The Odyssey
by Homer
DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE
by
S. H. BUTCHER, M.A.
Fellow and Protector of University College, Oxford
Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
AND
A. LANG, M.A.
Late Fellow of Merton College, Oxford
Contents
As one that for a weary space has lain
Lulled by the song of Circe and her wine
In gardens near the pale of Proserpine,
Where that Ææan isle forgets the main,
And only the low lutes of love complain,
And only shadows of wan lovers pine,
As such an one were glad to know the brine
Salt on his lips, and the large air again,
So gladly, from the songs of modern speech
Men turn, and see the stars, and feel the free
Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers,
And through the music of the languid hours
They hear like Ocean on a western beach
The surge and thunder of the Odyssey.
A. L.
PREFACE.
There would have been less controversy about the proper method of Homerictranslation, if critics had recognised that the question is a purely relativeone, that of Homer there can be no final translation. The taste and theliterary habits of each age demand different qualities in poetry, and thereforea different