Over the
centuries, the epic poems The
Odyssey and The
Iliad by Homer have
been translated scores of times. The English translators have included George
Chapman, Thomas Hobbes, Alexander Pope, William Cowper, William Cullen Bryant,
William Morris, Samuel Butler, Padraic Colum, T.E. Lawrence, W.H.D. Rouse,
Robert Fitzgerald, Richmond Lattimore (the translation I first read), and Allen
Mandelbaum, among many others. The most recent English translation was
published by Oxford University Press in 2014.
In other words,
Homer has lasted. And with good reason. The story of the siege and fall of the pf
the city Troy and the (mostly) seagoing wanderings of Odysseus still captivates
and enchants. And amid the sounds of battle before Troy and encounters with
witches, sirens, and various monsters are several very different love stories,
including Menelaus and Helen and Odysseus (or the Roman Ulysses) and Penelope.
Top continue
reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak
Poetry.
Illustration: Odysseus and Calypso, from The Odyssey.
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