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Homeric Odyssey Homeric Odyssey Translated by Samuel Butler Revised by Soo-Young Kim, Kelly McCray, Gregory Nagy, and Timothy Power Contents Rhapsody 1 Rhapsody 2 Rhapsody 3 Rhapsody 4 Rhapsody 5 Rhapsody 6 Rhapsody 7 Rhapsody 8 Rhapsody 9 Rhapsody 10 Rhapsody 11 Rhapsody 12 Rhapsody 13 Rhapsody 14 Rhapsody 15 Rhapsody 16 Rhapsody 17 Rhapsody 18 Rhapsody 19 Rhapsody 20 Rhapsody 21 Rhapsody 22 Rhapsody 23 Rhapsody 24 Homeric Odyssey Rhapsody 1 Translated by Samuel Butler Revised by Soo-Young Kim, Kelly McCray, Gregory Nagy, and Timothy Power [1] That man, tell me O Muse the song of that man, that versatile [polu-tropos] man, who in very many ways 2 veered from his path and wandered off far and wide, after he had destroyed the sacred citadel of Troy. 3 Many different cities of many different people did he see, getting to know different ways of thinking [noos]. 4 Many were the pains [algea] he suffered in his heart [thūmos] while crossing the sea [5] struggling to merit [arnusthai] the saving of his own life [psūkhē] and his own homecoming [nostos] as well as the homecoming of his comrades [hetairoi]. 6 But do what he might he could not save his comrades [hetairoi], even though he very much wanted to. 7 For they perished through their own deeds of sheer recklessness, 8disconnected [nēpioi] as they were, because of what they did to the cattle of the sun-god Helios. 9 They ate them. So the god [Helios] deprived them of their day of homecoming [nostimon]. [10] Starting from any single point of departure, O goddess, daughter of Zeus, tell me, as you have told those who came before me. 11 So now all those who escaped precipitous death 12 were safely home, having survived the war and the sea voyage. 13 But he [= Odysseus], apart from the others, though he was longing for his homecoming [nostos] and for his wife, 14 was detained by the queenly nymph [numphē] Kalypsō, who has her own luminous place among all the goddesses [15] who had got him into a large cave and wanted to marry him. But as years went by, there came a time when the gods settled that he should go back to Ithaca; even then, however, when he was among his own people, his trials [āthloi] were not yet over; nevertheless all the gods had now begun to pity him [20] except Poseidon, who still persecuted godlike Odysseus without ceasing and would not let him get home. Now Poseidon had gone off to 23 the Ethiopians, who are divided in two, the most remote of men: 24 some where Hyperion [Helios] sets, others where he rises. He had gone there [25] to accept a hecatomb of sheep and oxen, and was enjoying himself at his festival; but the other gods met in the house of Olympian Zeus, and the father of gods and men spoke first. At that moment he was thinking of stately Aegisthus, [30] who had been killed by Agamemnon’s far-famed son Orestes; so he said to the other gods: 32 “Oh my, how mortals hold us gods responsible [= aitioi]! 33 For they say that their misfortunes come from us. But they get their sufferings, 34 beyond what is fated, by way of their own acts of recklessness [atasthaliai]. [35] Look at Aegisthus; he must needs make love to Agamemnon’s wife unrighteously and then kill Agamemnon, though he knew it would be the death of him; for I sent Hermes, the mighty watcher, to warn him not to do either of these things, [40] inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home. Hermes told him this in all good will but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in full.” Then owl-vision Athena said, [45] “Father, son of Kronos, King of kings, it served Aegisthus right, and so it would any one else who does as he did; but Aegisthus is neither here nor there; it is for high-spirited Odysseus that my heart bleeds, when I think of [50] his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island, far away, poor man, from all his friends. It is an island covered with forest, in the very middle of the sea, and a goddess lives there, daughter of the magician Atlas, who looks after the bottom of the ocean, and carries the great columns that keep the sky and earth asunder. [55] This daughter of Atlas has got hold of poor unhappy Odysseus, and keeps trying by every kind of blandishment to make him forget his home, so that he is tired of life, and thinks of nothing but how he may once more see the smoke of his own chimneys. You, sir, [60] take no heed of this, and yet when Odysseus was at Troy did he not propitiate you with many a burnt sacrifice? Why then should you keep on being so angry with him?” And Zeus said, “My child, what are you talking about? [65] How can I forget godlike Odysseus than whom there is no more capable man on earth [in regard to noos], nor more liberal in his offerings to the immortal gods that live in the sky? Bear in mind, however, that earth-encircler Poseidon is still furious with Odysseus for having blinded an eye of Polyphemus, king of the Cyclopes. [70] Polyphemus is son to Poseidon, shaker of the earth, by the nymph Thoösa, daughter to the sea-king Phorkys; therefore though he will not [75] kill Odysseus outright, he torments him by preventing him from his homecoming [nostos]. Still, let us lay our heads together and see how we can help him to return; Poseidon will then be pacified, for if we are all of a mind he can hardly stand out against us.” [80] And owl-vision Athena said, “Father, son of Kronos, King of kings, if, then, the gods now mean that Odysseus should get home, we should first send Hermes, the guide, the slayer of Argos [85] to the Ogygian island to tell lovely-haired Kalypsō that we have made up our minds and that he is to have his homecoming [nostos]. 88 As for me, I will go travel to Ithaca, going to his [= Odysseus’] son 89 in order to give him [= Telemachus] more encouragement and to put power [menos] into his heart [phrenes]. [90] He is to summon the long-haired Achaeans for a meeting in assembly, 91 and he is to speak out to all the suitors [of his mother Penelope], who persist in 92 slaughtering again and again any number of his sheep and oxen. 93 And I will conduct him to Sparta and to sandy Pylos, 94 and thus he will learn the return [nostos] of his dear [philos] father, if by chance he [= Telemachus] hears it, [95] and thus may genuine glory [kleos] possess him throughout humankind.” So saying she bound on her glittering golden sandals, imperishable, with which she can fly like the wind over land or sea; she grasped the terrifying bronze-shod spear, [100] so stout and sturdy and strong, wherewith she quells the ranks of heroes who have displeased her, and down she darted from the topmost summits of Olympus, and then, right away, she was in the district [dēmos] of Ithaca, at the gateway of Odysseus’ house, [105] disguised as a visitor, Mentes, chief of the Taphians, and she held a bronze spear in her hand. There she found the lordly suitors seated on hides of the oxen which they had killed and eaten, and diverting their hearts [thūmos] with board games in front of the house. Men-servants and pages were bustling about to wait upon them, [110] some mixing wine with water in the mixing-bowls, some cleaning down the tables with wet sponges and laying them out again, and some cutting up great quantities of meat. Godlike Telemachus saw her long before any one else did. He was sitting moodily among the suitors [115] thinking about his brave father, and how he would send them fleeing out of the house, if he were to come to his own again and be honored as in days gone by. Thus brooding as he sat among them, he caught sight of Athena and went straight to the gate, for he was vexed [120] that a stranger should be kept waiting for admittance. He took her right hand in his own, and bade her give him her spear. “Welcome,” said he, “to our house, and when you have partaken of food you shall tell us what you have come for.” [125] He led the way as he spoke, and Athena followed him. When they were within he took her spear and set it in the spear-stand against a strong bearing-post along with the many other spears of his unhappy father, patient-hearted Odysseus [130] and he conducted her to a richly decorated seat under which he threw a cloth of damask. There was a footstool also for her feet, and he set another seat near her for himself, away from the suitors, that she might not be annoyed while eating by their noise and insolence, [135] and that he might ask her more freely about his father. A maid servant then brought them water in a beautiful golden ewer and poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands, and she drew a clean table beside them. An upper servant brought them bread, [140] and offered them many good things of what there was in the house, the carver fetched them plates of all manner of meats and set cups of gold by their side, and a man-servant brought them wine and poured it out for them.
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