One of the reasons I included Samuel Butler’s translation in earlier posts, is that he alone, I feel, has captured the comic tone of the Odyssey. There is something deadpan about his Victorian prose and sensibility that reveals something real about the Odyssey, cutting through all the trappings of the hexameter rhythm and epic expectations. I also have translated into prose but I’ve done it line for line, to be a helpful prompt to students of the Greek. I am painfully conscious that there is something about what Butler renders that is beyond the scope of my attempt. Sometimes translators can be revelatory; there is more to the business than decoding. Once in a while there is a translation of souls, so that you feel the Greek author is behind the English author’s eyes, anticipating his phrases. I could never manage the denser parts of Thucydides without the help of Thomas Hobbes’ English. There was a real meeting of souls. I feel something only slightly less extraordinary in the meeting of Samuel Butler with the composer of the Odyssey.

Try listening to the Odyssey as if it were playing as a comedy. I think you will find the experience transformative. Think of the performer, having to pretend to be Athena, having to pretend be some Mentes or other, a ‘king’ among Taphian pirates. It’s almost as if she’s making it up as she goes along. Wait a minute, what about my ship … oh let’s just say we parked it so far away that you can’t see it, off in the country. I’m a Lord!

In Greek:

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