Which Translation: The Odyssey

William Mann

2022 · Free verse

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Biography

William Mann is a translator who self-published ‘The Odyssey of Homer: New Verse Translation’, described as the first English translation to use only original Homeric Greek names throughout.

Mann’s translation is distinctive for its consistent use of transliterated Greek names with diacritical marks: ‘Oduseús’ rather than ‘Odysseus,’ ‘Pênelopeia’ rather than ‘Penelope,’ ‘Athênaiê’ rather than ‘Athena.’ The volume includes a pronunciation guide, glossary of names, and index of Homeric epithets.

A self-published niche translation with very limited critical reception, it may be of interest to readers who value fidelity to original Greek nomenclature.

Publication History

  • 2022 — self-published, The Odyssey ★

The proem

1.1–11
Moúsa tell me about the man and his great will and his great wanderings
after he sacked the sacred citadel of Troiê.
Great cities and people’s minds he saw and learned
and great agony upon the sea he suffered in his heart
for the salvation of his soul and the return of his men.
But he did not save his men despite his desire.
They were destroyed by their own depravity
for they were fools who ate the oxen of Huperiôn Êelios
so he took away from them the day of their return.
Tell us some of these things O goddess daughter of Zeús

Penelope's weaving trick

2.96–111
‘Young men O my suitors. Divine Odiseús is dead
so you desire to marry me. But wait until I finish this robe
or my weaving shall be lost and in vain.
It is a shroud for the lord Laertês and for the time
when the fate that destroys and the long woe of death shall come for him.
So none of the Akhaíadesi women in the land shall be angry at me
if he who possessed so much were buried with no shroud.’
So she spoke and the hearts inside us were proud and were persuaded.
Then by day she weaved at the great loom
but by night she placed torches beside her and unravelled it.
Three years her deceit was unseen and she persuaded the Akhaioísi.
But when the fourth year came and the seasons had turned
then one of her women who knew the truth told us
and we caught her unravelling the glorious loom.
So she was forced to finish but she did want to.

Calypso's double standard

5.118–131
“You are cruel gods and you are jealous beyond others
when a goddess reveals herself in the bed of a man
and you are jealous if she loves him and makes him her husband.
So when Êos held Oriôn in her fingers of rose
you gods who live at ease were jealous
until the holiness of Artemis from her throne of gold
went to Ortugiê and killed him with her gentle shafts.
So for Iasiôn and Dêmêtêr of the beautiful hair
when she gave in to her heart and lay down in the bed of love
of the thrice-ploughed field. It was not long unknown
by Zeús who threw his white thunderbolt down and killed him.
So now you gods are jealous of me for I am with a mortal man.
But I saved him when he was alone and he came here on the keel
of his swift ship

Weeping on Calypso's shore

5.151–159
She found him sitting on the shore. And his eyes
were never dry of tears and his sweet life slipped away
in mourning to return for there was no pleasure in her anymore.
But he was forced to pass the nights with her
inside the hollow caves not wanting what she wanted.
And in the day he sat on the rocks of the sand
and his heart was breaking with pain and he groaned with tears
and he watched his tears falling into the unharrowed sea.

Nausicaa finds Odysseus

6.127–141
So he spoke and divine Odusseús came out of the bushes
and his big hand broke from the thick woods a branch of leaves
to hold it around his body and hide his nakedness.
And he left and went like a mountain-born lion that trusts its strength
and goes into the rain and the wind and its eyes are fire.
But it goes after the oxen or rams
or after wild deer and its stomach commands it
to go and try for the sheep in the narrow pens.
So Odusseús was to meet the girls of the beautiful hair
naked though he was. For the need had come.
And to them he appeared hideous and defiled with sea-water
and they ran away everywhere all over the forward seashore.
Alone the daughter of Alkínoos remained. For in her heart
Athênaiê put courage and took fear from her body.

War-widow simile

8.521–532
And this was the song of the glorious singer. But Oduséus melted
and his cheeks were wet from the tears of his eyes.
As a woman cries and embraces her beloved husband
who has fallen in front of his city and his people
to protect his city and his children from this ruthless day.
She sees him lying and gasping for breath
and she throws herself around him and screams
but men behind her strike her back and shoulders with their spears
and drag her away into slavery and suffering and pain.
As her cheeks are withered away by pity and agony
so pitiful tears fell down the face of Oduséus.

Cyclops eats the men

9.287–299
So I spoke and he said nothing but with a pitiless heart
he sprang up and reached out his hands for my men
and grabbed two like puppies and smacked them on the ground
and their brains oozed and slicked over the floor.
He cut them limb from limb and made them for dinner
and ate them like a lion that is born in the mountains
and he left nothing of the entrails or the flesh or the bones or the marrow.
And we cried and lifted our hands to Zeús
to see his cruelty and our hearts were possessed by helplessness.
But after the Kuklôps had filled his huge stomach
with the human flesh he had eaten and the pure milk he had drunk
he lay down in the cave and stretched himself among the sheep.

The Nobody trick

9.364–371
‘O Kuklôps. You ask me my glorious name so I will tell you.
But give me a gift even as you promised.
Nobody is my name. Nobody I am called
by my mother and my father and all my men.’
So I spoke and he answered me with a pitiless heart:
‘Nobody I will eat last after his men.
The others shall be first. This shall be your gift.’

Circe recognizes Odysseus

10.325–336
‘Who are you of men and from where? Where your city and parents?
Wonder holds me that you drink this charm and you are not enchanted.
For no other man has ever resisted this charm
whenever it is drunk and passes the wall of his teeth.
But in your chest you have some inexorable spirit.
So you are Odiseús. How much you have changed.
For I have been told forever by Argeïphontês and his staff of gold
that you would come to me from Troiê on your swift and black ship.
But come and put away your sword in its sheath
and then we two shall ascend to my bed to lie together
and be joined in love so we may trust each other.’

Anticlea's shade

11.204–215
So she spoke and my heart was in pain
and I wished to hold the soul of my dead mother
and three times I rushed to hold her as my heart desired
and three times she slipped from my arms like a shadow or a dream.
And the pain in my heart became even sharper
and I spoke and addressed her with winged words:
‘O mother. Why do you not stay when I yearn to hold you
so even in Aïdês we may throw our dear arms around each other
and enjoy our crying in the coldness?
Are you a shadow raised for me by Persephóneia whom we adore
so I shall mourn and cry even more?’

Achilles in the underworld

11.488–501
‘You have no consolation for my death O glorious Oduséus.
For I would choose to serve on earth and be the slave
of a man of nothing whose existence possessed no greatness
rather than be the lord of all the rotting dead.
But come and speak and tell me of the glory of my son
whether or not he followed me and was the apex of the war.
And tell me if you have heard anything of noble Pêleus
and if he still has honour among all the Murmidónessi
or if they dishonour him in Hellás and Phthíê
because old age binds him hand and foot.
For I cannot defend him in the light of Êelios
and be what I was when I was in Troíê far away
when I slew the finest of their men to save the Argeíoisi.

The Sirens' song

12.184–192
‘Great is the glory of Odiseús and great is his glory among the Akhaioísi.
Come here and stay your ship and come and hear the voice of us
for no man on his black ship ever passes here
before he hears our voices for our mouths are like the honeycomb
and greater is his pleasure and his knowledge when he sails away
for we know Troiê far away
and all the Argeíosi and Trôessi suffering for the grace of god
and we know what shall be upon the earth that feeds you all.’

Hyperion's cattle

12.341–352
All deaths are hated by us who live and suffer
but to die of hunger and to have this end is the most pitiful.
So come and let us drive away the finest of the oxen of Êelios
for a sacrifice to the gods who hold the vastness of heaven.
And if we ever reach the land of our fathers in Ithakê
first shall we build a temple to Êelios Huperiôn and it shall have riches
and we shall offer him things of greatness inside.
But if he is enraged for his horned oxen
and wishes to destroy our ship and if he is followed by the other gods
then I would choose to lose my life at once with the waves inside my mouth
rather than be drained away slowly on an island that is desolate.’

Argos recognizes Odysseus

17.324–328
So he spoke and entered the house where they lived well
and went straight into the hall with the noble suitors.
But Árgos was seized by a fate of black death
when he had seen Odusseús in the twentieth year.

Sleepless Odysseus

20.25–34
Like a man turns an animal’s stomach over a great blazing fire
filled with sacrificial fat and blood
again and again for he wants it roasted quickly.
So Oduséus turned over again and again trying to think
how he could put forth his hands upon the suitors who had no reverence
for he was alone against so many.
And Athênaîê came beside
descending from heaven and moving in the form of a woman.
Beside his head she stood and spoke to him and said:
“Why are you awake again and cursed beyond all men?

Stringing the bow

21.404–412
So spoke the suitors. But Oduséus had great wisdom
and lifted up the mighty bow at once and looked it over every way.
And like a man whose knowledge is the lyre and song
shall stretch a string with ease around the new pegs of a lyre
twisting and tying well the gut-string of a ram at both its ends
so for Oduséus it was no work to string the mighty bow.
And he held it in his right hand and tested the string
and its song was beautiful to him like the voice of a bird.

Odysseus reveals himself

22.1–8
Odysseus Polumetis stripped off his rags
and rushed to the great threshold holding the bow and quiver full
and he poured out the sharp arrows
before his feet and he spoke to the suitors:
“And so at last the sacred contest is finished.
But now there is another mark which none have ever hit before
which I will see if Apollôn shall give me the glory to strike.”

The disloyal maids

22.465–474
So he spoke. And he tied the cable of a dark-prowed ship
to a great pillar and threw it around the dome
binding it up high so none of their feet would reach the ground.
Like when tight-winged thrushes or doves
fall into a snare placed in a bush
when they are going to their nest but the bed that welcomes them is loathsome.
So all of the women held their heads in a row
with nooses around their necks and they died. And it was pitiful.
And their feet convulsed a little. But not for long.

The olive-tree bed

23.181–190
So she spoke to test her husband. But Oduséus
said in anger to his wife who knew only love:
“O wife. These words you speak are agony to my heart.
Who has set my bed elsewhere? Hard would it be
even for one of great knowledge unless a god himself had come
and moved it easily in another place by his will.
Among all living men there is no man of any youth or strength
to lift it easily for the bed was built in a special way
that was my work. For I created it by myself with no one else.

Shipwrecked sailor simile

23.233–241
Like the appearance of land is welcome to men swimming
when the good ship they have made is shattered by Poseidaôn on the sea
by the force of the winds and the power of the waves
and a few escape from the grey sea and swim towards the shore
with thick brine all over their skin
and they step on the land with joy to have escaped their affliction.
So it was welcome to her to look upon her husband
and from his neck her white arms would never let go.