The Odyssey

This is the companion to Wesley Callihan’s Iliad: the same design, a drawing after Flaxman at the head of every book, the Greek line numbers in the running heads, and an introduction for first-time readers. It is based on the 1879 prose translation of Samuel Butcher and Andrew Lang, revised into contemporary American English. In Callihan’s words: “If the translator pays attention to the rhythm of the words he chooses and how to assemble them, then even if he is not striving for true poetry, he can give his translation a poetic feel. That is what I have attempted to do.”

The introduction sets the Odyssey beside the Iliad, follows the poem’s structure and its two threads of story, and gives a section to xenia, the bond between guest and host that holds the poem together. Notes run all through the text, many drawn from the Oxford commentary, beginning with a long one on polytropos, “man of many turnings.” Callihan drafted the text during a year of teaching Homer, finishing each book just ahead of his students’ weekly reading.