Which Translation: The Odyssey

T. S. Norgate

1863 · Blank verse

Features

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9
Holdings
2
Reviews

Biography

Thomas Starling Norgate (1807-1893) was an English clergyman who became rector of Sparham in 1840. He was the fourth son of Thomas Starling Norgate (1772-1859), a Victorian-era writer, journalist, and newspaper editor, who founded the Norfolk and Norwich Horicultural society.

Norgate translated the Odyssey into what he called ‘dramatic blank verse,’ using deliberately archaic diction and the unusual spelling ‘Odusseus’ for the hero’s name.

Ian Johnston has called Norgate’s translation ‘one of the odder Victorian attempts to render Homer’s Greek into English’ and criticized its unidiomatic language.

Publication History

  • 1863 — Williams and Norgate, The Odyssey; or, The Ten Years' Wandering of Odusseus, After the Ten Years' Siege of Troy; reproduced in dramatic blank verse ★

Reviews

The proem

1.1–11
The travelled Man of many a turn,—driven far,
Far wandering, when he had sacked Troy’s sacred Town;
Tell me, O Muse, his tale; how too he conned
The manners of mankind, and visited
Full many a City, and how on the deep he suffered
Many a heart-pang, striving to secure
His own and comrades’ lives and safe return.
Yet them he rescued not, howe’er desirous;
For their own blind folly they all perished:
Fools that they were! to eat the Sun-god’s herds:
So, Hyperion, he who Walks above,
Bereft them of their day of home-return!
Whereof, from whatsoever source, O goddess,
Daughter of Zeus, vouchsafe to tell e’en Us!—

Penelope's weaving trick

2.96–111
“O young men,
“Here wooing me, since dead is prince Odusseus,
“Stay ye your pressing yet this marriage on me,
“Until I shall have finished off this pall,—
“I would not that my threads should come to naught,—
“A shroud for the lord Laertes, whensoe’er
“Death’s fatal Doom shall seize and lay him outstretched.
“That no Achaian lady in all the land
“May blame me, as she might were he, who had owned
“Great wealth, to lie not honoured with a shroud.”
‘So spake she, and as for us, our gallant hearts
‘Were straight persuaded. There then, day by day,
‘Kept she indeed still weaving her large web:
‘O’ nights, howe’er, and when she had set her torches,
‘She used to undo it again! For three years thus
‘She escaped our ken, and cheated us Achaians:
‘But when came round again the fourth year’s seasons,—
‘One of her women, who well knew thereof,
‘Told us, whereat we went and found her at it,
‘Herself all ravelling out the splendid web.
‘Then indeed, e’en perforce, howe’er unwilling,
‘She finished it.

Calypso's double standard

5.118–131
“Cruel, ye gods, and jealous are ye indeed!
‘Past all! that look with grudge on goddesses,
‘Should openly one wed a man and win him
‘To be her lord and the partner of her bed!
‘E’en so forsooth when rosy-fingered Eos
‘Took to herself Orion, then on Her
‘You easy-living gods looked grudgingly,
‘Until chaste Artemis, the golden-throned,
‘Suddenly attacked him with her gentle shafts
‘And slew him in Ortygia, the isle of quails.
‘So too, when in the thrice-ploughed fallow-field
‘Fair-tressed Dimeter, following her own bent,
‘Joined her in love and wedlock with Iasion;
‘Not long howe’er was Zeus before the matter
‘Came to his ears, when with his flashing bolt
‘He smote and slew him. So now again on Me
‘Ye look with grudge, ye gods, for having with me
‘A mortal husband!—I, I rescued Him,
‘Him all forlorn bestridling a ship’s keel:

Weeping on Calypso's shore

5.151–159
And him down-sitting on the shore she found:
But not once dried from weeping were his eyes;
And sweet life-time apace was ebbing from him
Sorrowing for home-return; since now the Nymph
Did not delight him. E’en perforce howe’er
His nights indeed used he to pass, unwilling
With her all willing, in her hollow caves:
And sitting on the rocks and shores, by day,
Rending his heart with grief and groans and tears,
He used, e’en shedding tears, to look out keen
Upon the fruitless deep.

Nausicaa finds Odysseus

6.127–141
The prince Odusseus came from forth the bushes,
And brake with sturdy hand a leafy branch
From out the thicket, wherewithal to hide him
About his manly midst. Then went he his way,
Like a mountain lion, relying on his strength,
That stalks abroad storm-drenched and weather-beaten,
And flashing are his eyes with fire within:
Anon he attacks or beeves or sheep; or hunts
The wilder hinds: for Belly bids him prowl,
And try at the flocks, e’en at their home-stead folds.
So was Odusseus, naked all as he was,
Now going to company with fair-tressed maidens;
For urgent need was on him. But to Them
Terrible did he appear, befouled with brine,—
Spray dried upon him: this way and that all trembling
They fled by the jettying banks: and alone stayed
The daughter of Alcinous; for to Her
Athena gave good courage in her heart,
And took away all bodily fear.

War-widow simile

8.521–532
Such was the far-famed Minstrel’s minstrelsy:
Whereat Odusseus melted: and the tear
Stole from his eyelids and bedewed his cheeks.
E’en as a woman weeps and flings herself
Round her dear husband when he ‘has fallen in fight,
Before his Town and folk, in warding off
The ruthless day from his children and his City;
She looks upon the gasping, dying man,
And clasps him in her arms and wails aloud;
But from behind, the foemen with their spears
Smiting her back and shoulders lead her off
To bondage, and to endure both toil and sorrow;
And waning are her cheeks by grief most piteous:
So did Odusseus from beneath his brows
Let fall a piteous tear.

Cyclops eats the men

9.287–299
‘So spake I, whereto he, in ruthless mood,
‘Answered me nothing; but with sudden spring
‘Laid hands upon my comrades: two at once
‘He seizing, as were they whelps, and ’gainst the ground
‘Dashed them: and on the Earth their brains gushed out
‘And smeared the ground. Then limb from limb he cut them,
‘And made his supper ready; and he ate,
‘As would a hungry lion from the mountains:
‘Nought left he, neither entrails, neither flesh,
‘Nor marrow bones. We, weeping at the sight
‘Of deeds so cruel, upraised our hands to Zeus;
‘And helplessness gat hold upon our hearts.
‘Soon as with eating man’s flesh, and upon it
‘Drinking pure milk, he ‘had filled his mighty belly,
‘The Cyclops laid him down stretched out at length
‘Within his den to sleep among his flocks.

The Nobody trick

9.364–371
“Cyclops! dost ask the name whereby I’m called?
“Tell thee I will then; but give Thou to me
“That hospitable boon as hast thou pledged:
“My name is No-one: No-one is the name
“My mother, father, and all other friends
“Are wont to call me.” Spake I thus; whereat
‘In ruthless mood forthwith he answered me:
“After his comrades No-One I’ll eat last,
“All the others first: This hospitable boon
“Shall be for thee.”

Circe recognizes Odysseus

10.325–336
“Who, and of men whence art?
“Where is thy city and what, and who thy fathers?
“Amazement holds me, for that thou hast drank
“These drugs, and yet in no-wise art bewitched.
“For These drugs, no, not e’er has other man
“Withstood, that once should drink them, and whose lips
“Should give them passage o’er his teeth. But thou,
“A spell-proof sort of heart in Thy breast is it.
“Is’t then that Thou art He of many a trick
“Turmoiled Odusseus, He, whose coming hither
“With dark swift ship in home-bound course from Troy
“The gold-rod Argos-player was ever wont
“To be foretelling me? But come, put up
“Thy hanger in the scabbard: and our couch
“Climb we together, that in fond embrace
“Loving and loved we both may trust each other.”

Anticlea's shade

11.204–215
She spake. Doubting in heart,
‘Yet fain was I forthwith to embrace the spirit
‘Of my deceased mother: thrice indeed
‘Forwards I sprang to embrace her, as my soul
‘Kept bidding me: and thrice from out mine arms
‘She flitted like a shadow or e’en a dream;
‘While waxed within my heart grief yet more sharp:
‘Then spake I winged words and thus addressed her:
“My mother! why now stay’st not for me—fain
“To embrace thee, that we both, e’en though in Hades’,
“May clasp in loving arms, and have indulgence
“In chilly woe together? Is this merely
“Some phantom dread Persephone has sent me,
“That I may weep and wail yet more?”

Achilles in the underworld

11.488–501
“Indeed now praise not death, not death, to me:
“Much rather would I be upon the glebe
“A hireling laborer to some needy swain,—
“Whose means of livelihood were not abundant,—
“Than to be lord over all the dead deceased.
“But, tidings of that gallant son of mine
“Come, tell me now; whether or not he strives
“To be of the foremost to the battle-field,
“Of Peleus too, the blemishless, tell, tell me
“Whate’er hast heard; whether he yet holds rank
“And honor amongst our many Myrmidons:
“Or whether now throughout both Phthia and Hellas
“They esteem him not, because old age lays hold
“Upon his hands and feet. For I no longer
“Under the light of Sun am any aid,
“As once I was, when fighting for the Argives
“I slew on Troy’s broad plains her choicest men.

The Sirens' song

12.184–192
“Far-praised Odusseus! Come! O hither come,
“Great glory thou of Achaians! now bring to,
“And stay thy ship, and hear our two-voiced song!
“For never past This coast has any sailed
“In his dark ship but first he stayed, to hear
“The song melodious from our mouths: then He,
“Joyous he sails, and skilled in greater lore.
“For we know all forsooth, yea all the toils
“That in broad Troas, by the gods’ high will,
“Argives and Trojans suffered: know we too,
“Whatever happens on the bounteous Earth.”

Hyperion's cattle

12.341–352
hateful indeed
“Is death, in any shape, to wretched mortals;
“But saddest far, by Hunger, is it to die:
“And meet one’s fate. Then come ye; drive we away
“The best of Helios’ cows, and sacrifice
“To the Deathless ones who occupy broad heaven.
“And, should we e’er perchance reach Ithaca
“Our fatherland,—for Helios Hyperion
“Who walks on high we’ll straightway build a temple
“Costly, and furnish it with many an offering
“And gallant. If, howe’er, in any wrath
“About his straight-horned cows, shall he determine
“To wreck our ship, and the other gods shall also,—
“I’ll rather gulp the wave and lose my life
“At once, than linger upon a desert island,
“And thus be slowly drained out drop by drop.”

Argos recognizes Odysseus

17.324–328
Into the pleasant dwelling-house he stepped,
And straight along the hall to the gallant suitors.—
But upon Argus—black Death’s instant Doom
Laid hold, as soon as in the twentieth year
He saw Odusseus home.

Sleepless Odysseus

20.25–34
As when about
O’er some great blazing fire a hungry wight
Shifts rapidly a belly-pudding stuffed
With fat and blood, and longs to have it broiled
Right quickly; so was he from side to side
Turning himself about, pondering the while
How to lay hands upon those shameless suitors,
He alone against so many: anon from heaven
Down came Athéné and unto him drew near:
A woman seemed she in fashion; as by his head
She stood and spake this word: “And why still watching?
“Ill-fated sure past all men!

Stringing the bow

21.404–412
Meanwhile howe’er, Odusseus ever-ready,
Soon as he had poised the mighty Bow and eyed it
Everywhere,—as a man well-skilled in the harp
And minstrelsy, puts on at either end
The twisted sheep-gut, and with fresh new peg
Easily tunes his harp-string,—so Odusseus,
Without ado, soon strung the mighty Bow:
Then in his right hand taking it, he tried
The string; anon it sung beneath his touch
Right prettily, like unto a swallow’s twitter.

Odysseus reveals himself

22.1–8
Anon the prince, Odusseus ever-ready,
Stripped him from out his rags; and Bow in hand
And quiver full of arrows, up he sprang
On the great door-sill; where he straight poured out
The speedy shafts before his feet, and thus
He addressed the suitors: “Here at length indeed
“Is This decisive proof and brought to an end:
“Now will I see howe’er, if I can hit
“Another mark, the which has no man ever
“Yet struck; and may Apollo grant my prayer.”

The disloyal maids

22.465–474
He spake; and up
On lofty pillar fast he made a cable
Of a dark-prowed ship, and threw it round the scullery,
And stretched it up on high, that with her feet
Not one might reach the ground. And as, when doves,
Taking themselves to roost, or long-winged thrushes,
Fall into a gin, which stood set up in shrubbery,
And a hateful perch receives them so to roost;
So, with their heads in a row were now those women,
And nooses were there round the necks of all,
That they should die most pitiably. And a little,
But very little with their legs they struggled,
Not at all long.

The olive-tree bed

23.181–190
So spake she indeed to put her lord to the proof:
Whereat Odusseus wrathful thus addressed
His consort shrewd and duteous: “Here thou hast spoken
“Sure, sure a heart-distressing word, O woman!
“And who, who has put my bedstead forth elsewhere?
“‘T were a hard task for one however cunning;
“Save were a god himself to come and set it,
“With ease if so he chose, in a room elsewhere:
“Of men howe’er no never a living mortal,
“Not e’en in prime and pride of life, might easily
“Upheave it out of the way: for a signal token
“Within that curious bedstead is contrived,
“Which I, yes I, and never another, wrought.

Shipwrecked sailor simile

23.233–241
As when appears the land,
Welcome to swimming sailors, when Poseidon
With swelling wave and wind has driven and shattered
Their trimbuilt ship in the deep; and some few swimming
Escape ashore from out the surfy sea,
And on their limbs the brine dries thick and crisp;
And, ‘scaping from distress, glad they set foot
Upon the land;—e’en so right gladly welcome
Was her dear lord to her sight: and her white arms
No, not yet thought she from his neck to loose.