Chapman's Homer: The Odyssey

by Homer, Allardyce Nicoll (Editor), George Chapman (Translator), Garry Wills (Preface by)

Overview

George Chapman's translations of Homer are among the most famous in the English language. Keats immortalized the work of the Renaissance dramatist and poet in the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer." Swinburne praised the translations for their "romantic and sometimes barbaric grandeur," their "freshness, strength, and inextinguishable fire." The great critic George Saintsbury (1845-1933) wrote: "For more than two centuries they were the resort of all who, unable to read Greek, wished to know what Greek was. Chapman is far nearer Homer than any modern translator in any modern language." This volume presents the original text of Chapman's translation of the Odyssey (1614-15), making only a small number of modifications to punctuation and wording where they might confuse the modern reader. The editor, Allardyce Nicoll, provides an introduction, textual notes, a glossary, and a commentary. Garry Wills's preface to the Odyssey explores how Chapman's less strained meter lets him achieve more delicate poetic effects as compared to the Iliad. Wills also examines Chapman's "fine touch" in translating "the warm and human sense of comedy" in the Odyssey.



Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold.
—John Keats

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691048918
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	12/17/2000
Series:	Bollingen Series , #158
Edition description:	With a New preface by Garry Wills
Pages:	520
Sales rank:	542,376
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

The ancient Greek poet Homer established the gold standard for heroic quests and sweeping journeys with his pair of classic epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Crowded with characters, both human and non-human, and bursting with action, the epic tales detail the fabled Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus as he struggles to return home. Homer’s epics have inspired countless books and works of art throughout their long history.

What People are Saying About This

Anthony T. Grafton

Chapman's versions inspired English poets for centuries after his time. They rest on a minute and perceptive reading of the texts. And they retain their power to fascinate and provoke anyone interested in Homer and his afterlife,in Renaissance ideas about classical and modern poetry,or in the development of the language of English poetry.

Ziolkowski

Chapman's Homer provided for the Iliad and the Odyssey exactly what the King James Bible (also published in 1611) did for the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in English: it offered a stylistically vigorous and morally powerful translation that has influenced generations of subsequent readers, even as new versions have proliferated.
— Jan M. Ziolkowski, Harvard University

Jan M. Ziolkowski

Chapman's Homer provided for the Iliad and the Odyssey exactly what the King James Bible (also published in 1611) did for the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in English: it offered a stylistically vigorous and morally powerful translation that has influenced generations of subsequent readers,even as new versions have proliferated.

From the Publisher

"Chapman's Homer provided for the Iliad and the Odyssey exactly what the King James Bible (also published in 1611) did for the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in English: it offered a stylistically vigorous and morally powerful translation that has influenced generations of subsequent readers, even as new versions have proliferated."—Jan M. Ziolkowski, Harvard University

"Chapman's versions inspired English poets for centuries after his time. They rest on a minute and perceptive reading of the texts. And they retain their power to fascinate and provoke anyone interested in Homer and his afterlife, in Renaissance ideas about classical and modern poetry, or in the development of the language of English poetry."—Anthony T. Grafton, Princeton University

Grafton

Chapman's versions inspired English poets for centuries after his time. They rest on a minute and perceptive reading of the texts. And they retain their power to fascinate and provoke anyone interested in Homer and his afterlife, in Renaissance ideas about classical and modern poetry, or in the development of the language of English poetry.
— Anthony T. Grafton, Princeton University

Editorial Reviews

"In Chapman's Whole Works of Homer . . . English is spendthrift, inebriate with waste motion, at times precious and as yet uncertain of its coruscating force. It is also the language of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, charged with sensory, corporeal thrust. At moments, it is already exact in that manual, pragmatic vein which is the virtue of English. At others, it comes armed with lyric sorrow. Homer, as Chapman construes him . . . makes the English language know itself and impels it to cast its lexical-grammatical net over a thronging prodigality of life."—-George Steiner, Homer in English

"Each age approaches Homer, and particularly the Odyssey, with a kind of astonishment . . . Chapman was Shakespeare's contemporary. . . At times, noticing the epic sustainability of his verse, you get the feeling that he occupies a point on an imaginary line between Shakespeare and Milton. . ."—-Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian

From the Publisher

Each age approaches Homer, and particularly the Odyssey, with a kind of astonishment . . . Chapman was Shakespeare's contemporary. . . At times, noticing the epic sustainability of his verse, you get the feeling that he occupies a point on an imaginary line between Shakespeare and Milton. . .

The Guardian - Nicholas Lezard

In Chapman's Whole Works of Homer . . . English is spendthrift, inebriate with waste motion, at times precious and as yet uncertain of its coruscating force. It is also the language of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, charged with sensory, corporeal thrust. At moments, it is already exact in that manual, pragmatic vein which is the virtue of English. At others, it comes armed with lyric sorrow. Homer, as Chapman construes him . . . makes the English language know itself and impels it to cast its lexical-grammatical net over a thronging prodigality of life.
— George Steiner

Homer in English

In Chapman's Whole Works of Homer . . . English is spendthrift, inebriate with waste motion, at times precious and as yet uncertain of its coruscating force. It is also the language of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, charged with sensory, corporeal thrust. At moments, it is already exact in that manual, pragmatic vein which is the virtue of English. At others, it comes armed with lyric sorrow. Homer, as Chapman construes him . . . makes the English language know itself and impels it to cast its lexical-grammatical net over a thronging prodigality of life.

Homer in English - George Steiner

Each age approaches Homer, and particularly the Odyssey, with a kind of astonishment . . . Chapman was Shakespeare's contemporary. . . At times, noticing the epic sustainability of his verse, you get the feeling that he occupies a point on an imaginary line between Shakespeare and Milton. . .
— Nicholas Lezard

The Guardian

Immortalized by John Keats in his poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," two nearly 400-year-old masterpieces of canonical translation Chapman's versions of The Iliad (re-published in 1998) and The Odyssey (coming this month) are now both available in U.S. editions for the first time since 1957. Even stalwart fans of Robert Fagles's recent triumphs will want these versions, which retain their visionary clarity and power. In the words of Keats: "Oft of one wide expanse had I been told/ That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:/ Yet did I never breathe its pure serene/ Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:/ Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/ When a new planet swims into his ken;/ Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes/ He stared at the Pacific and all his men/ Look'd at each other with a wild surmise / Silent, upon a peak in Darien." ( Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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