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The Odyssey of Homer
Translated into English Blank Verse
by William Cullen Bryant
Boston 1871

[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]

THE ODYSSEY.

BOOK I.

TELL me, O Muse, of that sagacious man 
Who, having overthrown the sacred town 
Of Ilium, wandered far and visited 
The capitals of many nations, learned 
The customs of their dwellers, and endured              5 
Great suffering on the deep; his life was oft 
In peril, as he labored to bring back 
His comrades to their homes. He saved them not, 
Though earnestly he strove; they perished all, 
Through their own folly; for they banqueted,            10 
Madmen! upon the oxen of the Sun,— 
The all-o’erlooking Sun, who cut them off 
From their return. O goddess, virgin-child 
Of Jove, relate some part of this to me. 
   Now all the rest, as many as escaped                             15
The cruel doom of death, were at their homes 
Safe from the perils of the war and sea, 
While him alone, who pined to see his home 
And wife again, Calypso, queenly nymph, 
Great among goddesses, detained within                            20
Her spacious grot, in hope that he might yet 
Become her husband. Even when the years 
Brought round the time in which the gods decreed 
That he should reach again his dwelling-place 
In Ithaca, though he was with his friends,                 25
His toils were not yet ended. Of the gods 
All pitied him save Neptune, who pursued 
With wrath implacable the godlike chief, 
Ulysses, even to his native land. 
   Among the Ethiopians was the god                     30 
Far off,—the Ethiopians most remote 
Of men. Two tribes there are; one dwells beneath 
The rising, one beneath the setting sun. 
He went to grace a hecatomb of beeves 
And lambs, and sat delighted at the feast;                           35 
While in the palace of Olympian Jove 
The other gods assembled, and to them 
The father of immortals and of men 
Was speaking. To his mind arose the thought
Of that Ægisthus whom the famous son                            40
Of Agamemnon, prince Orestes, slew. 
Of him he thought, and thus bespake the gods:— 
“How strange it is that mortals blame the gods 
And say that we inflict the ills they bear, 
When they, by their own folly and against                          45 
The will of fate, bring sorrow on themselves! 
As late Ægisthus, unconstrained by fate, 
Married the queen of Atreus’ son and slew 
The husband just returned from war. Yet well 
He knew the bitter penalty, for we                                     50 
Warned him. We sent the herald Argicide, 
Bidding him neither slay the chief nor woo 
His queen, for that Orestes, when he came 
To manhood and might claim his heritage, 
Would take due vengeance for Atrides slain.             55 
So Hermes said; his prudent words moved not 
The purpose of Ægisthus, who now pays 
The forfeit of his many crimes at once.” 

Review Comment

Bryant in this translation follows the principles he set down in the Preface to his translation of the Iliad, and, like that poem, his verse here is faithful, clear, fast paced, and for the most part colloquial.  This is certainly one of the more successful translations of the Odyssey in the nineteenth century, and it still reads well.

Readers who would like to see the full text of Bryant's translations should use the following link: Bryant Odyssey

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