Which Translation: The Odyssey

George Howland

1891 · Fourteeners

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Biography

George Howland (1824-1892) was an American educator and classicist, educated at Amherst College, where he later taught Latin and French. He served as Principal of Chicago High School (1860-1880) and Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools (1880-1891). He also translated Virgil’s Aeneid into English hexameter (1880-1884).

Howland argued that Homer ought to be seen as a wandering minstrel, like those of medieval literature, rather than a cultivated poet like Virgil or Milton. He thus chose plainer language and a traditional ballad meter, instead of the more elevated blank verse favored by Pope and others.

Howland’s Odyssey covers only Books I, V, IX, and X, published by Effingham Maynard & Co. as a school edition. It follows his partial Iliad (Books I and VI, 1889). His Aeneid translation was described as ‘much admired’ by Appletons’ Cyclopaedia.

Publication History

  • 1891 — E. Maynard, Homer's Odyssey, Book I, V, IX, X; metrical translation; with notes ★

The proem

1.1–11
Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many resources, who many
Ills was made to endure, when he Troy’s sacred city had wasted;
Many the peoples whose cities he saw, and learned of their customs,
Many also the sorrows he suffered at sea in his spirit,
Striving to save his own life and secure the return of his comrades.
But not thus his comrades he saved, however he wished it,
For by their own presumptuous deeds they foolishly perished:
Madmen they, who devoured the sun-god, Hyperion’s oxen.
And in revenge he took from them their day of returning.
Of these things, thou goddess, daughter of Jove, tell us also.

Calypso's double standard

5.118–131
“Merciless are ye, ye gods, and envious far beyond others,
Who so grudge the goddesses taking men for their consorts,
Openly, should one choose to make a man her dear husband;
Thus, when Orion was chosen by rosy-fingered Aurora,
All ye ease-living gods were filled with great indignation,
Till in Ortygia met him the chaste, golden-seated Diana,
And with her silent shafts came haply upon him and slew him;
So, when with Iasius too the fair-haired Demeter,
Yielding to her own heart, was in love and friendship united,
On her thrice-plowed lands, not long remained without knowing
Jove, who sent forth and slew him there with his glittering lightning;
So again now, ye gods, ye grudge me, that a man is here present.
Him, though, I saved as he clung to the keel of his vessel,

Weeping on Calypso's shore

5.151–159
Him she then found sitting down by the sea, and never his eyes were
Free from tears; and all his sweet life there from him was passing
While he bemoaned his return; for the nymph no longer was pleasing.
But in truth he his nights continued to pass, by compulsion,
There in the hollow cave, though unwilling, beside her, the willing,
Sitting down by day mid the rocks, or close by the seashore,
Rending his heart amid flowing tears and groans and bitter complainings.
Looking out o’er the barren sea and pouring his tears forth.

Cyclops eats the men

9.287–299
Thus I spake, but he with merciless heart made no answer,
But he sprang forward at once, and laid his hand on my comrades,
Grasping together two, like whelps, and to the ground dashed them;
And their brains flowed forth on the ground until they had soaked it;
Cutting them limb from limb he then made ready his supper;
And as a mountain lion he ate them, nor left of them even
Anything either of flesh, of marrow bones, or of entrails.
But with loud lamentations we lifted our hands up to great Jove,
Seeing these cruel deeds; but helplessness filled all our bosoms.
But when the Cyclops at last had filled to the full his huge stomach,
Eating the human flesh, and drinking unmingled milk also,
Stretching himself by the side of his sheep he lay down in the cavern.

The Nobody trick

9.364–371
“Cyclops, you ask me to tell you my well-known name? and I now will
Tell you; but give in return a friendly gift, as you promised.
Noman is my name, and Noman all of them call me,
Mother and father both, and all the rest, my companions.”
Thus I spake, and he from his merciless heart thus made answer:
“Noman shall be then the last I will eat among his companions;
All of the others before him: this friendly gift will I give you.”

Circe recognizes Odysseus

10.325–336
“Who and whence are you of men? and where your city and parents?
I am in wonder, as never before, that you drank this drug still uninjured;
For there was never, no, never another, who this drug resisted,
If he once drank, and allowed it to pass his teeth’s firm enclosure.
In your breast there must be a spirit not to be conquered.
Are you indeed the much-travelled Ulysses, who always the Argus-
Slayer with golden wand has fortold to us would come hither
On his return from Troy with his swift dark ship and his comrades?
But come now, place your sword in its sheath, and let us thereafter
Then together go up to my couch, in order that joining
Friendship and love, we henceforth may have full trust in each other.