The Odyssey: Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original
Homer
The Odyssey: Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original
24 chapters
3.85from 1,273,493 ratingson Goodreads
Troy has fallen and the other kings are home. Ten years later Odysseus is still not, held on an island by a goddess while his son goes looking for news of him and a houseful of suitors eats his estate and presses his wife to remarry. Storms, monsters, a witch, a Cyclops and the dead stand between him and Ithaca — and getting there is only half of it.
About the book
The Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic traditionally attributed to Homer, probably composed around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. It follows Odysseus’s difficult return from the Trojan War while also tracing the situation in Ithaca, where his wife Penelope and son Telemachus face persistent suitors occupying the household. The poem moves between human and divine worlds and repeatedly tests the rules of hospitality, loyalty, identity and storytelling. Estella’s text uses Samuel Butler’s prose translation, first published in 1900, which renders the epic as continuous English prose rather than reproducing its original verse form.
Characters
Odysseus — Protagonist
King of Ithaca, renowned for intelligence and endurance, struggling to return home after the Trojan War.
Penelope — Odysseus’s wife
Odysseus’s wife, under pressure from suitors while she preserves his household and delays remarriage.
Telemachus — Odysseus’s son
The young son of Odysseus who begins searching for news of his absent father and asserting himself at home.
Athena — Goddess
The goddess who favours Odysseus and Telemachus, offering guidance and intervention during their trials.
Poseidon — God of the sea
The sea god whose anger towards Odysseus makes the long voyage home especially dangerous.
Calypso — Nymph
A powerful nymph who keeps Odysseus on her island and wishes him to remain with her.
Circe — Enchantress
An enchantress encountered by Odysseus and his crew during their long and hazardous voyage.
Eumaeus — Swineherd
Odysseus’s loyal swineherd in Ithaca, living away from the palace amid the disorder caused by the suitors.
About the author
Homer is the name given to the poet credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two epics standing at the start of the European literary tradition. Nothing about his life is known, and whether one person composed either poem has been argued over since antiquity: both came out of a long oral tradition of sung verse, and both carry its repeated phrases and formulas. They were probably fixed in something like their present form in the 8th century BC. The Odyssey — a soldier taking ten years to get home from a war he had already spent ten years fighting — is the older of the two stories and the more widely read.