Translator's introduction. From the introduction to the translation of the Odyssey by Butcher and Lang. The structure of the work, and a chapter by chapter outline of the plot. It shows how the Odyssey was dramatically designed to fit together as a whole.
The "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" stand at the head of the literature of Greece and of the epic poetry of the world; and their influence in the country of their origin and throughout the European peoples has been commensurate with their artistic greatness. Historically, they give one of the earliest pictures of Indo-European society, describing a period of culture of which we should otherwise know almost nothing. Artistically, in spite of their early date, they are the product of a mature art, expressing with supreme nobility and grace, permanent and varied yet simple types of human nature, in a language unsurpassed for its combination of directness, simplicity, and beauty. ...
The twenty-four books of the Odyssey fall naturally into six groups of four (though these are not to be regarded as involving breaks in the structure), and a short account of each of these groups will serve as a guide to the contents of the poem. The first four books are occupied with the adventures of Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. (1) When the poem opens, it is the tenth year since the fall of Troy, and Odysseus has not yet returned to his home in the island of Ithaca, but is detained in Ogygia, an island in the west, by the nymph Calupso. Meantime, at home, his wife Penelope is beset by suitors who feast riotously in the house of the absent warrior. (2) Failing in an attempt to get the Ithacans to help him to assert his rights, Telemachus sets out for Pylus under the guidance of the goddess Athene, who is disguised as Mentor, a friendly chief. (3) Nestor, the aged king of Pylus, receives them hospitably; and while he is banqueting his guests the supposed Mentor vanishes and it is recognized that he was the guardian goddess of the family of Odysseus. From Pylus, Telemachus sets our for Sparta, accompanied by the son of Nestor, Peisistratus. (4) In Sparta they are received by Menelaus and the famous Helen, now restored to her husband, and learn that Odysseus is in Ogygia. Telemachus decides to return to Ithaca, where the suitors are plotting his death.
The second group treats of the wanderings of Odysseus between the island of Calupso and Phaeacia. (5) The gods, persuaded by Athene, send Hermes to order Calupso to let Odysseus go; but at sea his enemy Poseidon, the sea-god, wrecks Odysseus' ship. But he is saved by a veil which the goddess Ino gives him, which buoys him up till he comes to the land of the Phaeacians. (6) While the exhausted hero is sleeping by the shore, the princess Nausicaa comes to the river mouth with her maidens to wash linen; and after their task they play ball and awaken the sleeper, who asks their pity and is directed to the city. This scene is one of the most charming in the poem. (7) Arrived at the city, Odysseus is received by the king Alcinous, and narrates his recent adventures. (8) The Phaeacians are called together, and offer the wanderer a ship to carry him to Ithaca; games and a feast are held; and at the feast the blind Demodocus sings of the siege of Troy and draws tears from Odysseus, who is persuaded to tell of his wanderings since leaving Troy.
In the third group the narrative is retrospective. (9) Odysseus tells of his visits to the Cicones, to the Lotus-eaters, and to the country of the Cyclopes, where he blinded the one-eyed Polyphemus; (10) of his adventures with Aeolus, god of the winds, with the Laestrygonians, and with Circe, the sorceress; (11) of his descent into Hades, and his conversing with the spirits of the dead; (12) of his escape from the Sirens, and from Scylla and Charybdis, and of the eating by his comrades of the sacred kine of the sun, which caused them to perish and left him alone on Calypso's isle.
The main narrative is resumed in the fourth group. (13) The Phaeacians conduct the wanderer to his kingdom, but are punished by Poseidon, who turns their ship to stone. In Ithaca Athene disguises Odysseus as an old beggar, and directs him as to how to destroy the suitors. (14) He finds his old swine-herd Eumaeus, who fails to recognize him, and (15) in the hut meets Telemachus, (16) to whom he reveals himself and his plans.
The fifth group deals with the return of Odysseus to his palace. (17) Telemachus goes home first, but does not tell Penelope of her husband's return. The supposed beggar enters and is recognized by his old dog Argos, who gives him welcome and dies. (18) In th emidst of the revelry of the suitors Odysseus has a fight with Irus, a beggar supported by their alms. (19) Penelope, conversing with her lord, fails to recognize him, but tells him how she has baffled the suitors by the device of postponing her choice among them till the completion of a web woven by day and undone by night. The old nurse, Eurycleia, washers her master's feet and knows him by a scar, but is told to keep the secret. (20) Athene comforts the hero by night; and the suitors are warned of their impending doom by a seer.
In the last group the dénouement is reached. (21) Penelope proposes that the suitors should show their skill with the bow of her husband; and when all fail even to bend it, the disguised hero strings it easily and shoots an arrow through twelve axe-heads. (22) The disguise is now cast off; Odysseus, Telemachus, and two faithful adherents turn on the suitors and slay them; and the unfaithful servants are hanged. (23) From the nurse Penelope hears the news, welcomes her lord home, and learns of his wanderings. Odysseus goes out to a farm to visit his father Laertes. (24) Hermes leads the shades of the suitors to Hades; while Odysseus makes himself known to his father; and later is reconciled to his subjects.
The "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" stand at the head of the literature of Greece and of the epic poetry of the world; and their influence in the country of their origin and throughout the European peoples has been commensurate with their artistic greatness. Historically, they give one of the earliest pictures of Indo-European society, describing a period of culture of which we should otherwise know almost nothing. Artistically, in spite of their early date, they are the product of a mature art, expressing with supreme nobility and grace, permanent and varied yet simple types of human nature, in a language unsurpassed for its combination of directness, simplicity, and beauty. ...
The twenty-four books of the Odyssey fall naturally into six groups of four (though these are not to be regarded as involving breaks in the structure), and a short account of each of these groups will serve as a guide to the contents of the poem. The first four books are occupied with the adventures of Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. (1) When the poem opens, it is the tenth year since the fall of Troy, and Odysseus has not yet returned to his home in the island of Ithaca, but is detained in Ogygia, an island in the west, by the nymph Calupso. Meantime, at home, his wife Penelope is beset by suitors who feast riotously in the house of the absent warrior. (2) Failing in an attempt to get the Ithacans to help him to assert his rights, Telemachus sets out for Pylus under the guidance of the goddess Athene, who is disguised as Mentor, a friendly chief. (3) Nestor, the aged king of Pylus, receives them hospitably; and while he is banqueting his guests the supposed Mentor vanishes and it is recognized that he was the guardian goddess of the family of Odysseus. From Pylus, Telemachus sets our for Sparta, accompanied by the son of Nestor, Peisistratus. (4) In Sparta they are received by Menelaus and the famous Helen, now restored to her husband, and learn that Odysseus is in Ogygia. Telemachus decides to return to Ithaca, where the suitors are plotting his death.
The second group treats of the wanderings of Odysseus between the island of Calupso and Phaeacia. (5) The gods, persuaded by Athene, send Hermes to order Calupso to let Odysseus go; but at sea his enemy Poseidon, the sea-god, wrecks Odysseus' ship. But he is saved by a veil which the goddess Ino gives him, which buoys him up till he comes to the land of the Phaeacians. (6) While the exhausted hero is sleeping by the shore, the princess Nausicaa comes to the river mouth with her maidens to wash linen; and after their task they play ball and awaken the sleeper, who asks their pity and is directed to the city. This scene is one of the most charming in the poem. (7) Arrived at the city, Odysseus is received by the king Alcinous, and narrates his recent adventures. (8) The Phaeacians are called together, and offer the wanderer a ship to carry him to Ithaca; games and a feast are held; and at the feast the blind Demodocus sings of the siege of Troy and draws tears from Odysseus, who is persuaded to tell of his wanderings since leaving Troy.
In the third group the narrative is retrospective. (9) Odysseus tells of his visits to the Cicones, to the Lotus-eaters, and to the country of the Cyclopes, where he blinded the one-eyed Polyphemus; (10) of his adventures with Aeolus, god of the winds, with the Laestrygonians, and with Circe, the sorceress; (11) of his descent into Hades, and his conversing with the spirits of the dead; (12) of his escape from the Sirens, and from Scylla and Charybdis, and of the eating by his comrades of the sacred kine of the sun, which caused them to perish and left him alone on Calypso's isle.
The main narrative is resumed in the fourth group. (13) The Phaeacians conduct the wanderer to his kingdom, but are punished by Poseidon, who turns their ship to stone. In Ithaca Athene disguises Odysseus as an old beggar, and directs him as to how to destroy the suitors. (14) He finds his old swine-herd Eumaeus, who fails to recognize him, and (15) in the hut meets Telemachus, (16) to whom he reveals himself and his plans.
The fifth group deals with the return of Odysseus to his palace. (17) Telemachus goes home first, but does not tell Penelope of her husband's return. The supposed beggar enters and is recognized by his old dog Argos, who gives him welcome and dies. (18) In th emidst of the revelry of the suitors Odysseus has a fight with Irus, a beggar supported by their alms. (19) Penelope, conversing with her lord, fails to recognize him, but tells him how she has baffled the suitors by the device of postponing her choice among them till the completion of a web woven by day and undone by night. The old nurse, Eurycleia, washers her master's feet and knows him by a scar, but is told to keep the secret. (20) Athene comforts the hero by night; and the suitors are warned of their impending doom by a seer.
In the last group the dénouement is reached. (21) Penelope proposes that the suitors should show their skill with the bow of her husband; and when all fail even to bend it, the disguised hero strings it easily and shoots an arrow through twelve axe-heads. (22) The disguise is now cast off; Odysseus, Telemachus, and two faithful adherents turn on the suitors and slay them; and the unfaithful servants are hanged. (23) From the nurse Penelope hears the news, welcomes her lord home, and learns of his wanderings. Odysseus goes out to a farm to visit his father Laertes. (24) Hermes leads the shades of the suitors to Hades; while Odysseus makes himself known to his father; and later is reconciled to his subjects.
Footer section, if any
Text source: Homer, The Odyssey. Translated by S.H. Butcher and A. Lang.
Othr texts and references:
Texts:
Iliad - D. B. Monro and T.W. Allen, with critical apparatus, 3rd. ed., Oxford (1920), 2 vols.
Odyssey - T. W. Allen, with critical apparatus, 2nd ed., Oxford (1917-19), 2 vols.
A 5th volume (Oxford 1912, with corrections 1946), contains the hymns, the fragments of the Margites, the Batrachomyomachia and the lives.
Both epics, with texts by E. Schwartz, tr. by J. H. Voss, Berlin-Darmstadt 1956.
Also Loeb editions, and many others.
ILIAD:
The Iliad, in 3 volumes, with a "copious critical apparatus," by T.W. Allen, Oxford, 1931.
Bude - Text and Fr. transalation by P. Mazon (Coll. Univ. Fr., Paris, 1947-9).
Commentaries:
W. Leaf, 2nd edition London 1900-2, reprinted 1960.
K. Fr. Ameis and C. Hentze (Teubner), with critical appendices (often reprinted) last edition revised by P. Cauer 1910).
G. L. Prendergast, A Complete Concordance to the Iliad, Oxford, 1880; reprinted with additions by B. Marzullo, Hildesheim 1960.
ODYSSEY:
Bude - Text and Fr. translation, by V. Berard (Coll. Univ. Fr., Paris, 2nd ed., Paris 1933), with a separate introduction (Paris, 1924).
Critical edition by P. Von der Muhll, Basel 1946;
With German translation, A. Weiher, (Munich, 1955-6).
Commentaries:
W. B. Sanford, 1947.
H. Dunbar, A Complete Concordance to the Odyssey and Hymns of Homer, Oxford 1880; a reprinting was in progress during the 1970's.
Many other editions, translations into various languages by Penguin Classics and others. Also commentaries on individual books, etc.
Other Works:
J. L. Myres, Homer and His Critics, ed. Dorothea Gray (London: 1958).
Finley, World of Odysseus, 2nd edition, London (1977). Thinks its essentially the 10th or the ninth century being described .
A.J.B. Wace and F. H. Stubbings (eds), A Companion to Homer (London, 1962)
J. Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B (second edition, Cambridge, 1967)
A.M. Snodgrass, 'An historical Homeric society?', JHS 94 (1974), 114-25.
Homer, The Odyssey. Translated by S.H. Butcher and A. Lang.
Other texts and references:
Texts:
Iliad - D. B. Monro and T.W. Allen, with critical apparatus, 3rd. ed., Oxford (1920), 2 vols.
Odyssey - T. W. Allen, with critical apparatus, 2nd ed., Oxford (1917-19), 2 vols.
A 5th volume (Oxford 1912, with corrections 1946), contains the hymns, the fragments of the Margites, the Batrachomyomachia and the lives.
Both epics, with texts by E. Schwartz, tr. by J. H. Voss, Berlin-Darmstadt 1956.
Also Loeb editions, and many others.
ILIAD:
The Iliad, in 3 volumes, with a "copious critical apparatus," by T.W. Allen, Oxford, 1931.
Bude - Text and Fr. transalation by P. Mazon (Coll. Univ. Fr., Paris, 1947-9).
Commentaries:
W. Leaf, 2nd edition London 1900-2, reprinted 1960.
K. Fr. Ameis and C. Hentze (Teubner), with critical appendices (often reprinted) last edition revised by P. Cauer 1910).
G. L. Prendergast, A Complete Concordance to the Iliad, Oxford, 1880; reprinted with additions by B. Marzullo, Hildesheim 1960.
ODYSSEY:
Bude - Text and Fr. translation, by V. Berard (Coll. Univ. Fr., Paris, 2nd ed., Paris 1933), with a separate introduction (Paris, 1924).
Critical edition by P. Von der Muhll, Basel 1946;
With German translation, A. Weiher, (Munich, 1955-6).
Commentaries:
W. B. Sanford, 1947.
H. Dunbar, A Complete Concordance to the Odyssey and Hymns of Homer, Oxford 1880; a reprinting was in progress during the 1970's.
Many other editions, translations into various languages by Penguin Classics and others. Also commentaries on individual books, etc.
Other Works:
J. L. Myres, Homer and His Critics, ed. Dorothea Gray (London: 1958).
Finley, World of Odysseus, 2nd edition, London (1977). Thinks its essentially the 10th or the ninth century being described .
A.J.B. Wace and F. H. Stubbings (eds), A Companion to Homer (London, 1962)
J. Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B (second edition, Cambridge, 1967)
A.M. Snodgrass, 'An historical Homeric society?', JHS 94 (1974), 114-25.
Othr texts and references:
Texts:
Iliad - D. B. Monro and T.W. Allen, with critical apparatus, 3rd. ed., Oxford (1920), 2 vols.
Odyssey - T. W. Allen, with critical apparatus, 2nd ed., Oxford (1917-19), 2 vols.
A 5th volume (Oxford 1912, with corrections 1946), contains the hymns, the fragments of the Margites, the Batrachomyomachia and the lives.
Both epics, with texts by E. Schwartz, tr. by J. H. Voss, Berlin-Darmstadt 1956.
Also Loeb editions, and many others.
ILIAD:
The Iliad, in 3 volumes, with a "copious critical apparatus," by T.W. Allen, Oxford, 1931.
Bude - Text and Fr. transalation by P. Mazon (Coll. Univ. Fr., Paris, 1947-9).
Commentaries:
W. Leaf, 2nd edition London 1900-2, reprinted 1960.
K. Fr. Ameis and C. Hentze (Teubner), with critical appendices (often reprinted) last edition revised by P. Cauer 1910).
G. L. Prendergast, A Complete Concordance to the Iliad, Oxford, 1880; reprinted with additions by B. Marzullo, Hildesheim 1960.
ODYSSEY:
Bude - Text and Fr. translation, by V. Berard (Coll. Univ. Fr., Paris, 2nd ed., Paris 1933), with a separate introduction (Paris, 1924).
Critical edition by P. Von der Muhll, Basel 1946;
With German translation, A. Weiher, (Munich, 1955-6).
Commentaries:
W. B. Sanford, 1947.
H. Dunbar, A Complete Concordance to the Odyssey and Hymns of Homer, Oxford 1880; a reprinting was in progress during the 1970's.
Many other editions, translations into various languages by Penguin Classics and others. Also commentaries on individual books, etc.
Other Works:
J. L. Myres, Homer and His Critics, ed. Dorothea Gray (London: 1958).
Finley, World of Odysseus, 2nd edition, London (1977). Thinks its essentially the 10th or the ninth century being described .
A.J.B. Wace and F. H. Stubbings (eds), A Companion to Homer (London, 1962)
J. Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B (second edition, Cambridge, 1967)
A.M. Snodgrass, 'An historical Homeric society?', JHS 94 (1974), 114-25.
Homer, The Odyssey. Translated by S.H. Butcher and A. Lang.
Other texts and references:
Texts:
Iliad - D. B. Monro and T.W. Allen, with critical apparatus, 3rd. ed., Oxford (1920), 2 vols.
Odyssey - T. W. Allen, with critical apparatus, 2nd ed., Oxford (1917-19), 2 vols.
A 5th volume (Oxford 1912, with corrections 1946), contains the hymns, the fragments of the Margites, the Batrachomyomachia and the lives.
Both epics, with texts by E. Schwartz, tr. by J. H. Voss, Berlin-Darmstadt 1956.
Also Loeb editions, and many others.
ILIAD:
The Iliad, in 3 volumes, with a "copious critical apparatus," by T.W. Allen, Oxford, 1931.
Bude - Text and Fr. transalation by P. Mazon (Coll. Univ. Fr., Paris, 1947-9).
Commentaries:
W. Leaf, 2nd edition London 1900-2, reprinted 1960.
K. Fr. Ameis and C. Hentze (Teubner), with critical appendices (often reprinted) last edition revised by P. Cauer 1910).
G. L. Prendergast, A Complete Concordance to the Iliad, Oxford, 1880; reprinted with additions by B. Marzullo, Hildesheim 1960.
ODYSSEY:
Bude - Text and Fr. translation, by V. Berard (Coll. Univ. Fr., Paris, 2nd ed., Paris 1933), with a separate introduction (Paris, 1924).
Critical edition by P. Von der Muhll, Basel 1946;
With German translation, A. Weiher, (Munich, 1955-6).
Commentaries:
W. B. Sanford, 1947.
H. Dunbar, A Complete Concordance to the Odyssey and Hymns of Homer, Oxford 1880; a reprinting was in progress during the 1970's.
Many other editions, translations into various languages by Penguin Classics and others. Also commentaries on individual books, etc.
Other Works:
J. L. Myres, Homer and His Critics, ed. Dorothea Gray (London: 1958).
Finley, World of Odysseus, 2nd edition, London (1977). Thinks its essentially the 10th or the ninth century being described .
A.J.B. Wace and F. H. Stubbings (eds), A Companion to Homer (London, 1962)
J. Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B (second edition, Cambridge, 1967)
A.M. Snodgrass, 'An historical Homeric society?', JHS 94 (1974), 114-25.
Footer section, if any
Footer section, if any