“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.”

“Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

“I sing of warfare and a man at war.
From the sea-coast of Troy in early days
He came to Italy by destiny,
To our Lavinian western shore,
A fugitive, this captain, buffeted
Cruelly on land as on the sea
By blows from powers of the air—behind them
Baleful Juno in her sleepless rage.
And cruel losses were his lot in war,
Till he could found a city and bring home
His gods to Latium, land of the Latin race,
The Alban lords, and the high walls of Rome.
Tell me the causes now, O Muse, how galled
In her divine pride, and how sore at heart
From her old wound, the queen of gods compelled him—
A man apart, devoted to his mission—
To undergo so many perilous days
And enter on so many trials. Can anger
Black as this prey on the minds of heaven?”

Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985) American poet, critic and translator

“Many a man can save himself if he admits he's done wrong and takes his punishment.”

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet

“How many times can a man turn his head pretending he just doesn't see?”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

“Arms and the man I sing who first from Troy
Came to the Italian and Lavinian shores,
Exiled by fate; much tossed on land and sea
By power divine and cruel Juno's rage;
Much too in war he suffered, till he reared
A city and to Latium brought his gods:
Whence sprung the Latin progeny, the kings
Of Alba, and the walls of towering Rome.”

Joseph Trapp (1679–1747) English poet

“I sing of arms and of a man: his fate
had made him fugitive; he was the first
to journey from the coasts of Troy as far
as Italy and the Lavinian shores.”

Allen Mandelbaum (1926–2011) American poet and professor of literature, translator from Latin and Italian

“That prudent Hero's wandering, Muse, rehearse,
Who (Troy b'ing sack'd) coasting the Universe,
Saw many Cities, and their various Modes;
Much suffering, tost by Storms on raging Floods,
His Friends conducting to their Native Coast:
But all in vain, for he his Navy lost,
And they their Lives, prophanely feasting on
Herds consecrated to the glorious Sun;
Who much incens'd obstructed so their way,
They ne'er return'd: Jove's Daughter this display.”

John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic

“The man was hit in one eye by a stone, and that eye turned inward so that it looked into his mind, and he died of what he saw there”

Patricia A. McKillip book The Forgotten Beasts of Eld

“And blessed is he man who stands
Before his God in pain
And on his back a cross of woe
His wounds a gaping shame.
For this man is a son of God
And hallowed be thy name.”

Bobby Sands (1954–1981) Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army