel your rage?
So when Aurora sought Orion’s love,
Her joys disturbed your blissful hours above,
Till, in Ortygia Dian’s winged dart
Had pierced the hapless hunter to the heart,
So when the covert of the thrice-eared field
Saw stately Ceres to her passion yield,
Scarce could Iasion taste her heavenly charms,
But Jove’s swift lightning scorched him in her arms.
And is it now my turn, ye mighty powers!
Am I the envy of your blissful bowers?
A man, an outcast to the storm and wave,
It was my crime to pity, and to save;

Weeping on Calypso's shore

5.151–159
Him pensive on the lonely beach she found,
With streaming eyes in briny torrents drown’d,
And inly pining for his native shore;
For now the soft enchantress pleased no more;
For now, reluctant, and constrained by charms,
Absent he lay in her desiring arms,
In slumber wore the heavy night away,
On rocks and shores consumed the tedious day;
There sate all desolate, and sighed alone,
With echoing sorrows made the mountains groan.
And roll’d his eyes o’er all the restless main,
Till, dimmed with rising grief, they streamed again.

Nausicaa finds Odysseus

6.127–141
Then, where the grove with leaves umbrageous bends,
With forceful strength a branch the hero rends;
Around his loins the verdant cincture spreads
A wreathy foliage and concealing shades.
As when a lion in the midnight hours,
Beat by rude blasts, and wet with wintry showers,
Descends terrific from the mountains brow;
With living flames his rolling eye balls glow;
With conscious strength elate, he bends his way,
Majestically fierce, to seize his prey
(The steer or stag;) or, with keen hunger bold,
Spring o’er the fence and dissipates the fold.
No less a terror, from the neighbouring groves
(Rough from the tossing surge) Ulysses moves;
Urged on by want, and recent from the storms;
The brackish ooze his manly grace deforms.
Wide o’er the shore with many a piercing cry
To rocks, to caves, the frightened virgins fly;
All but the nymph; the nymph stood fix’d alone,
By Pallas arm’d with boldness not her own.

War-widow simile

8.521–532
Thus while he sung, Ulysses’ griefs renew,
Tears bathe his cheeks, and tears the ground bedew
As some fond matron views in mortal fight
Her husband falling in his country’s right;
Frantic through clashing swords she runs, she flies,
As ghastly pale he groans, and faints and dies;
Close to his breast she grovels on the ground,
And bathes with floods of tears the gaping wound;
She cries, she shrieks: the fierce insulting foe
Relentless mocks her violence of woe:
To chains condemn’d, as wildly she deplores;
A widow, and a slave on foreign shores.
So from the sluices of Ulysses’ eyes
Fast fell the tears, and sighs succeeded sighs:

Cyclops eats the men

9.287–299
“He answer’d with his deed: his bloody hand
Snatch’d two, unhappy! of my martial band;
And dash’d like dogs against the stony floor:
The pavement swims with brains and mingled gore.
Torn limb from limb, he spreads his horrid feast,
And fierce devours it like a mountain beast:
He sucks the marrow, and the blood he drains,
Nor entrails, flesh, nor solid bone remains.
We see the death from which we cannot move,
And humbled groan beneath the hand of Jove.
His ample maw with human carnage fill’d,
A milky deluge next the giant swill’d;
Then stretch’d in length o’er half the cavern’d rock,
Lay senseless, and supine, amidst the flock.

The Nobody trick

9.364–371
‘Thy promised boon, O Cyclop! now I claim,
And plead my title; Noman is my name.
By that distinguish’d from my tender years,
’Tis what my parents call me, and my peers.
“The giant then: ‘Our promis’d grace receive,
The hospitable boon we mean to give:
When all thy wretched crew have felt my power,
Noman shall be the last I will devour.’

Circe recognizes Odysseus

10.325–336
“‘What art thou? say! from whence, from whom you came?
O more than human! tell thy race, thy name.
Amazing strength, these poisons to sustain!
Not mortal thou, nor mortal is thy brain.
Or art thou he, the man to come (foretold
By Hermes, powerful with the wand of gold),
The man from Troy, who wander’d ocean round;
The man for wisdom’s various arts renown’d,
Ulysses? Oh! thy threatening fury cease;
Sheathe thy bright sword, and join our hands in peace!
Let mutual joys our mutual trust combine,
And love, and love-born confidence, be thine.’

Anticlea's shade

11.204–215
“Thrice in my arms I strove her shade to bind,
Thrice through my arms she slipp’d like empty wind,
Or dreams, the vain illusions of the mind.
Wild with despair, I shed a copious tide
Of flowing tears, and thus with sighs replied:
“‘Fliest thou, loved shade, while I thus fondly mourn!
Turn to my arms, to my embraces turn!
Is it, ye powers that smile at human harms!
Too great a bliss to weep within her arms?
Or has hell’s queen an empty image sent,
That wretched I might e’en my joys lament?’

Achilles in the underworld

11.488–501
“‘Talk not of ruling in this dolorous gloom,
Nor think vain words (he cried) can ease my doom.
Rather I’d choose laboriously to bear
A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air,
A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread,
Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead.
But say, if in my steps my son proceeds,
And emulates his godlike father’s deeds?
If at the clash of arms, and shout of foes,
Swells his bold heart, his bosom nobly glows?
Say if my sire, the reverend Peleus, reigns,
Great in his Phthia, and his throne maintains;
Or, weak and old, my youthful arm demands,
To fix the sceptre steadfast in his hands?
O might the lamp of life rekindled burn,
And death release me from the silent urn!
This arm, that thunder’d o’er the Phrygian plain,
And swell’d the ground with mountains of the slain,

The Sirens' song

12.184–192
“‘Oh stay, O pride of Greece! Ulysses, stay!
Oh cease thy course, and listen to our lay!
Blest is the man ordain’d our voice to hear,
The song instructs the soul, and charms the ear.
Approach! thy soul shall into raptures rise!
Approach! and learn new wisdom from the wise!
We know whate’er the kings of mighty name
Achieved at Ilion in the field of fame;
Whate’er beneath the sun’s bright journey lies.
Oh stay, and learn new wisdom from the wise!’

Hyperion's cattle

12.341–352
“‘O friends, a thousand ways frail mortals lead
To the cold tomb, and dreadful all to tread;
But dreadful most, when by a slow decay
Pale hunger wastes the manly strength away.
Why cease ye then to implore the powers above,
And offer hecatombs to thundering Jove?
Why seize ye not yon beeves, and fleecy prey?
Arise unanimous; arise and slay!
And if the gods ordain a safe return,
To Phœbus shrines shall rise, and altars burn.
But should the powers that o’er mankind preside
Decree to plunge us in the whelming tide,
Better to rush at once to shades below
Than linger life away, and nourish woe.’

Argos recognizes Odysseus

17.324–328
This said, the honest herdsman strode before;
The musing monarch pauses at the door:
The dog, whom Fate had granted to behold
His lord, when twenty tedious years had roll’d,
Takes a last look, and having seen him, dies;
So closed for ever faithful Argus’ eyes!

Sleepless Odysseus

20.25–34
As one who long with pale-eyed famine pined,
The savoury cates on glowing embers cast
Incessant turns, impatient for repast
Ulysses so, from side to side-devolved,
In self-debate the suitor’s doom resolved
When in the form of mortal nymph array’d,
From heaven descends the Jove-born martial maid;
And hovering o’er his head in view confess’d,
The goddess thus her favourite care address’d:
“O thou, of mortals most inured to woes!
Why roll those eyes unfriended of repose?

Stringing the bow

21.404–412
Heedless he heard them: but disdain’d reply;
The bow perusing with exactest eye.
Then, as some heavenly minstrel, taught to sing
High notes responsive to the trembling string,
To some new strain when he adapts the lyre,
Or the dumb lute refits with vocal wire,
Relaxes, strains, and draws them to and fro;
So the great master drew the mighty bow,
And drew with ease. One hand aloft display’d
The bending horns, and one the string essay’d.
From his essaying hand the string, let fly,
Twang’d short and sharp like the shrill swallow’s cry.

Odysseus reveals himself

22.1–8
Then fierce the hero o’er the threshold strode;
Stripp’d of his rags, he blazed out like a god.
Full in their face the lifted bow he bore,
And quiver’d deaths, a formidable store;
Before his feet the rattling shower he threw,
And thus, terrific, to the suitor-crew:
“One venturous game this hand hath won to-day,
Another, princes! yet remains to play;
Another mark our arrow must attain.
Phœbus, assist! nor be the labour vain.”

The disloyal maids

22.465–474
Thus speaking, on the circling wall he strung
A ship’s tough cable from a column hung;
Near the high top he strain’d it strongly round,
Whence no contending foot could reach the ground.
Their heads above connected in a row,
They beat the air with quivering feet below:
Thus on some tree hung struggling in the snare,
The doves or thrushes flap their wings in air.
Soon fled the soul impure, and left behind
The empty corse to waver with the wind.

The olive-tree bed

23.181–190
Thus speaks the queen, still dubious, with disguise
Touch’d at her words, the king with warmth replies
“Alas for this! what mortal strength can move
The enormous burden, who but Heaven above?
It mocks the weak attempts of human hands!
But the whole earth must move if Heaven commands
Then hear sure evidence, while we display
Words seal’d with sacred truth and truth obey:
This hand the wonder framed;

Shipwrecked sailor simile

23.233–241
As to the shipwreck’d mariner, the shores
Delightful rise, when angry Neptune roars:
Then, when the surge in thunder mounts the sky,
And gulf’d in crowds at once the sailors die;
If one, more happy, while the tempest raves,
Outlives the tumult of conflicting waves,
All pale, with ooze deform’d, he views the strand,
And plunging forth with transport grasps the land:
The ravish’d queen with equal rapture glows,
Clasps her loved lord, and to his bosom grows.