The
Odyssey of Homer
Rendered into English blank verse
George Musgrave,
London 1865
[Sample
from the Opening of the Poem]
Tell me, O Muse,
declare to me that man
Tost to and fro by fate, who, when his arms
Had laid Troy’s holy city in the dust,
Far wand’ring roam’d on many a tribe of men
To bend his gaze, their minds and thoughts to
learn. 5
Grief upon grief encounter’d he, when, borne
On ocean-waves, his life he carried off
A prize from perils rescued, and would fain
Have homeward led his brethren in arms;
But, not to him,—not to his anxious zeal 10
Was giv’n their rescue; destin’d as they were
In their mad arrogance to perish; fools!
That dared to seize, and to consume for food,
Hyperion’s herds, the oxen of the Sun
That walks on high, by whose behest the day 15
Of their return was evermore denied.
And thou, too, goddess daughter of great Jove,
The theme pursue, and thine own record bear!
Each
in his home, secure from battle strife
And ocean wave, now rested every chief 20
To whom was given to survive that war:
But, this lone man, whose pining soul had
yearn’d
To reach his own and to regain his wife,
A captive lay within the hollow grot
Of that divine one among goddesses, 25
The august Calypso, who, on wedlock bent,
Sought him, above all other, for her own;
And still, as with revolving years the time
At length drew nigh when the immortal gods
Decreed that Ithaca he should regain, 30
His struggle ended not; no, though by friends
Encompass’d round; yet did the gods themselves,
Neptune alone relentless, pity him;—
For long did he, ere he his home regain’d,
The unrelenting hate of Neptune brook— 35
Who in those days a sojourner abode
Among the Æthiops—(a divided race
Of all men most remote—whose tribes behold
At once the rising and the setting sun,—)
Seeking a hecatomb of bulls and lambs. 40
There at a joyous banquet sate the god,
While, in the palace of Olympian Jove,
The deities their thronging synod held:
To whom the Father of all men and gods
Thus op’d discourse, as in his mind he mus’d 45
On blameless-soul’d Ægysthus whom far-fam’d
Orestes, son of Agamemnon, slew;
And, of his memory full, these words he spake
In the immortals’ ears: “Why! what reproach,
Ye gods! do mortals cast on deities! 50
To us all their calamities they trace,
While they, themselves, through their own
senseless acts,
Feel pangs their destiny had ne’er decreed:
Witness, e’en now, with what contempt of fate
Ægysthus seiz’d Atrides’ married spouse, 55
To make her his own consort, and, though sure
Of his own ruin, took the husband’s life,
As he re-enter’d home. Our warning words
Through faithful Mercury—(even him by whom
Argus was slain)—thus to Ægysthus spake: 60
‘Destroy him not, nor seek to wed his wife;—
For, from Orestes, when to manhood grown,
All eager for his father-land, shall come
Full vengeance for Atrides.’ Even thus
Spoke Mercury; yet, though his counsel sage 65
He tender’d, no wise did he sway the mind
And purpose of Ægysthus: all these deeds
He answer’d for, and one atonement made.”
Review
Comment
Musgrave’s
poetic style, though energetic enough and better than a great many of his
contemporaries’ efforts, is as good an example as any of the influence of
Milton’s blank verse on Victorian translators of Homer and of the poetic
effects of that style throughout (e.g., “Neptune alone relentless,” and so
on). Still,
the poem was received sufficiently well, even if competing translations got more
attention. Many
modern readers also object to the use of Roman names for the gods, although that
was more or less standard practice at the time. Contemporary
readers commented on the length of Musgrave’s translation (1700 lines longer
than Homer’s text and 200 lines longer than Derby’s)
Readers
who would like to access Volume II of the Musgrave translation (Books XIII to
XXIV) should use the following link:Musgrave
Odyssey.
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