The Odyssey'Muse, tell me of a man: a man of much resource, who was made to wander far and long, after he had sacked the sacred city of Troy. Many were the men whose lands he saw and came to know their thinking: many too the miseries at sea which he suffered in his heart, as he sought to win his own life and the safe return of his companions.' Recounting the epic journey home of Odysseus from the Trojan War, The Odyssey - alongside its sister poem The Iliad - stands as the well-spring of Western Civilisation and culture, an inspiration to poets, writers and thinkers for thousands of years since. This authoritative prose translation by Martin Hammond brings Homer's great poem of homecoming to life as Odysseus battles through such familiar dangers as the cave of the Cyclops, the call of the Sirens and his hostile reception back in his native land of Ithaca. |
Contents
BOOK 1 The Gods Athene and Telemachos | 1 |
BOOK 2 Telemachos and the Suitors | 11 |
BOOK 3 Telemachos in Pylos | 21 |
BOOK 4 Telemachos in Sparta | 33 |
BOOK 5 Odysseus and Kalypso | 51 |
BOOK 6 Nausikaä | 61 |
BOOK 7 Odysseus in Phaiacia | 69 |
BOOK 8 Phaiacian Games and Song | 77 |
BOOK 14 Odysseus and Eumaios | 147 |
BOOK 15 Telemachos Returns | 159 |
BOOK 16 Odysseus and Telemachos | 171 |
BOOK 17 Odysseus Comes to his House | 181 |
BOOK 18 Odysseus as Beggar | 195 |
BOOK 19 Eurykleia Recognises Odysseus | 205 |
BOOK 20 Insults and Omens | 219 |
BOOK 21 The Trial of the Bow | 229 |