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The Odyssey of Homer
The Odyssey of Homer
{Transcriber's note:
The spelling and hyphenation in the original are inconsistent, and have
not been changed. A few obvious typographical errors have been corrected,
as listed at the end of the etext.}
THE ODYSSEY
OF HOMER
Translated by
WILLIAM
COWPER
LONDON: PUBLISHED
by J·M·DENT·&·SONS·LTD
AND IN NEW YORK
BY E·P·DUTTON & CO
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[1] We are told that Homer was under obligations to Mentes, who had
frequently given him a passage in his ship to different countries which
he wished to see, for which reason he has here immortalised him.
[3] Ἔρανος, a convivial meeting, at which every man paid his proportion,
at least contributed something; but it seems to have been a meeting at
which strict sobriety was observed, else Pallas would not have inferred
from the noise and riot of this, that it was not such a one.
[4] Οσσα--a word spoken, with respect to the speaker, casually; but with
reference to the inquirer supposed to be sent for his information by the
especial appointment and providential favour of the Gods.
[5] There is in the Original an evident stress laid on the word Νήποινοι,
which is used in both places. It was a sort of Lex Talionis which
Telemachus hoped might be put in force against them; and that Jove would
demand no satisfaction for the lives of those who made him none for the
waste of his property.
BOOK II
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
ARGUMENT
[8] It is said to have been customary in the days of Homer, when the
Greeks retired from a banquet to their beds, to cut out the tongues of
the victims, and offer them to the Gods in particular who presided over
conversation.
BOOK IV
ARGUMENT
[9] Hesychius tells us, that the Greecians ornamented with much attention
the front wall of their courts for the admiration of passengers.
[13] Because Pisistratus was born after Antilochus had sailed to Troy.
[14] Proteus
[16] From the abruptness of this beginning, Virgil, probably, who has
copied the story, took the hint of his admired exordium.
[19] This transition from the third to the second person belongs to the
original, and is considered as a fine stroke of art in the poet, who
represents Penelope in the warmth of her resentment, forgetting where she
is, and addressing the suitors as if present.
[20] Mistaking, perhaps, the sound of her voice, and imagining that she
sang.--Vide Barnes in loco.
BOOK V
ARGUMENT
Mercury bears to Calypso a command from Jupiter that she dismiss Ulysses.
She, after some remonstrances, promises obedience, and furnishes him with
instruments and materials, with which he constructs a raft. He quits
Calypso's island; is persecuted by Neptune with dreadful tempests, but by
the assistance of a sea nymph, after having lost his raft, is enabled to
swim to Phæacia.
FOOTNOTES:
[22] The Translator finding himself free to chuse between ἀυδηέσσα and
ἠδηέσσα, has preferred the latter.
BOOK VI
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[23] In the Original, she calls him, pappa! a more natural stile of
address and more endearing. But ancient as this appellative is, it is
also so familiar in modern use, that the Translator feared to hazard it.
[24] Neptune.
BOOK VII
ARGUMENT
Nausicaa returns from the river, whom Ulysses follows. He halts, by her
direction, at a small distance from the palace, which at a convenient
time he enters. He is well received by Alcinoüs and his Queen; and having
related to them the manner of his being cast on the shore of Scheria, and
received from Alcinoüs the promise of safe conduct home, retires to rest.
FOOTNOTES:
[25]
Καιροσέων δ' οθονεων ἀπολείβεται ὑγρον ἔλαιον.
Pope has given no translation of this line in the text of his work, but
has translated it in a note. It is variously interpreted by commentators;
the sense which is here given of it is that recommended by Eustathius.
[26] The Scholiast explains the passage thus--We resemble the Gods in
righteousness as much as the Cyclops and Giants resembled each other in
impiety. But in this sense of it there is something intricate and
contrary to Homer's manner. We have seen that they derived themselves
from Neptune, which sufficiently justifies the above interpretation.
BOOK VIII
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[27] Agamemnon having inquired at Delphos, at what time the Trojan war
would end, was answered that the conclusion of it should happen at a time
when a dispute should arise between two of his principal commanders. That
dispute occurred at the time here alluded to, Achilles recommending force
as most likely to reduce the city, and Ulysses stratagem.
[29] In boxing.
ARGUMENT
Ulysses discovers himself to the Phæacians, and begins the history of his
adventures. He destroys Ismarus, city of the Ciconians; arrives among the
Lotophagi; and afterwards at the land of the Cyclops. He is imprisoned by
Polypheme in his cave, who devours six of his companions; intoxicates the
monster with wine, blinds him while he sleeps, and escapes from him.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] Λινως
[34] Clarke, who has preserved this name in his marginal version,
contends strenuously, and with great reason, that Outis ought not to be
translated, and in a passage which he quotes from the _Acta eruditorum_,
we see much fault found with Giphanius and other interpreters of Homer
for having translated it. It is certain that in Homer the word is
declined not as ουτις-τινος which signifies no man, but as ουτις-τιδος
making ουτιν in the accusative, consequently as a proper name. It is
sufficient that the ambiguity was such as to deceive the friends of the
Cyclops. Outis is said by some (perhaps absurdly) to have been a name
given to Ulysses on account of his having larger ears than common.
[35] Outis, as a _name_ could only denote him who bore it; but as a
_noun_, it signifies _no man_, which accounts sufficiently for the
ludicrous mistake of his brethren.
[36]
προπεσοντες
------Olli certamine summo
Procumbunt.
VIRGIL
[37] The seeming incongruity of this line with line 560, is reconciled by
supposing that Ulysses exerted his voice, naturally loud, in an
extraordinary manner on this second occasion. See Clarke.
BOOK X
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[39] The word has the authority of Shakspeare, and signifies overhanging.
BOOK XI
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[40] Milton.
[43] Mistaking the oar for a corn-van. A sure indication of his ignorance
of maritime concerns.
[45] Iphicles had been informed by the Oracles that he should have no
children till instructed by a prophet how to obtain them; a service which
Melampus had the good fortune to render him.
[46] Apollo.
[47] Bacchus accused her to Diana of having lain with Theseus in his
temple, and the Goddess punished her with death.
[49] This is surely one of the most natural strokes to be found in any
Poet. Convinced, for a moment, by the virtues of Penelope, he mentioned
her with respect; but recollecting himself suddenly, involves even her in
his general ill opinion of the sex, begotten in him by the crimes of
Clytemnestra.
[50] Another most beautiful stroke of nature. Ere yet Ulysses has had
opportunity to answer, the very thought that Peleus may possibly be
insulted, fires him, and he takes the whole for granted. Thus is the
impetuous character of Achilles sustained to the last moment!
[55] The two first lines of the following book seem to ascertain the true
meaning of the conclusion of this, and to prove sufficiently that by
Ὠκεανὸς here Homer could not possibly intend any other than a river. In
those lines he tells us in the plainest terms that _the ship left the
stream of the river Oceanus, and arrived in the open sea_. Diodorus
Siculus informs us that Ὠκεανὸς had been a name anciently given to the
Nile. See Clarke.
BOOK XII
ARGUMENT
Ulysses, pursuing his narrative, relates his return from the shades to
Circe's island, the precautions given him by that Goddess, his escape
from the Sirens, and from Scylla and Charybdis; his arrival in Sicily,
where his companions, having slain and eaten the oxen of the Sun, are
afterward shipwrecked and lost; and concludes the whole with an account
of his arrival, alone, on the mast of his vessel, at the island of
Calypso.
FOOTNOTES:
[56] They passed the line through a pipe of horn, to secure it against
the fishes' bite.
[58] He had therefore held by the fig-tree from sunrise till afternoon.
BOOK XIII
ARGUMENT
Minerva meets him on the shore, enables him to recollect his country,
which, till enlightened by her, he believed to be a country strange to
him, and they concert together the means of destroying the suitors. The
Goddess then repairs to Sparta to call thence Telemachus, and Ulysses, by
her aid disguised like a beggar, proceeds towards the cottage of Eumæus.
FOOTNOTES:
[60] Homer dates all the fictions of Ulysses from Crete, as if he meant
to pass a similar censure on the Cretans to that quoted by St.
Paul--κρητες αει ψευσαι.
BOOK XIV
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[62] It may be proper to suggest that Ulysses was lord of part of the
continent opposite to Ithaca--viz.--of the peninsula Nericus or Leuca,
which afterward became an island, and is now called Santa Maura. F.
[63] Mercury.
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[65] Iphyclus the son of Phylacus had seized and detained cattle
belonging to Neleus; Neleus ordered his nephew Melampus to recover them,
and as security for his obedience seized on a considerable part of his
possessions. Melampus attempted the service, failed, and was cast into
prison; but at length escaping, accomplished his errand, vanquished
Neleus in battle, and carried off his daughter Pero, whom Neleus had
promised to the brother of Melampus, but had afterward refused her.
[66] His wife Eryphyle, bribed by Polynices, persuaded him, though aware
that death awaited him at that city, to go to Thebes, where he fell
accordingly.
[71] The anchors were lodged on the shore, not plunged as ours.
BOOK XVI
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[72] Alluding probably to entreaties made to him at some former time by
herself and Telemachus, that he would not harm them. Clarke.
BOOK XVII
ARGUMENT
Telemachus returns to the city, and relates to his mother the principal
passages of his voyage; Ulysses, conducted by Eumæus, arrives there also,
and enters among the suitors, having been known only by his old dog
Argus, who dies at his feet. The curiosity of Penelope being excited by
the account which Eumæus gives her of Ulysses, she orders him immediately
into her presence, but Ulysses postpones the interview till evening, when
the suitors having left the palace, there shall be no danger of
interruption. Eumæus returns to his cottage.
FOOTNOTES:
[73] Proteus.
[74] The hearth was the altar on which the lares or household-gods were
worshipped.
[75] That he might begin auspiciously. Wine was served in the same
direction. F.
[76] Here again Θεὸς occurs in the abstract.
[77]
Ει δη που τις επουρανιος θεος εσι
[78] This seems added by Eumæus to cut off from Ulysses the hope that
might otherwise tempt him to use fiction.
BOOK XVIII
ARGUMENT
The beggar Irus arrives at the palace; a combat takes place between him
and Ulysses, in which Irus is by one blow vanquished. Penelope appears to
the suitors, and having reminded them of the presents which she had a
right to expect from them, receives a gift from each. Eurymachus,
provoked by a speech of Ulysses, flings a foot-stool at him, which knocks
down the cup-bearer; a general tumult is the consequence, which
continues, till by the advice of Telemachus, seconded by Amphinomus, the
suitors retire to their respective homes.
FOOTNOTES:
[80] This seems the sort of laughter intended by the word Αχρειον.
ARGUMENT
Ulysses and Telemachus remove the arms from the hall to an upper-chamber.
The Hero then confers with Penelope, to whom he gives a fictitious
narrative of his adventures. Euryclea, while bathing Ulysses, discovers
him by a scar on his knee, but he prevents her communication of that
discovery to Penelope.
FOOTNOTES:
[83] Homer's morals seem to allow to a good man dissimulation, and even
an ambiguous oath, should they be necessary to save him from a villain.
Thus in Book XX. Telemachus swears by Zeus, that he does not hinder his
mother from marrying whom she pleases of the wooers, though at the same
time he is plotting their destruction with his father. F.
[85] She intended to slay the son of her husband's brother Amphion,
incited to it by the envy of his wife, who had six children, while
herself had only two, but through mistake she slew her own son Itylus,
and for her punishment was transformed by Jupiter into a nightingale.
[86] The difference of the two substances may perhaps serve to account
for the preference given in this case to the gate of horn; horn being
transparent, and as such emblematical of truth, while ivory, from its
whiteness, promises light, but is, in fact, opaque. F.
ARGUMENT
Ulysses, doubting whether he shall destroy or not the women servants who
commit lewdness with the suitors, resolves at length to spare them for
the present. He asks an omen from Jupiter, and that he would grant him
also to hear some propitious words from the lips of one in the family.
His petitions are both answered. Preparation is made for the feast.
Whilst the suitors sit at table, Pallas smites them with a horrid frenzy.
Theoclymenus, observing the strange effects of it, prophesies their
destruction, and they deride his prophecy.
FOOTNOTES:
[88] That is, how shall I escape the vengeance of their kindred?
[95] Who had sought refuge in the ship of Telemachus when he left Sparta,
and came with him to Ithaca.
BOOK XXI
ARGUMENT
Penelope proposes to the suitors a contest with the bow, herself the
prize. They prove unable to bend the bow; when Ulysses having with some
difficulty possessed himself of it, manages it with the utmost ease, and
dispatches his arrow through twelve rings erected for the trial.
FOOTNOTES:
[97] The reader will of course observe, that the whole of this process
implies a sort of mechanism very different from that with which we are
acquainted.--The translation, I believe, is exact.
[98] This first attempt of Telemachus and the suitors was not an attempt
to shoot, but to lodge the bow-string on the opposite horn, the bow
having been released at one end, and slackened while it was laid by.
[99] Antinoüs prescribes to them this manner of rising to the trial for
the good omen's sake, the left-hand being held unpropitious.
[100] The δεσμὸς seems to have been a strap designed to close the only
aperture by which the bolt could be displaced, and the door opened.
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[107] So called because he was worshipped within the Ἐρκος or wall that
surrounded the court.
BOOK XXIII
ARGUMENT
FOOTNOTES:
[108] The proof consisted in this--that the bed being attached to the
stump of an olive tree still rooted, was immovable, and Ulysses having
made it himself, no person present, he must needs be apprized of the
impossibility of her orders, if he were indeed Ulysses; accordingly, this
demonstration of his identity satisfies all her scruples.
[110] Aristophanes the grammarian and Aristarchus chose that the Odyssey
should end here; but the story is not properly concluded till the tumult
occasioned by the slaughter of so many Princes being composed, Ulysses
finds himself once more in peaceful possession of his country.
BOOK XXIV
ARGUMENT
Mercury conducts the souls of the suitors down to Ades. Ulysses discovers
himself to Laertes, and quells, by the aid of Minerva, an insurrection of
the people resenting the death of the suitors.
FOOTNOTES:
[111]
Τρίζουσαι--τετριγῦιαι--the ghosts
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.
SHAKSPEARE.
[112]
MILTON.
[113] The fruit is here used for the tree that bore it, as it is in the
Greek; the Latins used the same mode of expression, neither is it
uncommon in our own language.
[114] Τίς νύ μοι ἡμέρη ἥδε;--So Cicero, who seems to translate it--Proh
dii immortales! Quis hic illuxit dies! See Clarke in loco.