Autorentext

Ancient readers and hearers, Greek and Latin, considered the poems printed here in translation to be the work of Homer, composer of the Iliad and the Odyssey, so they shared the great authority of the epics. Though we do not know their specific authors, they remain important sources of the mythical tales they recount. The Frog-Mouse-Battle occurs with countless variations in about as many manuscripts as the Odyssey, the most popular of all epics, thereby suggesting its use for instruction in the Byzantine empire, where the MSS of the poem were transcribed. The many variations in these MSS may indicate that some of the writers were teachers adapting the poem to their particular classroom needs. The translator has published dactylic-hexameter translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey at the University of Michigan Press, and privately of the Oresteia of Aeschylus, the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, the Idylls of Theocritus, and Menander's Dyskolos, The Curmudgeon. He is currently working on translations of the works of Virgil, Homer's greatest follower in the Roman world.

Klappentext

Generally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer, "The Odyssey" is considered one of the most important works of classical antiquity, an epic poem about the events at the end of the Trojan War which is generally thought to have been written near the end of the 8th century BC. The story centers on Odysseus and his ten year journey to reach his home in Ithaca. Because of his long absence, Odysseus is presumed dead, leaving his wife Penelope and son Telemachus to deal with a group of suitors, the Proci, who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage. After seven years of captivity by the nymph Calypso, Odysseus undergoes an arduous journey home. Along the way he encounters, the witch-goddess Circe, the land of the Sirens, the six-headed monster Scylla, and the sea monster Charybdis. "The Odyssey" is at once the story of an ordinary man's struggle of will against forces beyond his control which keep him from being reunited with his family and a classically epic mythological tale. This edition follows the prose translation of Samuel Butler, includes an introduction by William Lucas Collins, and is printed on premium acid-free paper.