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Odyssey Abridged 2019 Edition HOMER ODYSSEY ABRIDGED 2019 EDITION Translated and edited by Ian Johnston Vancouver Island University Nanaimo, British Columbia [Note that this edition is an extensively revised and enlarged version of the Odyssey Abridged text first published in 2008. Anyone interested in obtaining this translation in the form of a printed book or textbook should check the online pages of Broadview Press, which published such a book in 2019. For a PDF format of this text please check on the following site Odyssey Abridged, Table of Contents] TRANSLATOR’S NOTE This abridged version of Homer’s Odyssey has been prepared by Ian Johnston of Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, from his translation of the complete poem (available online). This abridged translation is about forty percent of the original poem. Each line is a direct translation from the Greek original (i.e., I have shortened the poem by removing large parts of it, not by rewriting different sections). In many places, I have included a very short prose summary of the missing material placed in square brackets and italics (e.g., [Summary sentences]). However, these short summaries do not include all details of the omitted text. And in most places no summary is provided for missing material. In numbering the lines, the translator has normally included a short, indented line with the short line immediately above it, so that the two partial lines count as a single line in the tally. Note that the numbering of the lines starts again in each book. Footnotes have been provided by the translator. In this English text, the possessive of names ending in -s is usually indicated in the customary way by adding ’s (e.g., Zeus, Zeus’s; Atreus, Atreus’s, and so on). This convention has the effect of adding a syllable to the word (the sound -iz). It also sometimes produces a rather odd-sounding result. Thus, for metrical and euphonic reasons, the possessive of a name ending in -s is in places indicated by a simple apostrophe, without the s (an alternative fairly common in written English): e.g., Achilles’ anger instead of Achilles’s anger. This latter procedure does not add an extra syllable to the word. In the above example, Achilles’ has three syllables, unlike Achilles’s, which has four. ABRIDGED ODYSSEY There is a Glossary (with a guide to pronunciation of names) at the end of the translated text, together with a suggested floor plan of Odysseus’s palace. This text may be downloaded, printed, and shared by general readers, students, performing artists, and teachers without charge and without permission. They may also edit the text to suit their purposes. Commercial use of the text, however, is not permitted without the permission of Ian Johnston. TABLE OF CONTENTS Book One: Athena Visits Ithaca 3 Book Two: Telemachus Prepares for His Voyage 13 Book Three: Telemachus Visits Nestor in Pylos [omitted] -- Book Four: The Suitors Plan to Kill Telemachus 19 Book Five: Odysseus Leaves Calypso’s Island 23 Book Six: Odysseus and Nausicaa 31 Book Seven: Odysseus at the Court of Alcinous in Phaeacia 37 Book Eight: Odysseus is Entertained in Phaeacia 40 Book Nine: Ismarus, the Lotus Eaters, and the Cyclops 49 Book Ten: Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, and Circe 64 Book Eleven: Odysseus Meets the Shades of the Dead 77 Book Twelve: The Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, The Cattle of the Sun 91 Book Thirteen: Odysseus Leaves Phaeacia and Reaches Ithaca 102 Book Fourteen: Odysseus Meet Eumaeus 106 Book Fifteen: Telemachus Returns to Ithaca 110 Book Sixteen: Odysseus Reveals Himself to Telemachus 110 Book Seventeen: Odysseus Goes to the Palace as a Beggar 119 Book Eighteen: Odysseus and Irus the Beggar [omitted] -- Book Nineteen: Eurycleia Recognizes Odysseus 126 Book Twenty: Odysseus Prepares for His Revenge 132 Book Twenty-One: The Contest with Odysseus’s Bow 134 Book Twenty-Two: The Killing of the Suitors 142 Book Twenty-Three: Odysseus and Penelope 154 Book Twenty-Four: Zeus and Athena End the Fighting 160 Possible Floor Plan of Odysseus’s House 168 Glossary 169 A Note on the Translator 160 2 ABRIDGED ODYSSEY BOOK ONE ATHENA VISITS ITHACA Muse, speak to me now of that resourceful man who wandered far and wide after ravaging the sacred citadel of Troy. He came to see many people’s cities, where he learned their customs, while on the sea his spirit suffered many torments, as he fought to save his life and lead his comrades home. But though he wanted to, he could not rescue them— they all died from their own stupidity, the fools. They feasted on the cattle of Hyperion, god of the sun—and so he snatched away their chance 10 of getting home someday.1 So now, daughter of Zeus, tell us his story, starting anywhere you wish.2 The other warriors, all those who had escaped being utterly destroyed, were now back safely home, facing no more dangers from battle or the sea. But Odysseus, who longed to get back to his wife and reach his home, was being held in a hollow cave by that mighty nymph Calypso, noble goddess, who desired to have Odysseus as her husband. But as the seasons came and went, the year arrived 20 in which, according to what gods had once ordained, he was to get back to his home in Ithaca— not that he would be free from troubles even there, among his people. The gods pitied Odysseus, all except Poseidon, who kept up his anger against godlike Odysseus and did not relent until he reached his native land.3 But at that moment, Poseidon was among the Ethiopians, a long way off.4 The other gods had assembled 1Hyperion: Also called Helios, Hyperion treasured his several herds of cattle; the incident with his cattle is related in detail in Book 12. 2daughter of Zeus: The Muses, divine patrons of the arts, are daughters of Zeus, the most powerful god on Olympus. 3Poseidon: God of the sea, divine brother of Zeus, often called “encircler of the earth” or “Earthshaker” (because he rules over earthquakes). 4Ethiopians: To the ancient Greeks, the name Ethiopia did not necessarily denote the country of today, but was rather used as a loose term for various peoples imagined as living at the ends of the earth. 3 ABRIDGED ODYSSEY in the great hall of Olympian Zeus. Among them all, 30 the father of gods and men was the first to speak. In his heart he was recalling royal Aegisthus, whom Orestes, Agamemnon’s celebrated son, had slaughtered. With him in mind, Zeus now addressed them: “It’s disgraceful how humans blame the gods. They say their tribulations come from us, when they themselves, through their own foolishness, bring hardships which are not decreed by Fate. Now there’s Aegisthus, who took for himself the wife of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, 40 and then butchered him, once the man came home.1 That was not set by Fate. Aegisthus knew his acts would bring about his total ruin. So he has paid for everything in full.” Athena, goddess with gleaming eyes, answered Zeus: “Son of Cronos and father to us all, you who rule on high, yes indeed, Aegisthus now lies dead, something he well deserved.2 May any other man who does what he did also be destroyed! But my heart is torn 50 for versatile Odysseus, ill-fated man, who has had to suffer such misfortune for so many years, far away from friends. He’s on an island, surrounded by the sea, the one that forms the ocean’s navel stone.3 And there, in the forests, lives a goddess, who stops the sad, unlucky man from leaving. Odysseus yearns to see even the smoke rising from Ithaca and longs for death. Yet, despite that, Olympian Zeus, your heart 60 does not respond to him. Did not Odysseus offer you delightful sacrifices 1royal Aegisthus … in full: Aegisthus, as part of a scheme to avenge a terrible act of Agamemnon’s father against his father, seduced Agamemnon’s wife, Clytaemnestra, while Agamemnon was leading the Achaean army at Troy, and when Agamemnon returned victorious, the two lovers killed him and took control of Argos. Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, who was away at the time of the murder, returned to Argos in disguise and avenged his father by killing Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra. This famous story is referred to a number of times in the Odyssey. Agamemnon’s shade provides some details of the killing in Book 11. 2Cronos: Leader of the Titans, he was overthrown by his son Zeus and imprisoned deep in the earth. 3The Greek word omphalos (navel stone) Homer uses here to describe Calypso’s island of Ogygia. 4 ABRIDGED ODYSSEY on Troy’s far-reaching plain beside the ships? If so, why are you so angry with him?” Cloud-gatherer Zeus then answered her and said: “My child, How could I forget godlike Odysseus, pre-eminent among all mortal men for his intelligence and offerings to the immortal gods who hold wide heaven? But Earthshaker Poseidon, a stubborn god, 70 is still furious about that cyclops, the one whose eye Odysseus destroyed, godlike Polyphemus, the mightiest of all the Cyclopes.1 Thoosa bore him, the sea nymph, a daughter of that Phorcys who commands the restless deep.2 Poseidon, down in those hollow caves, had sex with her. That’s the reason Earthshaker Poseidon makes Odysseus wander from his country. But he has not killed him yet. So come now, 80 let’s all of us consider his return, so he can journey back to Ithaca.
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