Odysseys of Homer

by Homer Narrated by Phil Schempf

Overview

The Odysseys are a collection of stories about Ulysses' journey home from the war at Troy purportedly written in the 8th century BCE by Homer, a blind poet thought to have lived in the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, possibly at Smyrna. The events described are thought to have occurred centuries before being recorded by Homer, handed down orally since the twelfth century BCE, the golden era of the Greek Bronze Age when the world was populated by heroic mortals and often visited by the Gods. This verse translation in couplets by George Chapman was originally published in 1616, the first translation from the ancient Greek directly to English, although likely influenced by previous Latin translations. Chapman's translation has been admired by many, including John Keats and others. Many of these stories are familiar to us, Ulysses and the Sirens, Circe turning his crew to swine, their escape from the Cyclops on the bellies of his sheep, but Chapman's version includes violent episodes and suggestive innuendo that I don't recall from my childhood days. (Introduction by Fritz)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169450125
Publisher:	LibriVox
Publication date:	08/25/2014
Sales rank:	554,617

Read an Excerpt

Or have a bed, disposed for warmer rest." Thus left she with her ladies her old guest, 815 Ascended her fair chamber, and her bed, Whose sight did ever duly make her shed Tears for her lord ; which still her eyes did steep, Till Pallas shut them with delightsome sleep. THE END OF THE NINETEENTH BOOK OF HOMER 8 ODTSSEYS. THE TWENTIETH BOOK OF HOMER'S ODYSSEYS. The Argument. Ulysses, in the Wooers' beds, Resolving first to kill the maids. That sentence giving off, his care For other objects doth prepare. Another Argument. . Jove's thunder chides, But cheers the king, The Wooers' prides Discomfiting. LYSSES in the entry laid his head, And under him an ox-hide newly flay'd, Above him sheep fells store ; and over those Eurynome cast mantles. His repose Would bring no sleep yet, studying the jll 5 He wish'd the Wooers ; who came by him still With all their wenches, laughing, wantoning, In mutual lightness; which his heart did sting, Contending two ways, if, all patience fled, He should rush up and strike those strumpets dead, 10 Or let that night be last, and take th' extreme Of those proud Wooers, that were so supreme In pleasure of their high-fed fantasies. Ilis heart did bark within him to surprise Their sports with spoils ; no fell she-mastiff can, is Amongst her whelps, fly eag'rer on a man She doth not know, yet scents him something near, And fain would come to please her tooth and tear, Than his disdain, to see his roof so filed With those foul fashions, grew within him wild 20 To be in blood of them. But, finding best In his free judgment to let passion rest, He chid his angry spirit, and beat his breast, And said: " Forbear, my mind, and think on this: There hath beentime when bitte...

Videos