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Published English Translations
of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
The following page, which has been
prepared by Ian Johnston of Vancouver Island University (once known as
Malaspina University-College), Nanaimo, Canada, is a work in progress, a
list of publications of complete English translations of Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey. The list includes only the first edition of any
particular translation and does not include reprints of earlier translations,
partial translations, parodies, burlesques, adaptations, or re-workings of the
poem.
Where possible, I have provided
links to samples of particular translations and, in some cases, to the complete
text. And in many cases I have added a
few review comments of my own. These
comments are, for the most part, quick summary evaluations based on an
immediate first impression of the translation, except in the case of the more
recent versions, where I have made a more judicious attempt to deal with the
English text. The short samples do not
include any footnotes present in the original.
The purpose of this list is to
permit readers to browse through a selection of English translations of the Iliad
and the Odyssey in order to compare, on the basis of an admittedly
insufficient sample, the different ways in which translators have rendered
Homer’s Greek into an idiom they considered suitable for their contemporary
readers.
The list is, I fear, not altogether reliable or complete, mainly because it is very difficult to determine from library records and bibliographies whether a particular book is, in fact, an English translation of the complete poem, rather than a summary, commentary, partial translation, or satire. Given that these titles vastly outnumber the complete translations, I may well have included titles which do not belong here. I am in the process of tracking down copies of the books so that I can verify the contents.
I welcome comments and suggestions, especially concerning corrections and additions. Please contact Ian Johnston.
The information here comes from a
number of sources, most notably Philip H. Young's The Printed Homer: A 3000
Year Publishing and Translation History of the Iliad and the Odyssey (Jefferson,
North Carolina, 2003), George Steiner, Homer in English (Penguin 1996),
and library catalogues for the Bodleian and British Libraries and the Library
of Congress.
Complete English Translations of Homer's Iliad
George Chapman (London, 1603-1614), fourteen syllable verse. (Sample)
John Ogilby (London, 1656), heroic couplets.
Thomas Hobbes (London, 1675). Verse translation. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
Oldsworth, Broom, Ozell (London, 1712). “Done from the French . . . and
compar’d with the Greek.”
Alexander Pope (London, 1715-1720). Rhymed verse. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
James MacPherson (London, 1773), prose (Sample and
Link to Volume I of the Complete Text).
William Cowper (London, 1791). Blank verse. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
P. Williams (London, 1806) Blank verse.
James Morrice (London, 1809) (blank verse) (Sample and Link
to Volume I)
Graduate of the University of Oxford (Oxford 1821 or 1841?) Literal Prose.
(Sample
and Comment)
William Sotheby (London, 1831) Heroic couplets. (Sample and Link
to Volume I)
John Frederick William Herschel (London, 1844). (Sample and Link
to Complete Text)
T. S. Brandreth (London, 1846) “Drumming decasyllables.” (Sample and Link
to Volume II)
William Munford (Boston, Mass., 1846) (Sample and Link
to Volume I)
A Graduate of the University (Dublin, 1847), A Literal Translation of .
. . Homer’s Iliad.
Hamilton Bryce (1847). Prose.
Theodore Alois Buckley (London, 1851) Prose. (Sample and Link
to Complete Text)
William George Thomas Barter (London, 1854) Spenserian stanzas. (Sample)
Thomas Clark (Philadelphia, 1855-8).
English-Greek interlinear text. (Link to Complete
Text)
F. W. Newman (London, 1856) “Unrhymed English metre” (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
Charles Ichabod Wright (London 1859-64).
Blank verse.
Dr. Giles (London 1861-82) The Iliad of Homer, word for word. Prose
(with Greek)
J. C. Wright (Cambridge, 1861-65). Blank verse.
Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby (London, 1864) Blank verse. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
Thomas Starling Norgate (London, 1864). Blank verse. (Sample and Link
to Complete Text)
J. H. Dart (London, 1865). Hexameter verse. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
Philip S. Worsely and John Conington, in Spenserian stanzas (Edinburgh,
1865-8)
Edwin W. Simcox (London, 1865). Hexameter verse.
John Stuart Blackie (Edinburgh 1866). In fourteen syllable
verse. (Sample and Link
to Preview)
Charles William Bateman (Dublin, 1867). “Literally translated.”
James Inglis Cochrane (Edinburgh, 1867). Hexameter verse. (Sample and Link
to Complete Text)
Charles Merivale (London 1869). Rhymed verse. (Sample and Link
to Volume II)
William Cullen Bryant (Boston, Mass., 1870). Blank verse. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
W. G. Caldcleugh (Philadelphia, 1870). Verse. (Sample and
Link to Complete Text)
J. G. Cordery (London, 1870).
Iambic pentameter. (Sample and Link
to Volume I)
John Benson Rose (London, 1874). Blank verse. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
Charles Bagot Cayley (London, 1876). “Homometrically translated” (Sample and Link to
Full Text)
Mordaunt Barnard (Edinburgh 1876).
Blank verse.
Roscoe Mongan (London, 1879-80)
Herbert Hailstone (Cambridge, 1881). Literal prose translation (Sample and Link
to Book XXI)
Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf, Ernest Myers (Boston, 1882). (Sample and
Link to Complete text)
W. C. Green, verse translation (London, 1884) (Sample and Link to
Volume I)
Arthur Sanders Way (London, 1886). English verse. (Sample and Link to
Volume I)
Samuel Butler (London, 1888). Prose. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
John Purves (London, 1891). Prose.
Edgar Alfred Tibbetts (Boston, 1907)
Edward Henry Blakeney (London, 1910-13). Prose.
Arthur Gardner Lewis (New York, 1911). Blank Verse. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
George Ernle (London 1922).
Quantitative Hexameters. (Sample and Link to
Complete Text)
Augustus Taber Murray (London, 1924). Prose. (Sample with Link
to Complete Text)
Alexander Falconer Murison (London, 1933). Hexameter verse. (Sample)
William Sinclair Marris (London, 1934)
Robinson Smith (Nice, 1937). “The Original Iliad.”
William Henry Denham Rouse (New York, 1938). Prose. (Sample and Link to
Lengthy Preview)
William Benjamin Smith and Walter Miller (New York, 1944). Line
for line dactylic hexameter.
Alston Hurd Chase, William Graves Perry, Jr. (Boston, 1950). Prose
Emile Victor Rieu (Harmondsworth, 1950). Prose. (Review Comment and
Link to Preview)
Richmond Alexander Lattimore (Chicago, 1951). Hexameter “isometric”
verse. (Comment
and Link)
Robert Graves (New York, 1959) (Sample)
Samuel Ogden Andrew, Michael Oakley (London, 1955). Verse
Ennis Rees (New York, 1963). Verse.
Robert Fitzgerald (New York, 1963). Verse. (Sample
and Link to Preview)
J. P. Kirton (Lowestoft, 1977)
Denison Bingham Hull (Athens, Ohio, 1982). Blank verse.
Martin Hammond (London, 1987). Prose. (Preview)
Robert Fagles (New York, 1990). Verse. (Preview)
Michael Reck (New York, 1994).Verse.
Stanley Lombardo (Indianapolis, 1997). Verse. (Preview)
Ian Johnston (e-text, 2002), Arlington, Va (2006) Verse. (Comment and Link
to Complete Text)
John Jackson (e-text, 2005). Interlinear Greek-English.
Rodney Merrill (2007): English hexameters (Preview)
Tony Kline (2008?) (hyperlinked e-text). Prose (link to full
text)
Herbert Jordan (Norman, Oklahoma, 2008): line-for-line blank verse. (Sample and Link to
Preview)
Frederick Light (New York, 2009). In a sequence of 1823 sonnets. (Sample)
Complete English Translations of Homer's Odyssey
George Chapman (London, 1612). Rhyming couplets. (Sample and Link
to Complete text)
John Ogilby (London, 1656).
Heroic couplets.
Thomas Hobbes (London, 1675). Rhyming pentameters. (Sample and Link
to Complete text)
Alexander Pope (London, 1713). Heroic couplets. (Sample and Link to
Complete text)
William Cowper (London, 1791). Blank verse. (Sample and Link
to Complete text)
A Member of the University of Oxford [Henry Cary?] (London 1823). Prose.
William Sotheby (London, 1833). Rhyming Pentameters. (Second
Half of the Poem)
Theodore Alois Buckley (London, 1851). Prose. (Sample and Link
to Complete Text)
Dr. Giles (London 1861) Literally and word for word. Prose. (Sample and Link
to Books I to VI)
Henry Alford (London, 1861). Hendecasyllable verse. (Sample and Link
to Volume One)
Philip Stanope Worsely (Edinburgh, 1861) Spenserian stanzas. (Sample and Link
to Volume II)
Thomas Starling Norgate (London, 1862). Blank verse. (Sample and Link
to Complete Text)
George Musgrave (London, 1865). Blank verse. (Sample and
Link to Volume II)
Lovelace Bigge-Wither (Oxford, 1869). (Sample and
Link to Complete Text)
G. W. Edgington (New York, 1869). Blank verse.
William Cullen Bryant (Boston, 1871). Blank verse. (Sample and Link
to Volume I)
Kelly (London, 1872-80) Literal prose. [This title comes from Young;
it’s not in library records]
Mordaunt Barnard (London, 1876). Blank verse. (Sample and Link
to Complete Text)
Samuel Henry Butcher, Andrew Lang (New York, 1879). (Sample and Link
to Complete text)
Roscoe Mongan (London, 1879-80). Literally translated.
George Augustus Schomberg (London 1879-82). Verse. (Sample and
Link to Volume I)
Arthur Sanders Way (London, 1880). English verse. (Sample)
George Herbert Palmer (Boston, 1886). English “rhythmic prose” (Sample and Link
to Preview)
William Morris (London, 1887). Rhyming verse of irregular line length. (Sample)
Thomas Clark (London, 1888). Interlinear Greek-English
Samuel Butler (New York, 1900). Prose. (Complete text)
John William Mackail (London, 1903). In quatrains. (Sample and Link
to Books IX to XVI)
Henry Bernard Cotterill (London, 1911). Line for line isometric
translation. (Sample)
Arthur Gardner Lewis (New York, 1911). Blank verse.
Augustus Taber Murray (London, 1919). Prose. (Sample and Link
to Complete Text)
Francis Caulfeild (London, 1921). Isometric verse.
William Sinclair Marris (London, 1925). Blank verse.
Robert Henry Hiller (Philadelphia, 1927). Prose.
Herbert Bates (New York, 1929) Tetrameter verse. (Sample)
Thomas Edward Lawrence (London, 1932). Prose. (Sample and
Link to Preview)
William Henry Denham Rouse (New York, 1937). Prose. (Review Comment
and Link to Preview)
Emile Victor Rieu (London, 1945). Prose. (Review Comment and
Link to Preview)
Samuel Ogden Andrew (London, 1948). Verse.
Ennis Rees (New York, 1960). Verse.
Robert Fitzgerald (New York, 1961) (Review
Comment and Link to Preview)
Preston Herschel Epps (New York, 1965). Unabridged school edition.
Albert Spaulding Cook (New York, 1967). Line by line verse..
Richmond Alexander Lattimore (New York, 1965)
Denison Bingham Hull (Greenwich, Conn., 1978)
Walter Shewring (Oxford, 1980). Prose. (Review Comment
and Link to Preview)
Memas Kolaitis (Santa Barbara, 1983)
Allen Mandelbaum (Berkeley, 1990). Blank verse. (Sample)
Roger David Dawe (Lewes, 1993) (Sample)
Brian Kemball-Cook (Hitchin, 1993).
English hexameter verse.
Michael Reck (New York, 1994)
Robert Fagles (New York, 1996)
Martin Hammond (London, 2000). Prose.
Stanley Lombardo (Indianapolis, 2000). Verse (Link
to Preview)
Tony Kline (e-text hyperlinked). Prose (Sample and Link
to Complete text)
Ian Johnston (e-text) (Arlington, Va, 2006) Verse. (Complete text)
Rodney Merrill, English hexameters (2002)
Edward McCrorie (Baltimore 2004) Verse (Review Comment
and Link to Preview)
Randy Lee Eickhoff, modern prose vernacular (2005) (Review Comment
and Link to Preview)
James Huddleston, line for line, online interlinear English-Greek (Complete
text)
Charles Stein (Berkeley, 2008) Free verse. (Review Comment
and Link to Preview)
Titles
Still Being Checked and Notes
1737: The Iliad of Homer
(English) Dublin, Ireland: P. Crampton
William Lucas Collins, who is often included in lists of translators,
produced an Iliad and an Odyssey, but they are summaries, not
translations (so far as I can tell).
Collins provided an introduction for an edition of Lang, Leaf, Myers
Iliad (London and New York, 1909).
1861-2: The Iliad of Homer. London,
England: James Cornish
1822: The Odyssey of Homer. Philadelphia: Ashmead.
1823: The Odyssey.
Translated into English prose. London.
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